TV Tidbits - Elizabeth Edwards to discuss book, life on 'Bookwatch'

By: Tim Clodfelter | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: September 27, 2009

Elizabeth Edwards is scheduled to appear on today's episode of the UNC-TV series North Carolina Bookwatch to discuss her book Resilience. On the episode, which will be shown at 5 p.m., she will discuss the hardships she has had to overcome, including the death of a son in a car accident, her battle with cancer and the scandal surrounding her husband, politician John Edwards.

There are plenty of books in stores inspired by TV shows, but Heat Wave -- based on the ABC series Castle -- has an unusual and amusing approach. The book, which is being released Tuesday from Hyperion, is being presented as if it had been written by the show's main character, mystery writer-turned-amateur detective Richard Castle.

This isn't the first time that this tactic has been taken -- Jessica Fletcher of Murder, She Wrote also has some books out, and Gary Troup, one of the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 on Lost, was the "writer" of the mystery novel Bad Twin.

Warren the Ape is coming back to television and stepping out of Greg the Bunny's shadow.

The foul-mouthed, scene-stealing puppet was featured on the Greg the Bunny show, which aired in various incarnations on Fox and IFC. MTV has announced that Warren will be the star of his own series, a parody of celebrity reality shows, which will have its debut in 2010.

Among this year's Emmy awards was one for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, an Internet sensation that has since gone on to become an iTunes hit and a DVD. It won an Emmy for "Short-Format Live Action Entertainment Program."

During last Sunday's Emmy telecast, the cast members reunited for a new sketch celebrating the show and, at the same time, making fun of the limitations of watching TV on the Web.

One of the stars of Dr. Horrible -- and seen, very briefly, in the Emmy sketch -- was Felicia Day, who already had a cult following online for her Web series The Guild. It tells the story of a group of online gamers who bond while playing a fantasy role-playing game.

The series is now in its third season, with a new cast member, Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation). It has more than 100,000 subscribers on YouTube and can also be watched or downloaded on a wide variety of sites.

For more information, go to www.watchtheguild.com. Each episode runs less than 10 minutes.

The first two seasons of The Guild will be released on DVD on Tuesday, with extras including commentaries, a table reading, interviews, audition footage and a gag reel.

Also coming to DVD on Tuesday: Life on Mars: The Complete Series, ABC's unsuccessful but intriguing series following a modern-day police detective who is knocked out and wakes up in the 1970s; Kings: The Complete Series, an ambitious tale of royalty in an alternate reality, with a cast led by the imposing Ian McShane; the first season of The Patty Duke Show, with retrospective interviews; the fourth seasons of The Unit and How I Met Your Mother, both available on DVD or Blu-ray; the fifth season of CSI: NY; and a 20th-anniversary edition of Traffik, the BBC miniseries that inspired the 2000 theatrical film Traffic.