From candid set photos to behind the scenes stories, to what’s on today’s menu — cast and crew from some of our favorite TV shows are Twittering! Here are a few of the lower profile people you may not know about.

SCI FI / GENRE

Craig Engler is a VP at Syfy (SCI FI) Channel and he’s very involved in talking about the network and he answers questions!

Kevin Williamson talks about his new series, The Vampire Diaries and he posts pics, too!

Eliza Dushku talks Dollhouse sometimes but mostly she likes to chat.

REALITY

Nigel Lythgoe talks about So You Think You Can Dance along with several of his colleagues including Adam Shankman and Mary Murphy.

Celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe talks fashion, style and her reality series.

DRAMA / COMEY

John Rogers the exec producer and writer of Leverage posts frequent pics from the sets and insider scoop.

Marcos Siega talks about directing Dexter and Vampire Diaries.

And he goes with actress Julie Benz from Dexter and Buffy.

Christopher Gorham from Ugly Betty and Harper’s Island talks about his current projects and shares his general interests on a regular basis.

And we’ve barely scratched the surface. Who are your favorite TV Twitterers?

(photo credit © Zeb Hogan)

You can see this big fish tale and others on next week’s episode of National Geographic’s HOOKED: MONSTER FISH OF THAILAND. Monday, July 6, 2009, at 10 PM ET/PT

The giant freshwater stingray is a megapredator, a true-life Loch Ness monster that can kill with a swipe of its tail! Amazingly, the elusive leviathan was discovered only 20 years ago and already it’s on the vulnerable list. Fish biologist, conservationist and National Geographic Explorer Zeb Hogan is on a mission to find these remarkable creatures as part of the Megafishes Project, a five-year study supported by the National Geographic Society. He’ll head to Thailand, one of the last places on Earth where the freshwater stingray thrives, to see some with his own eyes, and reel them in for a closer look. Hogan will dive into the murky water to learn more about their mysterious behavior—where they roam, how many there are and which areas need protection.

Be there for the milestone moment when Hogan hooks the biggest stingray he’s ever seen. Measuring more than 11 feet long, it takes 12 men to lift the monster ashore. Based on the dimensions, Hogan believes it could possibly be a world record–breaking fish.

Watch Zeb get in the pool with a giant hungry stingray. Now that’s dedication.

Let’s start in New England, or more specifically Boston where you can get a beer at the official Cheers Bar.

Originally called the Bull & Finch Pub, this bar in Beacon Hill was used for the exterior shots of the bar on Cheers. In more recent years, the name was changed to Cheers Boston and the inside was renovated to look like the bar on the show.

If you like your spirits on the livelier side, The Ghost Hunters team (aka TAPS) is located in Massachusetts, but they’re conducting events all over the US this summer, check out their website for a list of ghost hunting events. At the end of July, they’ll be doing a tour on the haunted USS Salem – now that’s an event you won’t want to miss.

Instead of ghosts, how about a witch? Salem, Massachuettes is well known for it’s witchy history, but it’s also the home to the Bewitched statue. It’s a lovely replica of Elizabeth Montgomery which was donated by TVLand.

If you head into New Hampshire, you can stay at The Spaulding Inn which is owned by Ghost Hunters Jason and Grant.

While you’re in New Hampshire, stop by the Red Arrow Diner for lunch Mon-Weds and you can get a cup of coffee for only five cents! The Red Arrow was featured on the Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives – so you know it will be great, classic, American cooking.

Travel down to Connecticut and you can attend a taping of Deal or No Deal. Seriously, thanks to tax breaks in the state, the game show now films in a studio in Waterford. Who knew?

Do you have a favorite TV Tourist Attraction in New England? Let us know in the comments below!

Photo

Just when things couldn’t get any stranger in poor Bon Temps, Sookie goes out for a midnight stroll—or a midnight angry storm away from her vampire boyfriend—and gets gored by a gigantic, muscular monster that bears a suspicious resemblance to a mythological bull-like creature. Or Tim Curry in Legend. Spoilers and recap after the jump.

After rescuing Jessica from her family (or the other way around) Bill throws everyone into the car and drives away angrily, barely containing his fury. Sookie is abashed at her excellent decision-making that lead her to this particular juncture, but also insistent that Bill not be so angry with her. She only almost got herself and an entire family killed—like what’s Bill’s problem, anyway? Refusing to ride the twenty miles back to Bon Temps in the same car as the person who saved her life and rescued her from disaster, Sookie storms off into the woods. Bill crosses his arms and waits for her to return and apologize, all the while Jessica rolling her eyes at the stupidity of the couple.

