James Lafferty will be in the 'One Tree Hill' finale. Phew.

According to Zap2It, Lafferty has made a deal with the studio and return to be part of the final episode of The CW series. All of Lafferty's scenes this season were pre-written and shot ahead of time, but scenes for the series finale weren't written when while Lafferty was filming. However, he'll return to North Carolina to be part of the finale.

In other casting news ...

Martin Short is returning to his comedy roots with a recurring role on 'How I Met Your Mother' this fall. Something tells us he's definitely not the mother.

Vulture reports that Short will fill in for Dave Foley as Marshall's new boss; Foley's new series 'How to Be a Gentleman' (also on CBS) prevents him from continuing his role.

Short got his drama fill on 'Damages' last season, and can next be seen on this season of 'Weeds,' which premiered last night.

In other TV casting news ...

(S05E15) "Wow! It must be really really interesting to be you." - Delia to Melinda

It may be interesting to be Melinda, but it's also scary, stressful and demanding. Melinda's gift does allow her to help people, but it also comes with a price. This week's milestone episode put Melinda and co. in grave danger, and one important character died in the end.

Jennifer Love Hewitt directed this week's installment, which is the show's 100th episode. She did a very good job, especially for such an action-pack and Shadow-heavy episode. Bravo!

So who died? The answer coming up!

(S05E09) "I have a bad feeling about this one. A very bad feeling." - Melinda about the ghost in the closet

Melinda's bad feeling was, pardon the pun, dead on. Very bad things happened in this November Sweeps episode: Aiden was put in danger, the dead girl from the closet was front and center, the Shadows came back full force and in a way we hadn't see yet, Bedford gave more warnings to Eli, as a hurting Carl the Watcher gave warnings to Melinda.

(S05E07) "The answers are there, but you have to know when to look." - Carl the Watcher

Starting this week, TV Squad now offers regular reviews of CBS' Ghost Whisperer. What an episode to start reviews with! The first episode of November Sweeps offered us more backstory and mythology about the shadows, some of their powers, the book ... and Jennifer Love Hewitt in lingerie doing some pole dancing!

We were also treated to a case of the week that kept us guessing as to who was to blame for the death of now-ghost Tina and what secret Dr. Morgan and President Bedford were hiding.

(S05E09) Every episode of The Closer is a puzzle of sorts, and this one surely qualified, especially since it began in court with the case already decided. All that remained was the formality of Russell Clark -- guest star Bruce Davison -- elocuting to the judge. Well, not so fast. There were a few hiccups requiring Brenda's immediate attention.

The moment Cynthia Watros showed up as the victim's widow, anxious to reclaim her husband's belongings from the crime scene, suspicions were raised. But first Brenda had to figure out why Russell Clark had confessed to the crime, if he was covering for his schizophrenic son, James -- if James was capable of the murder in the first place, and then there was the question of what to do with Mama. Yes, Willy Ray was there, along with Fritz and Charlene, Brenda's niece.

Imagine for a second that Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons was hired to run a television show. Now imagine that the television show was a remake of an old favorite. Sounds like it would make for a pretty impatient press tour panelist, right? Well, that's what we got with Gary Scott Thompson, the new show-runner for Knight Rider.

Thompson answered most of the questions on the panel, and his message to everyone was: remember that two-hour KR movie that aired last year? Forget all about it. The characters may be the same but the story is completely different. What went on before probably won't matter for much. Even KITT is a little different.

Battlestar Galactica has spoiled us all.

I say that because, since the excellent "re-imagining" of the craptastic '70s scifi series hit the air, we expect the remakes of our favorite shows to be darker, more layered, and more complicated than the originals. But sometimes, going darker doesn't always work: take a look at the failure pile that passed for the Bionic Woman remake as the best example of that. So, when a "25 years later" return of Knight Rider was announced, I half wondered if they were going to go the BSG route and make it all serious. But I equally wondered if they would go the other way and make it a modern camp classic, sort of the way the original, Hoff-injected series was.

Turns out, the answer was "none of the above." Mostly the movie / backdoor pilot that aired last night was dull, with a few fleeting moments of camp thrown in. But it never made me clamor for the show to return as a series.

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Today I went to NBC studios for the unveiling of the new KITT (Knight Industries Three Thousand) for the upcoming two-hour television movie Knight Rider set to air on February 17 at 9 p.m. ET. This modern-day sequel to the iconic 1980's show stars Justin Bruening (Cold Case), Deanna Russo (The Young and the Restless), Sydney Tamiia Poitier (Veronica Mars), and Bruce Davison (Breach). Will Arnett (Arrested Development) will play the voice of KITT. And don't worry, the Hoff will make a guest appearance as Michael Knight.