Couples going to Las Vegas and impulsively tying the knot while drunk is a longstanding ritual for both celebrities and civilians.

Now that gay couples can get married, why shouldn't they be part of that tradition? That's the question that writer/performer Brad Bell and television writer/producer Jane Espenson ('Battlestar Galactica,' 'Game of Thrones,' 'Buffy') asked themselves when they were creating 'Husbands,' a web series that premieres Tuesday.

In the 11-episode comedy, Bell and Sean Hemeon play a performer and a newly out major-league baseball player who get married in Vegas, only to wake up with hangovers and the realization that they don't know each other well. Alessandra Torresani, who's best known for playing Zoe Graystone on 'Caprica,' plays their frequently inebriated friend, Haley.

As the fall TV season approaches, it's worth taking a closer look at the people who have created and written the scripted fare you'll see.

In the 2006-2007 television season, 35 percent of the writers of broadcast network, prime-time programs were women, according to an annual study by San Diego State University's Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film. In the 2010-2011 season, that number had dropped by more than half, to 15 percent. What happened?



Since the latest edition of the annual SDSU study came out two weeks ago, I've posed that question to a dozen experienced television writers and creators, female and male alike. Most of these professionals, who've worked on everything from 'Battlestar Galactica' to 'Sons of Anarchy' to 'Pushing Daisies' to 'Chuck,' were alarmed by the numbers that the Center released.

For some, it confirmed their worst fears. "The situation is getting worse," said one veteran woman writer. "In the '90s, the networks cared more. They don't anymore." For others, it made them re-evaluate gains they thought women had made. "I had certainly perceived the situation as getting better and better for women -- I am rarely the only woman in the writers' room anymore, and I encounter more women at the higher levels," said Jane Espenson ('Once Upon a Time,' 'Torchwood,' 'Buffy,' 'Battlestar Galactica'). "I remember what it was like 20 years ago, and this is not that."

Yesterday, the cast and producers of the Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica took to the Langham Huntington stage for their panel discussion. If it feels like Caprica has been around forever, it sort of has; the pilot has been available for viewing since at least the early fall. But the series is finally premiering on Syfy on January 22,. and I'm sure everyone's charged up to see it.

The most interesting part of the panel, at least as far as I wad concerned, was when executive producer David Eick explained how they were going to establish that the character of Zoey, played by Alessandra Torresani, is a Cylon whose body is inhabited by the dead girl's essence or soul or whatever you want to call it.

Apparently, some of her scenes will be shot twice, usually when she enters them. First you'll see her in robotic form. Then, when they come back to her, she'll look like Torresani. The former scenes will involve CGI and actors talking to tennis balls, yadda yadda, but Eick felt it was the way to go in order to keep that connection intact with the viewers.

Caprica producer and former Buffy the Vampire Slayer scribe Jane Espenson is one of the minds behind the latest arc on Joss Whedon's Buffy comic that sees vampires coming out of the coffin. After the very True Blood-esque outing, vacuous vamp Harmony goes on The Colbert Report to, of course, promote her new reality TV show in the latest issue of Dark Horse Presents.

The Buffy comic is a direct continuation of Joss Whedon's TV series, and the medium has allowed the Buffy story to go to places it never could have gone on TV. Fans itching for a Buffy fix should pick up an issue or head over to MySpace to follow Harmony's adventures with Clem, the hilarious "loose-skinned demon" who first befriended Buffy and crew on the TV series.

Colbert is becoming a regular in the comic book world, with appearances in Spider-Man and his own comic book series, Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen. Maybe Buffy should show up on The Daily Show to give Jon Stewart some comic book love in next month's issue.

[Via: Comics Alliance]

I really wanted to love Warehouse 13. It's a fun show with two compelling leads, an adventurous spirit, and just enough subversive stuff seemingly bubbling beneath its surface. But the two-hour pilot, airing tonight on SyFy, only hints at the greatness we've seen from its creator's previous work. The premiere, scripted by Jane Espenson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and original writer Rockne S. O'Bannon (Farscape), begins with a strong quirky heartbeat, but a stale mystery plot quickly slows the pulse.

"Let's get this genocide started!"

That Cavil is one evil bucket of bolts.

Sci Fi's new trailer for Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is making the rounds and drumming up anticipation for the TV movie, which premieres this fall. The Plan will portray the events of the Cylon attack on the twelve colonies through the perspective of the Cylons. It's directed by Admiral Adama himself, Edward James Olmos, and written by BSG and Warehouse 13 scribe Jane Espenson, who also helped craft the BSG Web series the Face of the Enemy.

Pity Felix Gaeta. First, he was almost shot out of an airlock. Then he lost a leg. Now, it looks like he's in for one long, terrible day in "The Face of the Enemy," the 10-part Battlestar Galactia webisode series that premiered today on SciFi.com.

