A 48 Hours Mystery producer entered a plea deal Tuesday in the David Letterman extortion case that entails six months in jail, according to The Associated Press.

Robert "Joe" Halderman pleaded guilty to second-degree grand larceny in a Manhattan court. Under the deal, he will also get five years' probation and must perform 1,000 hours of community service.

David Letterman admits having affairs, claims extortion

In a statement, Letterman thanked authorities and prosecutors for their efforts. "When they became involved with this case, I had complete faith ...



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</br>[b]Other Links From TVGuide.com[/b]

• Late Show with David Letterman
• David Letterman
• Joe Halderman

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A few bits of TV news:

• Kenneth Johnson, who had a small role in the "Sons of Anarchy" Season 2 finale, will be back for the show's third season, which arrives in September on FX. He'll once again play Kozik from the Tacoma chapter in six episodes of Season 3. Johnson played Lem on "The Shield" and was also a member of the cast of "Saving Grace." 
• CBS has renewed the reality show "Undercover Boss" for a second season, which will arrive during the 2010-'11 season. Speaking of CBS, Forest Whitaker and Mary Steenburgen guest star in the April 7 "Criminal Minds," according to today's CBS press release.
• Fox's "Lie to Me" will return June 7, paired with "The Good Guys," a new show from Matt Nix, the creator of "Burn Notice."
• [img]http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/.a/6a00d834518cc969e20120a91ba8d4970b-200wi[/img] "The Good Guys," a cop show that stars Colin Hanks, Bradley Whitford and Whitford's mustache, will get a post-"American Idol" preview May 19, but will air during the summer alongside fresh episodes of "Lie to Me." It'll be interesting to see if Fox can establish a beachhead for new programming this summer. Certainly "Lie to Me"  has proven it's worth sticking with, whenever it airs.
• As I noted on Twitter, Nix missed a golden opportunity to name the show "Police That Moostash!," the favorite saying of Maj. Nixta of HBO's "Generation Kill." Because whatever else "The Good Guys" has going for it, it already has Whitford's luxuriant 'stache in its favor. That makes me think that Nick Offerman needs to guest star so that Whitford and Offerman (a.k.a. "Parks and Recreations'" Ron Swanson) can have a 'stache-off of some kind.
• In other Fox news, "Glee's" season finale arrives June 8 and "Bones" moves to Fridays -- just for the summer repeat season. 
• Final bit of "Fox" news: Tryouts for "So You Think You Can Dance" take place in Chicago March 18 (info is below) and the show's new season premieres May 27.

Fox's press release on all of its summer programming is below. 







FOX GETS A JUMP-START ON SUMMER
 
NEW ACTION-COMEDY “THE GOOD GUYS” BOOKS SPECIAL PREVIEW
WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, AND SERIES PREMIERE MONDAY, JUNE 7
 
“SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE” BEGINS ANOTHER SEARCH
FOR AMERICA’S FAVORITE DANCER THURSDAY, MAY 27
 
“LIE TO ME” RETURNS WITH ALL-NEW EPISODES MONDAY, JUNE 7;
“PAST LIFE” EMERGES WITH ALL-NEW EPISODES FRIDAY, MAY 28
 
GORDON RAMSAY SERVES UP SEVENTH COURSE OF “HELL’S KITCHEN”
BEGINNING THURSDAY, JUNE 10
 
FOX’s summer is scorching hot with the series preview and premiere of THE GOOD GUYS (previously announced as CODE 58), the kick-off of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE’s seventh season, the summer premiere of LIE TO ME, the seventh course of culinary competition HELL’S KITCHEN, all-new installments of mysterious drama PAST LIFE plus all-new episodes of GLEE, COPS, AMERICA’S MOST WANTED and ANIMATION DOMINATION.
 
THE GOOD GUYS, the new action-comedy from Matt Nix (“Burn Notice”), will have a special preview Wednesday, May 19 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) before AMERICAN IDOL and will then make its series premiere Monday, June 7 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT). The series is an action-packed and comedic look at what happens when a washed-up, old-school cop (Bradley Whitford, “The West Wing”) and a by-the-book, modern-day detective (Colin Hanks, “Mad Men”) try to expose the big picture of small crime.
 
