The search for Serena's father is officially over.

After being MIA for nearly three seasons, 'Gossip Girl''s William van der Woodsen (played by William Baldwin) makes a surprise visit on the Upper East Side tonight, where he's reunited with Serena, Eric and -- wait for it -- Lily's current husband, Rufus.

How does his long-awaited reunion with Serena go? What trouble might he have in store for Rufus? And what happens when Eric comes out of the closet?

In an exclusive interview, Baldwin spoke to TV Squad to give us the rundown on his three-episode arc, which begins tonight at 9PM ET on the CW.

2009 was a good year for television. It offered the resurgence of the comedy on network television, and the continuing growth of original programming on cable. In all honesty, I don't think I could just do a list of what was great and what was horrible on television because I would need pages and pages.

Instead, I'm going to focus on the things that really stood out this year. Sorry, Mad Men fans, but even though this was a great third season and an amazing finale, I expect it at this point. It's the only way I could come up with to keep my list manageable.

Also, as a point of protest I did not include Jon, Kate or the balloon boy hoax. These events got more attention than they deserved already this year, and I feel bad I even mentioned them.

J.J. Abrams, a man chemically designed to create television shows, has another pilot in the works and this one will star veteran TV actor Gerald McRaney.

He's been picked for a pilot called Undercovers, a spy action show described as a cross between Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Identity.

McRaney will play a CIA boss overseeing a husband and wife spy couple. Abrams wrote the pilot with TV scribe Josh Reims who's also written scripts for ABC's Brothers & Sisters and Dirty Sexy Money. Abrams may also step in the director's chair for the pilot episode commissioned by NBC.

What happens when the producer of Survivor collaborates with his wife, an actress who starred in Touched by an Angel, in a story created by the guy who brought us Dirty Sexy Money? Do you get Touched by a Dirty Sexy Angel? I guess that's what CBS will find out because Mark Burnett and Roma Downey are teaming with Craig Wright for a drama project for CBS.

Burnett, he of Survivor and a half-dozen other reality shows, is married to Angel star Roma Downey, and they're both executive producers while Wright is doing the writing for Sony Pictures TV. The show is the story of a lawyer who nearly dies in a car crash and gets a second chance at life when the ghost of his ex-wife appears to him.

Several DVD sets came my way this week, so I did some marathon viewing sessions for Jane After Dark. I'm brand new to some of these, so you'll get the stark, raw newbie version. But I'll start with one I've watched since the beginning ...

Dirty Sexy Money: The Complete Second and Final Season. I really liked this show at the beginning. It had all the elements of a great series, including excellent actors (starting with Donald Sutherland, Jill Clayburgh, and Peter Krause) and intriguing storylines with rich people, sex, murder, and mystery. But by the time they got to season two, the storylines just seemed to fizzle out. I would love to hear your thoughts on why Dirty Sexy Money didn't work. Crummy writing? Poor use of great actors? Too many characters to keep track of? Poor timing with the writer's strike occurring in the middle of its run, resulting in ten months between seasons?

Bonus features: Directing the Darlings (behind the scenes with director Jamie Babbit); A Total Knockout (a day in the life of Natalie Zea, who played Karen); Dirty Sexy Crafty (a featurette about the food on the set); Faux Pas (bloopers); deleted scenes.

So I've been watching Hung (because I'm flattered that they'd base a show like that around me). It's proven to be a much more entertaining take on the premise than I expected. Thomas Jane and Jane Adams are simply perfect in their respective roles as the reluctant gigolo and his high-strung pimp. I was digging Anne Heche as his wife, and even getting his bizarre kids.

I didn't even know the show needed anything more, until Ray booked his most demanding and bizarre client yet and Natalie Zea (Dirty Sexy Money) sashayed into the room. Wow, did Hung need her. And I don't mean because she's gorgeous, though that certainly helps. What a new dynamic she's brought to everything.

This leak appears to be unauthorized, but still pretty solid. It looks like the television remake of Ron Howard's 1989 film Parenthood has been picked up by NBC for next season. Peter Krause (Six Feet Under, Dirty Sexy Money), Maura Tierney (NewsRadio, ER) and Craig T. Nelson (Coach) are on board to star, and that's a pretty solid foundation right there.

