The high-profile failure of Bionic Woman hasn’t stopped NBC from rolling the dice on another revamp. After a February backdoor pilot for Knight Rider was a surprise ratings hit, there was widespread speculation that the show had earned a spot on NBC’s fall slate.

The network has confirmed its Knight Rider episodic order for the 2008-09 season. Though critically panned, viewers tuned in to see former soap star Justin Breuning and a cast of other Hollywood hot bodies burn up the road. They’re talking about a Friday night time slot, which would be a return to Rider’s 1980’s stomping grounds. With the economy in a slowdown and bad news coming in on the international front, NBC is trying to offer the escapism it thinks viewers will crave. The plot has changed precious little from the old days, even down to the family in question. Breuning plays the son of David Hasselhoff’s Michael Knight character. For a man who according to the show’s intro “does not exist,” Knight really got around.

NBC Photo: Virginia Sherwood

And no, I don’t ask that because I’m ready to be done with work. I work from home and love my job. I’m talking about Battlestar Galactica kicking off its fourth and final season April 4.

I have mixed emotions. I am absolutely ready for the new season to begin, but a little sad because the beginning brings us closer to the end. One of the smartest, most well-written shows on TV in any genre will be gone soon. Yeah, it hurts to lose shows like Journeyman but in comparison, we hardly knew them. Galactica has stayed long enough to enjoy success and will leave before it can spoil them.

This show’s actors, writers and staff will get to take a well earned victory lap, so to speak. We can thank everyone connected with the show for their hard work and we can all enjoy the last stretch of this incredible ride. And it’s always better for a TV show to leave too early than stay too long. I still have nightmares about that last season of The Cosby Show.

The worst thing about convention is coming home afterwards!  And that’s where I am now, home after spending a whole weekend with the cast and fans of Supernatural.  It was the Los Angeles con and it featured Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Fredric Lehne (the yellow-eyed demon), Chad Lindberg (Ash), Sandra McCoy (crossroads demon and the future Mrs Padalecki), the fabulous sounds of The Steve Carlson Band, Jason Manns and. . . hmm…oh yes, Eric Kripke was there, too in a rare convention appearance.  (For the moment, I am including my AWFUL photography.  I hope to have some much better photos from my fannish friends shortly.)

PART ONE: FREDRIC LEHNE

The weekend began with Fredric Lehne on stage singing a Supernatural version of Sympathy for the Devil.  (Here’s a video of him performing the tune slightly differently at Chicago Con.) He went from songs to bunny jokes and he had the crowd right where he wanted them — utterly charmed.  He talked a bit about Lost, saying he was supposed to have had more of a relationship with Kate but now who knows if he’ll be back.  Later he told a very funny story about when he got the gig in the first place.  His agent told him he was up for a job that amounted to “3 weeks unconscious on a beach in Hawaii.”

Says Fred, “I can do that.  I’ve done that before.”  But he soon realized that when you can’t roll over when you want, and they’re pouring fake blood on you and oh, did you know they have scorpions in Hawaii.  It’s suddenly, not so fun!

He also laughed about the feud between “Lost People” and the “Super freaky Supernatural freaks.”  He said he was about to do a Lost con and he wondered what had started the feud. He was told that it came from Lost invaded Supernatural’s time slot, to which he replied, “I feel like a child of a divorce. I don’t know who to be loyal, too.” 

Of course, we all demanded that he stay with us! 

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Riddle me this: When is a canceled show a potential lynchpin for a network? When that show is Jericho and the rumored bidders are the CW Network and the Sci Fi Channel.

The six million viewers that Jericho bowed out with March 25 wasn’t much to a network like CBS, but would be a huge boost to CW or Sci Fi. Sci-Fi has the most experience in this line of work, as they saved Sliders and Stargate when Fox and Showtime respectively gave up on them. Sliders never quite connected with its initial audience the same way. Stargate, however, went on to become the longest running sci-fi show in American history. It even yielded a successful spinoff in Stargate:Atlantis. (I can see my co-blogger Cynthia somewhere pumping her fists on that reference.)