As previously announced, television’s hottest dance series, SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, swings into summer with a two-hour premiere Thursday, May 27 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT). Hosted by Cat Deeley, the hit dance competition series will inspire and amaze viewers as dancers skilled in styles ranging from hip-hop to ballroom compete to be named America’s Favorite Dancer. Once the DANCE auditions conclude, weekly performance shows will air Tuesdays (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), and weekly results shows will air Wednesdays (9:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed).
 
Superstar chef Gordon Ramsay cranks up the ovens in HELL’S KITCHEN when the series returns for its seventh season with a tantalizing two-hour premiere Thursday, June 10 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT). The cutthroat culinary competition will continue with two-hour episodes throughout the season airing Thursdays (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) as Chef Ramsay narrows down the field of aspiring restauranteurs until only one remains standing in HELL’S KITCHEN.
 
LIE TO ME continues its search for the truth when all-new episodes return to the schedule Mondays starting with its time period premiere on June 7 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT). Mysterious drama PAST LIFE continues with a handful of original episodes beginning with a two-hour premiere Friday, May 28 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) and its time period premiere Friday, June 4 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT).
 
GLEE, the most-celebrated new show of the season, finishes its run of all-new episodes on Tuesdays (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) with its first season finale June 8. In addition, viewers can catch encore airings of all their favorite GLEE episodes Wednesdays (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) beginning June 16.
 
The most arresting night of television continues this summer on Saturdays with a mixture of all-new and encore episodes of COPS (8:00-8:30 and 8:30-9:00 PM ET/PT) and all-new episodes AMERICA’S MOST WANTED (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), while Sunday nights feature a mix of encores and originals of THE SIMPSONS, THE CLEVELAND SHOW, FAMILY GUY, AMERICAN DAD, ‘TIL DEATH and new comedy SONS OF TUCSON (7:00-10:00 PM ET/PT).
 
 
RECAP – FOX 2010 SUMMER SCHEDULE
(All times ET/PT except as noted)
 
MONDAY
Mondays, beginning June 7:
8:00-9:00 PM               LIE TO ME (Summer Premiere)
9:00-10:00 PM             THE GOOD GUYS (Series Premiere)
 
****************************
 
TUESDAY
Tuesday, June 1:
8:00-9:00 PM               SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE
9:00-10:00 PM             GLEE
 
Tuesday, June 8:
8:00-9:00 PM               SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE
9:00-10:00 PM             GLEE (Season Finale)
 
Tuesdays, beginning June 15:
8:00-10:00 PM             SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE
 
***************************
 
WEDNESDAY
Wednesday, May 19:
8:00-9:00 PM               THE GOOD GUYS (Series Preview)
9:00-10:00 PM             AMERICAN IDOL
 
Wednesdays, June 2 and 9:
8:00-10:00 PM             SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE
 
Wednesdays, beginning June 16:
8:00-9:00 PM               GLEE (Time Period Premiere) (Encores)
9:00-10:00 PM             SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE (Time Period Premiere)
 
***************************
 
THURSDAY
Thursdays, beginning May 27:
8:00-10:00 PM             SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE (Season Premiere)
 
Thursdays, beginning June 10:
8:00-10:00 PM             HELL’S KITCHEN (Season Premiere)
 
***************************
 
FRIDAY
Friday, May 28:
8:00-10:00 PM             PAST LIFE (Two-Hour Summer Premiere)
 
Fridays, June 4 and 11:
8:00-9:00 PM               PAST LIFE (Time Period Premiere)
9:00-10:00 PM             HOUSE (Time Period Premiere) (Encores)
 
Fridays, beginning June 18:
8:00-9:00 PM               BONES (Time Period Premiere) (Encores)
9:00-10:00 PM             HOUSE (Encores)
 
***************************
 
SATURDAY
Saturdays (no change to lineup):
8:00-8:30 PM               COPS
8:30-9:00 PM               COPS
9:00-10:00 PM             AMERICA’S MOST WANTED
11:00 PM-Midnight      THE WANDA SYKES SHOW
Midnight-12:30 AM       ANIMATION DOMINATION (Encores)
 
***************************
 
SUNDAY
Sundays, beginning June 6:
7:00-9:30 PM               ANIMATION DOMINATION
9:30-10:00 PM             SONS OF TUCSON



Addendum: SYTYCD Chicago audition info:



SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE
auditions for Season Seven will be in Chicago on Thursday, March 18 at
The Cadillac Palace (151 West Randolph St.) For more info, look here.