The original Parenthood movie starred everybody who was anybody in the late '80s, including Keanu Reeves, Jason Robards, Jr. and Mary Steenbergen and Steve Martin. It was like Crash with an extended family, following multiple story lines that all ultimately connected.

ABC announced their summer schedule, complete with returning reality "favorites" and some new shows, but honestly, who cares about all that?! What matters is that three of my favorite sophomore shows that were killed too soon are all scheduled to make their triumphant (?) returns to ABC this summer, as promised.

Yes, I'm talking about Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone and Dirty Sexy Money. Apparently, ABC has decided that the Saturday 10pm/9pm Central timeslot is the perfect place to air the remaining episodes of each series, one after the other. After all, it is the dead zone of television, so what do they have to lose?

Welcome back from your humongous hangover. I just wanted to let you know that you are now in 2009 -- a fresh new year that we should look forward to. However, since you are a common citizen of Earth, you don't look ahead to a future. Instead, you look to the bleak and bloated year that has now passed.

That's why they invented "Best and Worst" lists for the previous year. It gives you a chance to remember last year's crap, get angry, proceed to get drunk, pass out, wake up, and forget it's a new year again. At that point, you get angry again. It's a vicious cycle and we love it! With that, here's my "Best and Worst" list for 2008.

(S02E05) That was more like it! Just as I was about to write off this week's episode as another bland installment of Dirty Sexy Money, down came an embarrassment of primetime soap riches. Letitia's trial was resolved with the kind of speed only possible in TV-land, and we got a cliffhanger and three major shocks to boot! Read on for the details.

'Top Design'
(10PM, Bravo) 2nd season finale
With the lameness of the final Bravo season of 'Project Runway' still fresh in our minds (Leanne's designs were cool, but we would have thrown something at the TV if we'd had to hear her call her clothing 'or-ghanic' one more time), here's hoping the second 'Top Design' finale won't disappoint.

It's come down to Nathan, Preston and Ondine, as the three interior decorators will have to spruce up an entire home, from curtains to floor treatments, for their shot at the $100,000 grand prize.

All three have their fans, though the talented Nathan has been a favorite from the beginning. Then again, he did have the low score in part one of the finale last week ...

(S02E04) Election night on Dirty Sexy Money was about more than simple politics. There were lost children, marriage proposals, and bribes to worry about. With so many major things happening, though, I wish some of the minor storylines had been cut from this episode. Nick's gradual transformation into the next Tripp Darling is fascinating, and we finally got a better idea about Simon's master plan. Next week's installment appears to be a lot meatier (and soapier), so I'm not worried.

'Redemption Song'
(11PM, FUSE)
Imagine the women of the 'Bad Girls Club' with rock star aspirations and you've got this deliciously drama-ridden reality series, in which 11 women with checkered pasts and scores of wasted opportunities take what might be their last shot at a career in the music industry.

In fact, the contenders – including Kendra, a self-described 'smorgasbord of crazy' – start the show with host Chris Jericho revealing that each will receive a contract with Geffen Records.

The deals are theirs to lose, and all but one of them will. And we're guessing it'll be the one who can resist what appears to be a group fondness for chugging alcohol right from the bottle.

Has anyone else noticed the lack of hair trigger cancellations thus far this season? We're a good month or more in now and only Opportunity Knocks and Do Not Disturb have had the plug pulled. And believe me those needed to happen. By now, though, your high quality shows that have underperformed like Pushing Daisies usually would be doing just that ... pushing up daisies. But, for some reason, not this year. At least not yet.

Hell, ratings-challenged shows like Knight Rider and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles are even getting full season pick-ups. And that's FOX giving Sarah Connor a chance to find an audience! FOX!! I think what we're seeing is the continuing fallout from the Writer's Strike last year. Remember when the execs were talking about how they were going to rethink their approach to television, ordering fewer pilots and possibly even altering the landscape of television in regards to seasons and sweeps? Well, the fall season started up pretty much like it always has, but I do believe there are far fewer shows waiting in the wings to replace this season's failures.

(S02E03) We already know what it's like to be a Darling: lavish parties, vast conspiracies, and emotional outbursts. This week's episode gave us some insight into what it's like to be a George: same psychological problems, less money. Letitia's upcoming trial brought Nick face-to-face with someone from his past, and this person had quite a story to tell.