Sookie begins the long walk home, and—HOLY CRAP IS THAT A MINOTAUR. Next thing we know, Sookie is on the ground in a bloody heap, having been clawed within an inch of her life. Bill tries to give her some of his restorative blood, but it immediately sends Sookie into convulsions. They throw her into the car and head to Fangoria to get help from Eric.

Having been poisoned by whatever creature gored the hell out of her, Eric calls in a peculiar healer lady to bring Sookie back to health. Recovering from her wounds in Fangoria, she catches wind (via the dim-witted human bartender) that an old friend is in the building. Or specifically, in the building, chained in the basement in pools of his own excrement, full of tiny little puncture holes. Lafayette is still alive, and most certainly not a vampire. Outraged, Sookie insists that Eric release him. Eric enjoys the spectacle, and realizes this is the leverage he needs to get Sookie to go to Denver on his assignment. Seeing no other way, Bill also signs up for the trip, and just like that, Lafayette is free. He heads home for some serious crying and soul-searching about his lot in life.

Jason continues to wake up sweaty and distraught at Vampire Hate Camp, haunted by nightmares of Eddie, the vampire that he and his crazy girlfriend tied up in their basement and leeched dry. At this point, it’s almost possible to feel a little sorry for him, the doofus—he really wants to belong here, to find a special purpose, but he doesn’t hate vampires like everyone else does. In fact, as he admits in a support group circle meeting, his sister’s dating a vamp, and by all accounts, he seems like a pretty cool guy.

With all the excitement, nobody’s babysitting Jessica, and she heads into town, and ends up in Merlotte’s, where all the creepy eyes in the world descend upon her. She strikes up a conversation with one of the local boys (one of Jason’s friends, the dull-witted one) and spends most of her time eying his jugular in a predatory fashion. To her surprise, she actually finds herself kind of liking his company, and even orders a Tru Blood. Expecting him to recoil in horror, he’s thrilled. She takes him back to the Compton house, where he’s more interested in the Wii then Jessica. The two succumb to teenage lust, and Jessica’s fangs pop out. How embarrassing on the first date!

Back at Merlotte’s, Sam is sulking, having lost all the women in his life quite spectacularly. Sookie is nowhere to be found, Tara is missing work tied up in Maryann’s clutches, and the new waitresses can’t get her act together. Dejected, he decides to leave town, leaving the bar to his war-shocked friend to run—but not before one last naked run with the neighborhood dog.

As for Tara, she’s shirking work because Maryann is throwing a party. Everyone in town shows up practically, including Andy—and everyone quickly gets into the spirit of things, black eyes and all. Wrapped around Eggs, she hasn’t a care in the world—until she finally clues into the fact that she is sitting smack in the middle of a gigantic orgy. Freaked out, she bolts. Also, the gigantic pig is back, and Andy sees it, but it vanishes as quickly. THIS IS IMPORTANT, people. This MEANS something.

The best part in the episode, bar none, was the moment in which Jessica’s fangs popped out, and she hid her face like a kid hiding braces. “I’m so embarrassed I could die,” she laments, “if I weren’t already dead.” Right here, in this scene, is why True Blood is such a good show. It’s like watching My So-Called Life, if Angela could murder you with her sharp pointy teeth.

The Sons of Anarchy Ride Free or Die Tour

Here are the dates still left on the tour:

Saturday 7/18

Muskegon Bike Time, Muskegon, MI
Saturday, 7/25

MountainFest Motorcycle Rally,  Morgantown, WV
Sunday, 8/2- 8/4

Sturgis Bike Week, Sturgis, SD
Saturday, 9/5

Milwaukee Rally, Milwaukee, WI

If you’re a Sons of Anarchy fan,  Season 1 will be available on Blu-Ray and DVD on Aug. 18.

New episodes begin on July 15 on TNT and watch for my review of the Leverage: Season One DVD over at DVD Verdict.

“No Child’s Left Behind” – Monday, June 29, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT)

When an innocent picture of a little boy in a bathtub winds up on a child pornographer’s Web site, Jerry has his hands full defending the father against Balco’s aggressive prosecution. During divorce negotiations, Bobbi’s soon-to-be ex-husband uses a loophole in the law that might result in Bobbi losing her apartment. The situation leads to her to consider finding a higher-paying job.