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Word is just in that Robert Halderman, the TV producer whose extortion attempt led to David Letterman's confessing a longtime affair with a staffer, has pleaded guilty.
That there will be no drawn-out trial means Letterman potentially dodged a bullet, insofar as any further embarrassing details might have come out. I suppose this is good news [...][img]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/tunedin/~4/2otUckPOuFE[/img]

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Very funny "Big Bang Theory" last night, I thought. I probably would have watched an entire episode that was nothing but the guys pulling different items out of their cardboard box of geek treasures, and/or an entire episode of the guys trying to psych each other out in their hands-on-a-hard-ring competition, while still making the effort to move together...



"Big Bang Theory"Very funny "Big Bang Theory"
last night, I thought. I probably would have watched an entire episode
that was nothing but the guys pulling different items out of their
cardboard box of geek treasures, and/or an entire episode of the guys
trying to psych each other out in their hands-on-a-hard-ring
competition, while still making the effort to move together ("And plie!
And releve!"). As things stand, it probably worked that we only got a
bit of each, but I enjoyed both greatly.

The one flaw, as
usual, was that Leonard and Penny as a couple just don't work at all,
and having Penny constantly ask herself why she's dating Leonard
doesn't really solve that problem.

What did everybody else think?






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On the Feb. 16 episode of Lost, we learned that the numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42) correspond with a group of people known as "the candidates": Locke, Hurley, Sawyer, Sayid, Jack and Jin or Sun, respectively. The Man in Black says they're candidates to take over for Jacob as the protector of the island. But should we trust the Man in Black? And what does it really mean to be a candidate? Executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof weigh in...




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• Lost
• Carlton Cuse
• Damon Lindelof
• Adam Horowitz
• Edward Kitsis

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Below are some thoughts on Monday's "Chuck" episode, "Chuck vs. the Beard."







I wasn't exactly enthused about last week's installment of the Bartowski chronicles, as you may have noticed from this "Chuck" post. 

"Chuck vs. the Beard," on the other hand, was everything I want in a "Chuck" episode and then some. It had a good, meaty spy plot (which was well-integrated into the Buy More story, which is always a nice bonus). It had some great moments for virtually the entire supporting cast -- the very enjoyable Buy More scenes included Jeff taking down a bad guy, the BM crew planting the Buymoria flag, Big Mike giving an inspirational speech condensed from dozens of underdog sports movies -- and of course, the cherry on top was a performance by Jeffster!

As I said more than once on Twitter, this is one of my favorite "Chuck" episodes of all time.

Here's what the episode didn't have: After all the Chuck-Sarah agita of the past few episodes, it was a relief that there was very little relationship angst of any kind. Shaw is still around (and truthfully, the sooner this boring character exits the scene, the better). At least his non-charisma didn't infect this episode in any meaningful way (and he actually had a mildly funny moment at the end when he, in character as a Buy More bigwig, informed Big Mike that the Burbank store was safe).

Back to the good stuff -- and "Beard" was 99.8 percent good stuff. The episode had lots of well-executed big moments: Morgan finding Castle and finding out the truth about Chuck, Chuck's relief at being able to flash once he shares his secret with Morgan, the attempted takedown of the Buy More by the Cost Less/Ring operatives, some great fights and set pieces, etc.

Like Chuck, I was massively relieved that Chuck finally got to tell Morgan his secret -- the show just couldn't get much more mileage out of only Awesome knowing, and letting Morgan in on the secret will allow the show to build in not only more comedy but create higher stakes for the Castle team.





It was also nice to get a little fake-out plot right at the start of the episode: It looked as though "Beard" was going to serve up a fairly standard "Ellie and Awesome in danger" story line, but instead we got the much more satisfying big reveals and developments at the Buy More. 

