High-concept shows are so high-maintenance; barely a week after news emerged that NBC was halting production on its cerebral new drama 'Awake' for some creative fine-tuning, Deadline is reporting that Fox's 'Alcatraz' has followed suit.

The mystery drama, produced by J.J. Abrams, will pause production on new episodes to do reshoots for the first seven already completed, with plans to roll straight into filming the final six episodes once the reshoots are done.

But does this mean that the midseason thriller is in trouble?

We might have to wait another month and a half for a new episode of 'The Vampire Diaries,' but here's a treat to help tide us over until then: 'TVD' creator Kevin Williamson gave Entertainment Weekly new details about the recently announced companion series he's writing.

"It's set on a college campus," he said. "There's a little bit of some paranormal investigation involved, but it's more about the characters. It's more about what Julie and I like to do, which is create a world of people. A young girl goes to college, and it turns out there's a lot more going on."

As for the reports that the still-developing show will be like 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' crossed with 'The X-Files'? False."That's exactly what the show is not," Williamson said. "That was the wrong characterization. I was like, 'What is 'Buffy' meets 'The X-Files'? They're completely at odds tonally. It's neither."

In other TV news ...

• Sam Neill has nabbed the male lead in J.J. Abrams' 'Alcatraz.' The actor will star alongside Sarah Jones in the Fox pilot. [Deadline]

• Tonsillitis is traveling around the 'Glee' set. It's so bad that production on a big musical number for the post-Super Bowl episode was canceled tonight. It'll instead be shot in January, and filming will resume on Monday. [EW]

• Bravo is putting together its own gay housewives series that will compete with Logo's 'The A-List.' The new show is tentatively called 'From the Bottom to the Top,' and is being overseen by Andy Cohen. [NY Daily News]

Sometimes, it's pretty hard to get out of town. The latest episode of 'Happy Town' (Wed., 10PM ET on ABC) features a woman who's desperate to escape -- but everything keeps dragging her back to a place where she doesn't want to go.

[Spoiler alert.]

The mystery drama 'Happy Town' (Wed., 10PM ET on ABC) has been canceled. But the series still has a few episodes left. Will we find an answer to all the weirdness before the show is pushed off the air?

[Spoiler alert.]

The mystery deepens on 'Happy Town' (Wed., 10PM ET on ABC). The residents of the small town of Haplin, Minnesota are gathered at the annual Thaw Fest carnival, when one person vanishes.

[Spoiler alert.]

The seemingly peaceful town of Haplin, Minnesota has been plagued by a kidnapper known only as "The Magic Man." Now, a new murder has the residents of the town worried that the "Man" has come back. But who is the bad guy? On 'Happy Town' (Wed., 10PM ET on ABC), almost everyone is a potential suspect.

Georgia (Sarah Gadon) goes to the hospital to visit a friend. While in the cafeteria, she meets a kindly stranger, which already should be a bad sign. The stranger (Peter Outerbridge) gives her some cream for her coffee. But then, Georgia starts to hallucinate, and collapses in the elevator. Things only get weirder and creepier from there.

The new drama 'Happy Town' (Wed., 10PM ET on ABC) is set in the seemingly idyllic town of Haplin, Minnesota. But beneath the surface of the town lurks a deadly unsolved mystery. Haplin has been plagued by a serial kidnapper known as "the Magic Man." Now, a new murder has the residents fearful that the "Man" has returned.

Watch the video after the jump.

(S01E01) "A well man doesn't put a hole in another man's head." - Sheriff

Every single review is going to compare 'Happy Town' with 'Twin Peaks.' This isn't just because both shows involve mysterious goings on with mysterious characters in a small town, it's because ABC itself has been driving the point home in all of its marketing for the show. "From the network that brought you 'Twin Peaks ..." I don't really understand why they're mentioning a TV show that ran on their network over 20 years ago, but maybe they feel they have to connect it to something cultish and beloved.

Is it like that show? I guess. A little. It has that small town mystery vibe. It also has dashes of 'Harper's Island' and 'Salem's Lot,' but those ran on CBS so I guess they can't mention them in the ads.

