This week's episode of 'Supernatural' marks a very special occasion for one of its stars, Jensen Ackles, the man behind badass demon hunter (and now, surprisingly adept family man) Dean Winchester.

After five years lighting up the screen alongside his co-star Jared Padalecki, episode 604 -- titled 'Weekend at Bobby's' -- will see Ackles step behind the camera for his directorial debut. (Check out our special look behind the scenes of the episode here.)

Ackles' turn behind the camera got us thinking about some of our other favorite TV stars who have recently hopped into the director's chair, so we've compiled a list of six awesome actors (aside from Ackles) who have taken the helm on their own shows in the past few years -- take a peek at our picks after the jump.

Just in case you thought Fox's 'Glee' couldn't get any more geeky-yet-fabulous: Joss Whedon is directing an upcoming episode of the musical high school dramedy.

The 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Dollhouse' creator, who famously masterminded the all-singing 'Once More, With Feeling' episode of 'Buffy' and last year's online musical hit 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog,' confirmed the news (first broken at EW.com) Monday on his own blog. "I'm going to do my best not to gush like a fanboy for eight straight days on set," Whedon wrote.

I know, I know. It's old news to most of you die hard BSG fans, but in case you haven't heard, Kevin Smith is no longer going to be directing an episode of Battlestar Galactica as we mentioned earlier.

The initial news we got was via a message board post left on Sci-Fi's forums by the wife of executive producer and creator Ron Moore (thanks commenter Akbar!) Given that there were some people less than thrilled to hear of Smith's involvement with the show, I wanted to get confirmation myself first in case of shenanigans, thus the wait. Unfortunately my contacts couldn't get official word themselves, most likely because even Moore himself has come out to say it's not that big of news, something that "only registers on message boards."

UPDATE: Smith talks about it on his own blog.

Fox has apparently responded to the lackluster ratings of its new reality series, On the Lot, by trimming down the number of episodes. Instead of airing on two nights each week, the network is going to condense its unreasonably long results show with its competition for a single, one-hour installment each week.

The change is effective immediately: On the Lot will only be seen on Tuesdays at 8 pm starting June 5. There will still be a two-night finale on August 13-14.

The schedule change will also cause a shift in the schedule for the remaining episodes of The Loop. Now The Loop will not appear on Tuesdays, will air twice on Sundays at 7:30 and 8:30 pm on June 24 and July 1.

NBC, FOX and ABC have each ordered up new pilots.

The pilot for M.O.N.Y., a new NBC drama about an average joe who becomes Mayor of New York, will be directed by Spike Lee, who also directed the pilot for the CBS series Shark and has a development deal with NBC.

Other pilot orders include Philadelphia General for FOX, directed by P.J. Hogan (My Best Friend's Wedding, 2003's Peter Pan) a comedy/drama focusing on a team of nurses; and Lipstick Jungle (NBC) and Cashmere Mafia (ABC), both of which Anna wrote about here.

Reading over the brief description of all these new shows, I can't help but notice there are a lot of series these days labeled as "comedic dramas" or something similar. It makes me wonder if perhaps it would be better to do away with such labels all together and let the audience decide for themselves whether a show is worth checking out. I understand networks and studios have to give people some idea what's on tap, but I think more and more genres are starting to meld together, and there are very few "straight comedies" or "straight dramas" left. These days it seems the effort is put toward just making an entertaining show, and not trying to remain within the confines of a "drama" or "comedy."

Pearl Jam is making one of their videos available online under the Creative Commons license. Why do I care about Pearl Jam doing this? Well, I don't actually, but it got me thinking about music videos and how they've found a new life online and in DVD form, as television has all but eradicated them. While many networks and channels are moving online with broadband content while still remaining secured to TV, these days you can't really see a video from your favorite band unless you go online, or buy a number of DVD collections dedicated to certain video directors like Michael Gondry and Spike Jonze, among others. The thing is, videos haven't gotten worse, in fact, they've gotten much better, I think, and while the idea of sitting through three whole minutes of song might cause the programmers at MTV to gasp in horror, I'm glad to see bands are still making videos, and making them easily accessible to fans and anyone else who wants to check them out. The Web can be a place not only for networks to try out online-only content and rerun old shows, it can also be a place where ideas no longer suited to television can still find an audience.

If you're a fan of Joss Whedon's dry humor, you'll love his "guest columnist" appearance in TV Guide recently. Joss was asked what he thought we'd all be watching on TV in the future, and gives his insights into what that might be. Best snippet from the article: "Approximately 67 percent of all television will be CSI-based, including CSI: Des Moines, CSI: New York but a Different Part than Gary Sinise Is In and NCSI: SVU WKRP, which covers every possible gruesome crime with a groovin' '70s beat.

[via BoingBoing]