Unlike its broadcasting cohorts, CBS doesn’t typically use its upfronts as a time to frantically throw the everything and the kitchen sink out there in the hopes one sticks.  CBS knows its audience, and it’s steadily successful because of it.  What is so interesting with this year’s upfronts then is that they actually did shake things up a little: they didn’t pick up another NCIS spinoff, and they overlooked Beverly Hills Cops.

Instead, CBS is adding two single-camera comedies (The Crazy Ones with Robin Williams, and We Are Men with Kal Penn) and a limited series run of Hostages, a Jerry Bruckheimer production.  Though most of the CBS schedule will look familiar (crime shows, canned laughter comedy), these new additions add a level of interest to CBS’s schedule not usually seen.  Hit the jump for the schedule details.

It’s hard to blame the movies themselves for the less-than-ultimate “ultimate collection” containing them. That goes double for Harold & Kumar , the Cheech and Chong of the 21^st century, whose amiable stoner antics don’t invite the sort of double-dipping this set was meant for. The movies are fine… only the packaging leaves something to be desired. Hit the jump for my full review of the Blu-ray featuring Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas.

The future of Adult Swim, Cartoon Network’s weird older brother, just got a little bit clearer, as the cable network has announced a bevy of new pilots that will compete for a schedule spot in 2012-2013. The most prominent of the bunch are an untitled animated continuation of the pot-fueled adventures of Harold & Kumar and Rick & Morty, a comedy from Community creator, Dan Harmon. The former is being scripted by franchise writers (and directors of Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay) Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg and will see stars John Cho and Kal Penn giving voice to animated versions of themselves. Rick & Morty, meanwhile, follows the adventures of an inventor and his dimwitted grandson. Hit the jump for more.

It’s easy to call A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas the best of the ramshackle series. The franchise has been defined by stoner humor and gross out gags that work as often as they don’t, but here the filmmakers –energized by the absurdity of making the film in three dimensions – have their best hit to miss ratio yet. John Cho and Kal Penn returns as the titular heroes who are no longer best friends but must save Christmas by getting a perfect tree for Harold (Cho) and his wife’s family (headed up by Danny Trejo). If it were easy, there’d be no movie. Our review of A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas on Blu-ray follows after the jump.

Happy Saturday, folks. I’m writing to you this week surrounded by a mountain of used facial tissue (that’s right, I’m not endorsing Kleenex on the site without some sort of kick back…wait, dang it). Cold season has officially set in which means I’m on a daily regimen of Dayquil (which I have no problem endorsing), warm tea, and self-pity. In case you’re a longtime reader of the “Top 5″ and you’re wondering to yourself, “Wasn’t Jason just complaining about the summer heat?”, the answer is yes. Out of the 52 yearly weeks, I’m generally not complaining about the weather for approximately 2 or 3 of them. It’s sad, I know.

In this week’s “Top 5″ you can find our video interviews with the cast of A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, press conferences with Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and more from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 junket, the red band trailer for Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum’s  21 Jump Street, a sit-down with the great Albert Brooks, and our coverage to date of this year’s American Film Market. Find a brief recap and link to each after the jump.

With director Todd-Strauss-Schulson’s A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas opening today, I recently got to speak with Kal Penn and John Cho.  During the interview, they talked about how many times they’ve been offered a joint or bong hit since 2004, their favorite karaoke song, if there’s anything in the 3rd film they felt crossed the line, if they get free White Castle for life, at what time they found out they’d be making a 3rd film and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

The Harold & Kumar franchise is a cult hit at its best.  The Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle was a modest hit in theaters but it found a rich life as a word-of-mouth DVD hit.  Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay was an earned sequel, and while it wasn’t quite as good as the first, it was still enjoyable.  But there’s always a danger when good movies go Christmas.  Christmas has been done to death, it has rules, and it’s meticulously designed to engender warm feelings based on jingles and iconography.  A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas embraces not only Christmas movies but brilliantly combines it with the gimmick of 3D, and the result is a painfully funny R-rated X-mas flick that will be worth watching every holiday season.

Warner Bros. has released a new red band trailer for A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas.  The sequel takes place six years after Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay—the duo has grown apart, but when Kumar decides to bring a mysterious package to Harold’s house, Kumar inadverdently burns down Harold’s father’s prized Christmas tree.  In place of White Castle, the stoner quest at the center of Christmas is to replace the tree.