Photo Credit: Karen Neal

Michael now has a new goal; to get back in, to get back to the spy work that he once did. He’s free of the people who burned him but he’s still open to all of his enemies. The only way he can protect himself is to get back into government spy work. This goal unfortunately goes completely against what Fiona wants for Michael and herself. She wants Michael to settle down with her and run this bounty hunting business as a couple with her. The question is how does she expect him to stay alive if he doesn’t find some way to shield himself from the multitude of enemies that want him dead from around the world? Does she just want the two of them to fight these bad guys as they come to town one by one? Michael’s plan makes sense. Fiona should probably think about getting back involved in government work herself. Then maybe they could do it together.

To bribe and blackmail his way back into government service Michael needs money so he’s now helping Fiona with her bounty business. This is sure to be a new plot device for the season and I like it. Having Michael do the Equalizer thing every week can get a little old so seeing him find clients in this new manner is refreshing. The episode begins with Michael working a case with Fiona only to have the whole thing interrupted by the ever diligent Detective Paxton. She let’s Michael know that she’s upping the ante by putting a permanent tail on him. His new chaperones are purposefully obvious in uniform and driving a police car which makes it difficult for Michael to do the work that he needs to do.

Michael initially comes up with a plan to make Paxton’s job as difficult as she is making his when he comes up with an even better plan. Michael decides that if he can help her with one of her major cases that she may see that he is in fact on her side. The case involves a drug dealer that makes his living killing other drug dealers and stealing their stash and selling it. So far he’s been able to avoid getting caught or leaving enough evidence to tie him to the crime. So, Michael befriends one of the man’s flunkies and weasels his way into their crew. The flunky actually ends up being one of the more interesting characters of this type on Burn Notice. He’s a bad guy, he’s done jail time, but he’s not a killer like his boss and he has limits to just how bad he’s willing to be. This character actually leads the story to some interesting little twists and turns. In the end Michael, Sam, and Fiona work a plan with their new inside man to set up the bad guy so Paxton can swoop in and arrest him red handed.

Paxton inevitably finds herself having to at least pull the tail off of Michael and back away from him a bit just to make sure the other case is air tight. She warns Michael that she will be watching him. The cat and mouse game between them has been fun so far and hopefully it’s not completely over.

The secondary story involves Sam getting audited by the IRS for the last three years of questionable activities. Sam humorously hopes to charm what he things is a female IRS representative but that rep turns out to be a really uptight male. As the two men work through Sam’s financial history they discover that the IRS rep is in fact the son of a woman that Sam briefly dated many years ago. Same ends up avoiding the audit by establishing a relationship with the man. It doesn’t appear that he only befriends the guy to beat the audit but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

Gabrielle Anwar is really off balance this week as an actor. At the beginning of the episode it appears that she’s not even trying to drop her accent. Several times it cuts through loud and clear. At the end of the episode though she does one of the best scenes she’s done in many episodes. It’s a simple scene with Michael and Fiona having dinner and she makes her desire and feelings completely clear to him. Subtle and well done.

And how cool does Cool J look in this photo from NCIS: LA?

CBS’s 2009-2010 Premiere Dates

Thursday, Sept. 17

8:00-9:00 PM SURVIVOR: SAMOA (19th Installment Premiere)

Monday, Sept. 21

8:00-8:30 PM HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER (5th Season Premiere, OAD 9/19/05)

8:30-9:00 PM ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE (Series Debut)

9:00-9:30 PM TWO AND A HALF MEN (7th Season Premiere, OAD 9/22/03)

9:30-10:00 PM THE BIG BANG THEORY (3rd Season Premiere, OAD 9/24/07)

10:00-11:00 PM CSI: MIAMI (8th Season Premiere, OAD 9/23/02)

Tuesday, Sept. 22

8:00-9:00 PM NCIS (7th Season Premiere, OAD 9/12/03)

9:00-10:00 PM NCIS: LOS ANGELES (Series Debut)

10:00-11:00 PM THE GOOD WIFE (Series Debut)

Wednesday, Sept. 23

8:00-8:30 PM THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE

(5th Season Premiere, OAD 3/13/06)

8:30-9:00 PM GARY UNMARRIED (2nd Season Premiere, OAD 9/14/08)

9:00-10:00 PM CRIMINAL MINDS (5th Season Premiere, OAD 9/22/05)

10:00-11:00 PM CSI: NY (6th Season Premiere, OAD 9/22/04)

Thursday, Sept. 24

9:00-10:00 PM CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION (10th Season Premiere, OAD 10/6/00)

10:00-11:00 PM THE MENTALIST (2nd Season Premiere, OAD 9/23/08)

Friday, Sept. 25

8:00-9:00 PM GHOST WHISPERER (5th Season Premiere, OAD 9/23/05)

