Summer used to be a wasteland for TV, but now we see more and more shows debuting during the summer or having summer-only runs. Sometimes they're great, usually they're just reality shows. I haven't heard much about ABC's Defying Gravity (premiering August 2), other than it's about astronauts and from the producers of Grey's Anatomy. I hope it's more space/action-oriented than soap-oriented. I don't want to see a character named "McSpacey." It's stars Ron Livingston, Malik Yoba, and Laura Harris.

The fate of ABC's Women's Murder Club has been determined...at least for the rest of this season. After a shake-up in the production team early this month which resulted in co-creators/producers Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, as well and exec-producer R. Scott Gemmill, all being dispatched, Robert Nathan (Law and Order) has been named showrunner.

Nathan will produce three more original episodes this season to be aired as early as April. This is good news for fans of the femme detective series based on crime novelist James Pattersons' bestsellers. The hour drama premiered last October to generally poor reviews, but did well enough in the Nielsens to encourage ABC that they might have a hit on their hands. As the week's passed, the ratings dipped. The ten episodes that aired averaged a 6.1 rating/11 share; 38th place overall. Not gangbusters, but pretty good.

Thanks to Multichannel blogger Mary McNamara, we now have fresh casting news about the Dead Like Me movie. The blogger, who attended the MGM panel at Comic-Con, reports that MGM's Senior Executive Vice President Finance and Corporate Development Charlie Cohen confirmed that everyone, except Mandy Patinkin and Laura Harris, was back for the direct-to-DVD movie. That is old news for TV Squad readers. But what is new is that Cohen gave the names of the actors set to replace both actors.

Dead Like Me is still quite popular amongst the TV Squad readers even if the series ended a few years ago. The hype surrounding the canceled-too-soon Showtime series was revived this spring when it was announced that a made-for-DVD movie was in the works.

Not much has been revealed about this upcoming movie yet. However, we know that Ellen Muth will reprise the role of George and that Mandy Patinkin was written out since he was committed to Criminal Minds at the time the movie started shooting.

Earlier this month, Muth warned fans that the movie would feature a few changes mostly because Patinkin was not reprising his role but also due to a two-year jump between the series finale and the movie.

Spoilers after the jump!