ABC has ordered a pilot for V, an update on NBC’s 1983 sci fi miniseries. Considering the flurry of emails the news elicited from EW’s TV department — and the fact that 40 million people tuned in for V the first time — I’m going to give this a TAG (Totally Arbitrary Grade) of A-. (The minus is because this is the network that canceled Invasion.) The script, written by Scott Peters (The 4400), centers on afemale Homeland Security agent, according to The Hollywood Reporter. To relive the joy that was V — from the advertising (ABC must be salivating), to the Independence Day-inspiring imagery of alien spacecraft hovering over our cities, to the swallowing of a guinea pig whole — read Kristen Baldwin’s fascinating 1999 look back.
Considering ABC is the network that also just ordered Eastwick, an adaptation of the 1987 film The Witches of Eastwick, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Alphabet is also moving ahead with the appropriately titled Lost in the ’80s. Per THR, it’s "considered an’80s version of The Wonder Years and described as Fast Times atRidgemont High meets The Ice Storm." (You gotta love Hollywood.) The script is from veteran Wonder Years scribe Bob Brush; the exec producers are from Two and a Half Men (Eric Tannenbaum and Kim Tannenbaum) and Arrested Development (Mitch Hurwitz), who are also behind Fox’s planned Ab Fab import. So wrong it’s right, or so wrong we’ll never see it? TAG: B
More on pilot season:
Ab Fab import and Witches of Eastwick-based drama a go
Grade Fox’s latest orders
In what seemed like a spontaneous leak but was most certainly the first ripple in what is to become a vast ocean of Donny Osmond publicity over the next few months, Marie’s brother announced on The Bonnie Hunt Show that 
It’s safe to say that EW TV critic Ken Tucker isn’t buying what TNT is selling in its latest drama, Trust Me. "Will & Grace’s Eric McCormack and Ed’s TomCavanagh individually seem like nice fellows, but together, aswisecracking admen, they are well-nigh insufferable," he writes. "As smart-aleckpartners, art director McCormack and copywriter Cavanagh make everyoneelse look like square saps. They squabble with sitcom-style jokes — ‘I’ve been carrying you so long, I have scoliosis’ — but this is anhour-long drama trying to cross Mad Men with Aaron Sorkin-style walk-and-talk dialogue. It’s a clever concept that curdles with cutesy self-consciousness. C+"
This weekend was an historical one (for me), PopWatchers: I finished re-reading The Lord of the Rings for the 10th year in a row. And to all the haters about to hit the "Comment" button: I’ve heard it all before. "Why re-read that boring garbage? Why not read other books?" Worry not. I do read other books. But LotR is special. Not only is it a reminder of otherwise blissfully boring summer breaks (though I switched to Fall/Winter when I got to college), but it’s also just…fun. I find something new every time I read it — especially since I’ve added Tolkien’s early history of Middle Earth, The Silmarillion, to my ritual — and diving back into that world always feels like a miniature homecoming. And, hey, 
It’s not like I need any extra convincing to watch The Amazing Race, a.k.a. Why The Rest of the World Hates America, Plus: Gross Food! every season. But the casting of writer-director Mike White (pictured, right, totally jazzed) and his gay rights activist dad has me more pumped than ever. Mike, who wrote School of Rock and Nacho Libre and directed 2007′s Year of the Dog, assures us that unlike some of the other teams, he and pops "got along like a Hallmark card." Boy better be talkin’ ’bout Shoebox!