The announcement that Michael Rosenbaum and Kristin Kreuk are leaving Smallville likely puts that show on borrowed time. Jericho would fill the tremendous void Smallville will leave pretty nicely. I have a feeling things are about to get good, and you know SFUniverse is going to keep you posted.

Is your anticipation at fever pitch yet, Battlestar faithful? If not, you’re more than a little dead inside. Or perhaps you’re just a Cylon?

Sci Fi Channel is airing two half-hour specials tonight to get things ready. At 10 p.m. ET the network will air Battlestar Galactica: Revisited, recapping key events from the hit show’s first three seasons. As I mentioned earlier this week, I’m of the opinion every sci-fi show should do this. It gives new people a chance to jump on and not be totally lost, and helps whet the appetite of those that have been following since day one.

At 10:30 p.m. Sci Fi gives us Battlestar Galactica: The Phenomenon. Celebrities including country music star Brad Paisley and actor Seth Green will explain why they’re addicted to the show. Anyone who’s ever seen Paisley’s song “Online” or seen the video won’t be shocked by his Galactica-geekness. And Seth Green has given us Robot Chicken and starred in Buffy the Vampire Slayer so we know he’s one of us. I’m anxious to see if there’s somebody in there that you would never peg for being a Galactica fan like Scarlett Johannsen or the like.

SCI FI Channel Photo: Carole Segal

From Out of the Rain: 2.10

Air Date: March 29, 2008 BBC America

Soon after an old movie theater reopens, bodies trapped between life and death emerge in the streets of Cardiff.

I love the look of this one.  There’s something so wonderfully spooky about old movie theaters and ghosts trapped on film.

Camilla Power guest stars as Pearl and Julian Bleach as Ghostmaker

Photo Credit: BBC Worldwide

According to Hollywood Reporter, several new actors have been added to the cast of Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse.”

“Battlestar Galactica” co-star Tahmoh Penikett will play an FBI agent. Fran Kranz will play the scientist who imprints the dolls with their memories. Australian Dichen Lachman and Enver Gjokaj will play two of the “dolls” along with series star Eliza Dushku.

Last week, Whedon hinted that he might have been looking at former Buffy players to fill some of the roles, but he was also concerned about making it too much of a family reunion series. Looks like he decided to go further afield, though that doesn’t mean we won’t see Buffy guest stars popping up as the series progresses.

Tobey Maguire is tied to another comic project, this one based on the brand new Red 5 Comics book Afterburn. The book is set in a postapocalyptic environment after a solar flare devastates the Eastern Hemisphere. The remaining landscape contains mutants and other dangers.

The heroes of the story extract valuable items like the Mona Lisa and the Rosetta Stone while battling an assortment of pirates and mutants. Maguire will produce through his Maguire Entertainment banner while Neal Moritz will help out through his Original Films.

Red 5 is a new company but longtime sci-fi supporters will respect its pedigree. It was created by Paul Ens, former director of Lucasfilm’s StarWars.com and Lucas Online, and Scott Chitwood, co-founder of TheForce.net and contributor to ComingSoon.net and SuperHeroHype.com. The Calgary, Alberta-based publisher began putting out books last fall.

Maybe it was the anticlimactic nature of knowing the season finale (at least for now) was the series finale. Maybe it was an extension of the malaise that surrounded Jericho’s strike-shortened, star-crossed second season.

But viewers hoping the show gets picked up by another network won’t encourage anyone to look at the series-ending numbers. The show drew just under six million pairs of eyes for its March 25th final broadcast. Jericho finished third overall behind ABC’s Primetime and NBC’s Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. CBS finished fourth overall on the night, the number one position going to American Idol-led Fox.  ABC came in second on the strength of its reality hit Dancing with the Stars. NBC took third.

©2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved

SCI FI Channel has picked up the rights to the Canadian / South African detective series Charlie Jade. 

This Blade Runner-ish series concerns a detective who travels between three dimensions, the Alphaverse, the Betaverse and the Gammaverse.  Apparently there are terrorist (or rebel) forces in the various dimensions that are trying to stop people from coming over and messing in their own personal dimension and frankly, it all makes me think of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension! 

Sounds like hard-core techno scifi with 20 hour-long episodes.  No word yet as to when the series will premiere.

Have you seen Charlie Jade?  Clue me in!