I like to see the guild awards, because the specificity allows for nominees that you won’t see on more general lists.  The Art Directors Guild is especially interesting because they separate the films into three categories: period, fantasy, and contemporary.  The 15 nominees highlight everything from Oscar favorites Hugo and The Artist, to crowd-pleasers Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 and Captain America, to poorly received films like Cowboys & Aliens and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.  There’s a similar contrast in the TV nominees between the classy HBO programs you’d expect (Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, and Mildred Pierce) and the critical punching bags American Horror Story and The Playboy Club.  The full list of nominees is after the break.

Now that a couple weeks have gone by, the orders for cancellation or pick-ups are coming through to determine which new series will stick around for a full season. Fox already ordered New Girl after a stellar performance in the ratings, and now NBC has chimed in by showing faith in two of their new comedies. The network announced today that they have given full season orders to both Whitney, the sitcom from comedian Whitney Cummings and Up All Night with Will Arnett, Christina Applegate and Maya Rudolph. Frankly, I don’t think Whitney deserves the order with its mediocre jokes, distracting laugh track and painfully artificial performances. And this is coming from someone who enjoys the comedic exploits of Whitney Cummings’ stand-up. As for Up All Night, while it hasn’t been the most hilarious new comedy, it delivers plenty of great moments, has far superior writing and much more charm. Guest stars like Will Forte and Jorma Taccone have certainly helped out, and it has the potential to really take off with a whole season at its disposal. The fate of NBC’s other new comedy Free Agents remains to be seen though, but I’m not sure it’s going to last.

However, along with new life on NBC also comes death as TV Line reports the network has canceled The Playboy Club after just three episodes. The drama series starring Amber Heard just hasn’t delivered in the ratings department, and couldn’t live up to the Mad Men quality it was clearly trying to emulate with Eddie Cibrian doing his best Don Draper impression at every turn. Stay tuned as more orders and cancellations come rolling in very soon.

The provocative new NBC drama The Playboy Club (premiering on September 19^th) takes place in Chicago in the early 1960′s, at a time and place that challenged the existing social mores and transformed American culture forever. The legendary and seductive club is filled with beautiful Bunnies, striving for their own independence and careers. When innocent new Bunny Maureen (Amber Heard) accidentally kills the patriarch of the Bianchi crime family, Nick Dalton (Eddie Cibrian) – the ultimate playboy and one of the city’s top attorneys – comes to her aid. At the Playboy Club, everyone has their own ambitions and agendas, and they are all hiding secrets.

During a recent interview to promote the show’s upcoming Fall premiere, actress Amber Heard talked about wearing her Bunny costume, that her character has her own share of secrets and skeletons in her closet, how the women that worked at the Playboy Club were empowered by their sexuality rather than being victimized by it, and how this was a time when there were different opportunities and expectations for women. She also talked about how she still hopes to be putting on a costume of a different kind for Red Sonja. Check out what she had to say after the jump:

We’re just over a month away from kicking off the new television season and so the networks are really starting to push their new series into the public eye. NBC is up to bat today with a small batch of new posters promoting a few of their new series hitting in September. After the jump you can check out some slick new posters for the Mad Men-esque series The Playboy Club, the American remake of the British series Prime Suspect, the fairytale crime drama Grimm, and comedies like Up All Night, Free Agents and Whitney. Honestly, it seems like NBC has the most promising line-up of new shows, but Fox could give them a run for their money. For more details on these and the rest of NBC’s new series, check out our posts of clips from the new comedies right here, and dramas over here, not to mention complete trailers of all the series right here. Otherwise, see the new posters after the jump.

Most of the other networks have already chimed in with their premiere dates for new and returning series for the 2011-2012 season, but today NBC has finally sent over their premiere schedule for the fall. Returning series include Parenthood, Chuck, Harry’s Law, The Office, Parks & Recreation and Community while new series include but are not limited to The Playboy Club starring Amber Heard, the fairytale driven Grimm, the new comedy series Whitney starring the hilarious stand-up comedienne Whitney Cummings and the remake of Prime Suspect with Maria Bello. Find out when your old favorites and new series hit the air with the full schedule after the jump, but if you want to check out the new series, check clips from dramas here and comedies here straight from the network’s upfronts presentation.

Actress Amber Heard wanted to be a part of The Ward because she loves the genre, loves the director (John Carpenter) and loved the script, making it the perfect combination. And, the added attention it gets for being Carpenter’s first feature film in about 10 years doesn’t hurt either. In the horror thriller, Heard plays a disturbed young woman named Kristen, who has no memory of her life before being admitted to a mysterious mental ward. Stuck with four other equally disturbed patients, Kristen begins to see strange things and hear frightening sounds, and quickly realizes that things are not as they seem. As she struggles to regain her freedom, she uncovers a truth more horrifying than she ever could have imagined.