Click through for more, somewhat spoilery, info about the first chapter of "Enemy," written by Jane Espenson and Seamus Kevin Fahey. You'll also find the full webisode schedule and a larger version of the new Season 4.5 poster featuring Starbuck's, er, chest after the jump.

Good news everyone. It seems that this whole movie thing is working out quite nicely for the folks over at Sci Fi. Executive VP of original programming for Sci Fi, Mark Stern, now also counts himself as co-head of the newly formed Universal Cable Productions. Why should we care? Because at the end of the day that means a little more Battlestar Galactica.

The success of Razor is a big part of this. Stern describes it as doing "phenomenally well in the international and DVD market." It's led to a whole new way of financing and creating entertainment for the network. The new Battlestar project will air after the series completes its run next year. Edward James Olmos is on board to direct, and he'll have a script by Jane Espenson to work with. Both nice choices. Casting is still up in the air at the moment. So far, Michael Trucco (Anders), Aaron Douglas (Tyrol), and Dean Stockwell (Cavil) are confirmed.

The story is prequel-esque. It goes back to just after the Cylon destruction of human home worlds. We'll follow the Cylons as they deal with human survivors, aboard ships as well as on planets. There is also a hint that the movie will focus specifically on two of the Cylon agents.

Now that the show is over (for the time being), Ronald D. Moore got back with releasing podcasts this week. However, he seems to have skipped a couple in the middle.

As I've done in the past, I'll just summarize some of what I thought were the more interesting parts of the podcasts. If you're interested in learning more about Moore's insights and details about each episode, you really should take the time to listen to the podcasts yourself. Now if only someone could sync up these podcasts with the Hulu videos, that would be awesome.

Here are the highlights ...

Every fan of Buffy has his or her own favorite main character (or characters). But what of the merely recurring characters? You've got Halfrek, the Vengeance Demon (sorry ... "Justice Demon"), Amy the witch/rat and Mr. Trick, to name a few. But there's one character who's always fascinated me, a character with a long, dark and mysterious past filled with magic, mayhem and chaos. I speak, of course, about Rupert "Ripper" Giles' mate from the old days, Ethan Rayne.

Get ready for many, many Friday nights of having to find something better to do than sit in front of television to watch Battlestar Galactica. You could always dig into your past-season DVDs to reminisce on what's happened before ("and will happen again?") or simply watch BSG online. There's also the unimaginable: spending time with friends and loved ones, stepping out of the house or, gods forbid, getting some extra sleep.

While we all think of what to do with that extra hour we have every week, let's go over a few things going on since last week's mid-season finale.

(Warning! If you haven't watched the latest episode of BSG yet, thar be spoilers ahead!)

After last Friday's episode, a lot of us had questions about what we saw. Was that Earth? Are humans and cylons really bonded together, after all this time? Who is the final cylon? I finally took the time to throw a slew of questions toward writer and co-executive producer Jane Espenson about this episode, and she had a few things to say (though nothing quite as revealing as I had hoped).

Rather than get into what I had to say, I'll let her letter back to me speak on its own. As you'll quickly see, she's not a woman of few words when it comes to this show. I'm hoping she'll have just as much to spill when I ask her questions for our Buffy Retro Squad week next week.

Early last month I posted a casting call sheet for the upcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel show, Caprica. In that list was a call for Amanda Graystone, a "surgeon with a volatile streak to her" who is "something of a double agent." Well, you can scratch that one off the list of openings, as Paula Malcomson (Trixie of Deadwood and Jerri of John From Cincinnati) has been cast in the role.

My interest in Caprica hinges on how Battlestar Galactica concludes; will I really want to know more about how it all began? I could see them putting us in a place that has us craving for more, though it's likely Caprica is meant to stand on its own and without having to follow too many rules set by the BSG events. Hopefully I'm wrong.

(S03E16) I have to be honest, I have no experience at all with unions, how they work or what it's like being involved in one. Even so, it wasn't difficult to feel something for workers who'd have to endure what the Tylium crew had to deal with for so long.

Usually an episode like this would leave me well disappointed, as there wasn't anything significantly advancing the story. I realize now, with the help of several commenters, that it's episodes like this that are working to help us get a deeper understanding of what's going on with the humans on these ships and especially with the main players.

To me, Jeopardy! is the quintessential game show. At the end of a game, I walk away with a sense of awe that those three people could truly have the brains to retain such an amazing amount of information, then be put in front of millions of people to blurt pieces of it out on demand and faster than two other people -- in the form of a question, to boot. I'd often wonder how one could possibly prepare to be faced with that kind of pressure and what kind of unfathomable studying one would have to do to qualify for that show, never mind actually win. Several times.

Jane Espenson, who as some of you know has been extremely courteous enough to give her insights into her recent writings for Battlestar Galactica, sent me a copy of a book that opened my mind to the world of one very successful contestant on the greatest game show in the world, Bob Harris. That book is Prisoner of Trebekistan.