Don't let the name fool you -- 'Happy Town' has more kidnappings, murders and mysterious residents than a slasher flick. But star Lauren German is adamant about one thing: "It's not a horror show." "But it's certainly thrilling," her costar Sam Neill adds with a smile. I sat down with German, Neill, Steven Weber, Amy Acker and Geoff Stults to get the scoop on their new show (premieres Wed., April 28, 10PM ET on ABC). "There's lots of strange goings-on in Haplin," teases Weber. "And strange people," Acker chimes in.

Watch our full interview to hear more about Haplin, its residents and ... Charo as a guest star? OK, it's not that strange.

We've talked about ABC's new mystery series 'Happy Town;' it'sabout a small town plagued by the return of someone or something evil that starts terrorizing again - it stars Sam Neill, Amy Acker, and Steven Weber. Now you have a chance to see the first episode before it premieres on ABC April 28. There's a new site up and it's pretty simple: if they get 50,000 "demands" by April 21 they'll show the first episode online.

The site doesn't exactly make it clear, but I think that it's 50,000 demands in a metro area. You have to sign up for the site (e-mail, age, gender, where you live, etc) to get all of the details.

Is 50,000 a lot on the web? It seems to me that they can hit this rather easily, but maybe that's the whole idea. The site gets some attention, the show gets attention, and fans can see the first episode of the show before it airs.

We told you earlier this year about the new ABC mystery series Happy Town. It's from the people who did Life on Mars and is about weird happenings in a small town. OK, that doesn't describe much, but from the extended preview below, it looks like it has a lot of Twin Peaks and a little Harper's Island. It has a good cast, including Sam Neill, Steven Weber, Amy Acker, Geoff Stults, and Abraham Benrubi.

(S01E01) I'm reading all over the place that this is a thirteen-part series. That sounds very ... British. In fact, it's a pretty damned promising idea. Imagine if more television shows in the US were allowed to have one season or even half a season and then be done. If they wanted to take a real-time approach it could run twenty-eight seasons! I wonder if this will inspire comparisons to Lost.

I figure a lot of people, in fact most people, won't have read the source material. So their idea of people stranded on an island is going to either be Lost or Gilligan's Island. If we're lucky, they'll stretch so far as Lord of the Flies. Certainly this is an ambitious project, promising us swashbuckling excitement. And yet even though the cold opening featured a potential dramatic rescue and gunfire, when the credits started I realized it hadn't raised my heart rate a bit. In fact, it was possibly the dullest action scene I'd ever seen.

Today, NBC released more casting news for its new fall drama / adventure series Crusoe, and it looks like some more big screen actors are finding a home on the small screen. Sam Neill (Jurassic Park), Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings) and Joss Ackland (Lethal Weapon 2) will join the cast.

Crusoe, based on Daniel Defoe's novel, is due to film in the UK, South Africa, and the Seychelles. The show will follow the title character (played by Philip Winchester) on his island adventures while flashing back to his life before he was a castaway. Sean Bean will play Crusoe's widower father and appear in scenes that depict his tragic childhood. Sam Neill will play Jeremiah Blackthorn, a family friend who keeps a close watch on Robinson Crusoe's business ventures.

I will definitely be tuning in and checking this show out. I like that it's based on a classic novel. Sam Neill, no stranger to television work, was great in The Tudors, and I've had the biggest crush on Sean Bean since his Boromir days in LOTR.

Does Crusoe look interesting to you?

Period television is hard to keep on the air these days, regardless of quality or ratings. And it always seems to come down to one thing...cost. After losing Deadwood, Carnivale and Rome before their time, it was with trepidation that I took a look at The Tudors. Showtime has touted The Tudors as the most expensive production they've ever undertaken. Looking at the extras on The Complete First Season DVD set would seem to back this up, and it certainly shows in the beauty of the sets and costuming on display on the screen. It's been renewed for a second season, but how long will Showtime be willing to pay for it? They did seem to save some money on the editor for the packaging of the DVD set, since she/he didn't seem to know which episodes were on which disc.

So, it turns out Henry VIII isn't just that portly guy at the Renaissance Faire with a gigantic turkey leg greasing up his maw. He was an athletic would-be humanist with an over-the-top appetite for sex and a body hard enough to qualify him for gay porn, or at least, that's how Showtime's The Tudors, the latest in bodice-ripping historical dramas, portrays him.