At the film’s press day, Amber Heard talked about what makes John Carpenter the best at what he does, how she tries to make a character as real as possible, and the challenge of being a part of a story with a twist ending. She also talked about her upcoming NBC drama series The Playboy Club, about an innocent young Bunny named Maureen (Heard) who wants to take the world by storm, but accidentally kills one of the Windy City’s most powerful mafia bosses. Check out what she had to say after the jump.

We recently highlighted some clips from NBC’s forthcoming new dramas and comedies, but now the network has released the full length trailers for all of their new series as well. They’re about twice as long as most movie trailers, and they give us a pretty good idea of the tone and style behind each series. After the jump you can check out trailers for Prime Suspect with Maria Bello, The Playboy Club with Amber Heard, Steven Spielberg’s Broadway musical drama Smash, the fairytale drama Grimm, Kyle Killen’s Awake starring Jason Isaacs, Whitney featuring stand-up comedian Whitney Cummings, Up All Night with Will Arnett and Christina Applegate, Free Agents with Hank Azaria, Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea with Laura Prepon, and Bent with Amanda Peet.

Personally, on the drama side of things, I’m absolutely riveted by the trailer for Awake which just looks like a truly original and compelling drama series from Lone Star writer Kyle Killen. Smash also looks like it has the musical fun and powerful drama to become Glee for adults, but hopefully with a little bit more consistent quality writing. With the comedies, I think Up All Night looks the most promising. Whitney has the potential to gain steam, but it’s hard for me to get past laughtracks on sitcoms. Anyway, you can judge for yourself after checking out all the trailers after the jump.

NBC has released the first clips for all their new 2011-2012 dramas: Prime Suspect, The Playboy Club, Smash, Grimm, Awake, and The Firm.  Based on initial impressions, Awake is the one I am now most looking forward to.  The clips promise terrific entertainment for a structure geek like myself, splitting screen time between two realities.  The 1960s-set The Playboy Club and modern fairy tale Grimm both have interesting premises, but the clips look too silly out of context.  I hold out hope the subject matter makes for a better series.  Prime Suspect looks like a kickass role for star Maria Bello — pencil her in for an Emmy nomination.

Click through to the links for the official schedule announcement and the complementary clips for NBC’s new comedies.  Hit the jump for the preview clips and official synopses for all new dramas.

NBC has officially announced their schedule for 2011-2012.  The network ordered six new dramas (The Playboy Club, Prime Suspect, Grimm, The Firm, Smash, Awake) and six new sitcoms (Up All Night, Free Agents, Whitney, Best Friends Forever, Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea, Bent).

The network is programming Fridays fairly aggressively.  Chuck will air its fifth and final 13-episode season on Fridays, paired with the new fairy tale drama Grimm and Friday staple Dateline NBC.  NBC will hold 30 Rock for midseason to accommodate star/creator Tina Fey’s pregnancy.  The Thursday night sitcom block will be cut back to two hours with Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office, and Whitney leading into the Maria Bello-led Prime Suspect remake.

Click through to the links to watch preview clips for the new dramas and the new comedies.  Hit the jump to check out the new schedule.

NBC joined Fox in the early pickup/renewal game last night with series orders for Whitney, Up All Night, Smash, and Prime Suspect.  So far, the news continues accentuate the positive — only renewals and more pilot pickups, no cancellations.  The most confident reports indicate NBC will renew Parenthood for a full third season order.

More circumstantial reports update on the fates of Chuck and Harry’s Law. This makes the fourth May in a row where Chuck has lived on the bubble, and somehow a fifth season is very much in the works.  The deal isn’t official, but all signs suggest Chuck will continue to brighten the airwaves through 2012 with a 13-episode order.  Meanwhile, NBC is expected to renew Harry’s Law for a second season.  This will give creator David E. Kelly something to do next year, since NBC has reportedly passed on his Wonder Woman pilot.

Details on series orders for The Playboy Club, Awake, and Grimm.

After last night’s huge influx of news from Fox about series pick-ups, renewals and cancellations, it’s now NBC’s turn to announce some of their new series that we can look forward to in the fall. As of now there seems to be some dissension amongst the news outlets online as to whether or not Wonder Woman will actually get picked up, and other potential series like The Playboy Club are rumored for a pick-up but we haven’t heard anything official yet.

After the jump, check out the four new series that have definitely been picked up to premiere sometime this fall including a new sitcom from stand-up comedian Whitney Cummings, another comedy from Christina Applegate, a Broadway musical series from producer Steven Spielberg, and the stateside remake of the British crime drama Prime Suspect.