John Cho and Kal Penn return as the title characters, joined by Neil Patrick Harris, Patton Oswalt, Thomas Lennon, Danny Trejo, Eddie Kaye Thomas, David Krumholtz, and Elias Koteas.  A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas opens in 3D on November 4th.  If you’re over 17, watch the red band trailer after the jump.

Part of me feels like I’m one of the few people looking forward to another Harold & Kumar movie, but I don’t care.  The Harold & Kumar movies are delightfully madcap, feature a nice mix of gross-out humor and absurdity, and it looks like they’ve gone all out with A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas.  Director Todd Strauss-Schulson seems to have acknowledged that 3D is a mostly-gimmicky technology and used it to augment the shenanigans of his lead characters.

New Line has released twenty-five new images along with four new set photos and I continue to remain jazzed to see the movie.  Hit the jump to check out the images.  A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas opens November 4th.

Eight character posters have gone online for A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas.  Nothing can ever come close to the NPH riding a unicorn teaser poster from Harold & Kumar 2, but there’s a Danny Trejo character banner in here that comes close.  It’s also one of the few that doesn’t have a pot-pun as the tagline.

Hit the jump to check out the posters.  The film stars John Cho, Kal Penn, Paula Garcés, Danneel Harris, Tom Lennon, Danny Trejo, Elias Koteas, Eddie Kaye Thomas, David Krumholtz, Patton Oswalt, and Neil Patrick Harris.  A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas opens November 4th.

Some new character posters for A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas 3D have been released. They feature stars Kal Penn, John Cho, and the notorious Neil Patrick Harris. In addition to promoting the movie, they also serve as a reminder that Photoshop is every poster-creator’s best friend. The first trailer for the flick was a little underwhelming, but it’s nice to see that NPH seems to be playing a larger part this time around.

Hit the jump to see the posters. A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas 3D opens November 4th.

In real-life, Kal Penn left behind his career in show business, including an abrupt departure from Fox’s medical drama House M.D., for a year-long job at the White House as part of the Obama administration. However, with A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas on the way, Penn is back to his comedy antics on the big screen. Now it looks like he’s venturing back to the small screen as well as Deadline reports Penn has set up a new workplace comedy set in the United Nations over at NBC. The currently untitled series will see Penn playing a key assistant to the U.S. ambassador. The script for the comedy comes from an up-and-coming writer and Upright Citizens Brigade theater performer named Raphael Bob-Waskberg and the comedy itself will also reflect some of Penn’s experiences in politics and at the White House. Sounds like some more great comedy at NBC to accompany their already impressive line-up. Maybe Penn can get John Cho to come along for the ride or at least guest star on the series?

Earlier today the first image from A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas 3D was released, and now the first trailer for the fllm has hit the web. It’s pretty much everything you’d expect from a Harold & Kumar movie, but with Christmas. The story finds the duo trying to replace Harold’s father-in-law’s Christmas tree by day’s end, but you can probably surmise that all doesn’t go according to plan. While I didn’t find the second entry in the franchise as amusing as the first, hopefully the holiday setting of this one will punch things up. They look to be having fun with (and poking fun at) the 3D, and it appears that we’re in for a sure-to-be-great musical number. Speaking of awesome, Neil Patrick Harris looks to have a bit of an expanded role in the flick, which is very good news.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer. The movie stars Harris, John Cho, Kal Penn, Paula Garcés, Danneel Harris, Bobby Lee, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Danny Trejo, Amir Blumenfeld, David Burtka, Fred Melamed, and Richard Riehle. A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas 3D opens November 4^th.

The first official image from A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas has gone online.  As you can see, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) have dressed up as nutcrackers for some reason, but I’m even more amused that the center of the image is Neil Patrick Harris.  He’s only a cameo in the previous two films and I imagine he’ll only have a small role in the new movie.  But you put the focus of the image on the NPH because the NPH can sell anything.  Even his commercials for Comcast make me hate that company a little less (once the commercial is over I go back to hating them).

Hit the jump to check out the image and be on the lookout for the first trailer in the not-too-distant future.  A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas opens in 3D on November 4th. [Update: We've now posted a high resolution version of the image]

For those who like to plan far in advance, we have some release date news for you.  First up, the comedies A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas has been set to be released in 3D on November 4th while Ted is currently set for July 13, 2012.  Meanwhile, the horror film The Apparition has been moved off September 9th and onto a currently unspecified date in 2012.

Hit the jump for more on all of these movies and which films Harold & Kumar and Ted will be sharing their new dates with.