All of that was delightful, but a truly excellent "Chuck" episode also has tons of wonderful little moments. I watched "Beard" three times and every time I laughed out loud at Morgan taking out that final Ring goon. Casey had an awesome fight with bad guys and Jeff (of all people) got to assist, in his own deeply stoned way. Even the opening scene of Morgan firing Chuck as his best friend was a perfectly Chuck-tastic blend of what the show does at its best -- inspired comedy grounded in real relationships and sincere emotions.

If "Chuck" continues into a fourth season, I hope the producers find a way to keep the show's supporting cast around, at least in some capacity. I understand that as Chuck evolves as an operative, the Buy More cover might be, from a purely logical standpoint, less necessary. But I just love everything that transpires there and as we've seen this season, unless they've got a lot of other things in their favor, episodes with only a a few token Buy More scenes can start to feel less than satisfying.

One of the reasons "Beard" was so fun was that it deployed the supporting cast extremely well, and I don't know about you, but that's at least half the reason I watch the show. All in all, I thought "Beard" was an excellent directing job by Zachary Levi and a wonderful final episode by Scott Rosenbaum, who's now showrunner for "V" (and you know I have to mention anything that involves aliens: "V" returns March 30). I'm certainly interested to hear what you all thought of it -- I'm hoping you all found it as fun and satisfying as I did.

One final note before I let you go -- we still have "Chuck" goodie bags (T-shirts, snap bracelets and water bottles) for those who donate to this Partners in Health page. For more info on the "Chuck" gear that is available to donors, check out the PIH page  -- and don't forget this eBay auction of entertainment memorabilia -- which now has a "Hurt Locker" poster signed by Kathryn Bigelow and Jeremy Renner (all proceeds from the auction also go to charity).







Some other great moments and quotes from "Chuck Vs. the Beard" (and share your own favorites in the comment area):

• Awesome: "I just reclaimed my awesomeness!"
• Big Mike: "They can take our dignity. They can take all the hot women. But they will not take our jobs and they will never take our store!"
• Morgan: "I've been a loser my whole life. It's time for me to be a hero."
• Casey: "[T]he only thing I hate more than hippies, neo-liberals fascists and anarchists are the hypocrite fat-cat suits they eventually all grow up to be."
• Jeff: "We're staging a revolution to take down the Man."
• Cost Less/Ring guy, watching the rag-tag fleet's store's rebellion: "So that's the sound of liberty?"

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The Oscars red carpet ended with a bang as hosts Chris Harrison and Carrie Ann Inaba caught up with Up In the Air star George Clooney and his lovely lady friend, Elisabetta Canalis. The ever-unflappable Clooney talked about whether whether he ever loses his cool.


Watch the video after the jump.




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[b]Other Links From TVGuide.com[/b]

• George Clooney
• Chris Harrison
• Carrie Ann Inaba
• Up In The Air

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SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, let me give you a little shot, relax, and watch last night's season finale of Big Love.
"I'm afraid we're walking off a cliff" --Barb Henrickson
"Do you really think the world is going to embrace you? You sad, stupid man." --Marilyn Densham
It's been clear for a while that [...][img]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/tunedin/~4/OQ8gPAv9sl8[/img]

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A whole lot of handsome was going on during Jimmy Kimmel's post-Oscar spoof.


The late-night host's "Handsome Men's Club" video featured cameos by Patrick Dempsey, Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke and a shirtless Gilles Marini, among others.


Kimmel: Leno's the sucker-puncher, not me


Kimmel &mdash; get this, the club's president &mdash; conducts the meeting. But the members stage a coup, as Kimmel's "cute" and loyal sidekick, John Krasinski, remains by his side. Even Kimmel's go-to guy, Ben Affleck, votes to have him ousted.


Watch the spoof after the jump.





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[b]Other Links From TVGuide.com[/b]

• Ben Affleck
• Ethan Hawke
• Matthew McConaughey
• Patrick Dempsey
• Jimmy Kimmel
• John Krasinksi
• Gilles Marini

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Just so you know we're not all about Oscar complaints here this morning, last night's awards got one thing 100% right: the award for Best Animated Short went to Logorama, one of the most spectacular things you're likely to see in quite a while. The 15-plus-minute film tells a hardboiled action-disaster story in a Los [...][img]http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/time/tunedin/~4/KR8wqtvDEHg[/img]

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