9:00-10:00 PM MEDIUM (Network Debut, OAD 1/23/05)

10:00-11:00 PM NUMB3RS (6th Season Premiere, OAD 1/21/05)

Saturday, Sept. 26

8:00-9:00 PM CRIMETIME SATURDAY

9:00-10:00 PM CRIMETIME SATURDAY

10:00-11:00 PM 48 HOURS MYSTERY (Season Premiere)

Sunday, Sept. 27

7:00-8:00 PM 60 MINUTES (42nd Season Premiere)

8:00-10:00 PM THE AMAZING RACE (15th Edition Premiere)

10:00-11:00 PM COLD CASE (7th Season Premiere, OAD 9/23/03)

Sunday, Oct. 4

9:00-10:00 PM THREE RIVERS (Series Debut)

NCIS: LOS ANGELES, a new CBS fall drama starring Chris O’Donnell as Special Agent “G” Callen and LL COOL J (pictured) as Special Agent Sam Hanna, is about the high stakes world of undercover surveillance at the Office of Special Projects (OSP), a division of NCIS that is charged with apprehending dangerous and elusive criminals that pose a threat to the nation’s security. Photo: Cliff Lispon/CBS ©2009 CBS BROADCASTING INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The initial sequence in “Keep This Party Going”, Episode 2 of True Blood’s second season, is disarming. Literally. One thing is clear: HBO’s hottest vampire drama will pull no punches this season. Things are going to get messy. Spoilers below.

As Eric finishes his messy meal in the dungeon of Fangoria, Lafayette watches in terror. A dismembered arm gets casually tossed aside. Eric is annoyed mostly because he got blood in his hair, which is being bleached. In order to save his own skin, Lafayette eagerly agrees to tell the vampires anything they want to know, but in doing so, fingers Jason Stackhouse as the person who might have brought a sticky end to his supply of V (all last season).

As for Jason, he’s enjoying his newfound attention and respect at leadership camp with the Fellowship Of The Sun, as well as more than a few admiring looks from the preacher’s wife. For Jason, this is a chance at redemption, at finding a purpose in his life–but a nasty bit of roleplaying brings out some bad memories about close encounters with vampires. Jason has secrets, and if they ever got out in the Fellowship, things could go very badly.

Jason catches the flag!

At Merlotte’s, the party gets started early with the arrival of Maryann, who immediately sets upon eating everything in the building. Sam is uncomfortable about her presence, but since she so generously forgave his past criminal misdeeds, how can he object? Her presence seems to be having a peculiar effect on the locals, however. Everyone keeps dancing, dancing, and dry humping each other, lost in a flurry of singing and pleasure and joy. It would be kind of fun, except for how their eyeballs keep turning black.

Tara and Eggs continue their relationship, one that Maryann seems eager to nurture. Eggs is not forthcoming about his past, but with some poking, reveals a criminal rap sheet that would make a gangster blush. Tara isn’t quite sure how to handle the news, having had bad trouble with men in the past, but Eggs genuinely seems to want her in his life. It would almost be sweet, if it wasn’t so sinister.

After being sent back down to the dungeon, Lafayette realizes that all his wheeling, dealing and sweet-talking might not be enough to save his black ass from his current vampiric predicament. In the greatest MacGyver moment ever on television since, well, you know, he uses the metal hip from his dismembered cellmate to pick his lock and escape. Now that’s using your… hip. Unfortunately, he sustains a gunshot wound to the leg trying to escape. Now prisoner of Eric and his cronies again, Lafayette tries one final, desperate gambit to escape–a proposition to Eric that might be too delicious to resist.

As for Sookie, she’s stuck on babysitting duty, watching fledgling vampire Jessica while Bill runs some errands. Sookie is eager to get to know Jessica, and Jessica even seems amicable, but the evening is spoiled by watching newsreel footage of Jessica’s parents, begging for her daughter’s safe return. Jessica is insistent she get the opportunity to see her parents one last time, and Sookie (against better judgment) agrees, driving her.

Once they arrive, Jessica quickly breaks her promise to Sookie to stay in the car and goes into the house, inciting a tearful reunion with her mother and sister. But when her father comes home, the happy moment turns sour when his anger spills over. Jessica, not quite in control of her newfound powers and emotions, immediately springs out the teeth. It seems Jessica’s happy home life might not be so happy after all.

Just as things are about to get deadly, Bill springs into the room, defusing a bad situation. His anger is apoplectic and he tosses (literally) Sookie out of the house, furious. As for the fate of Jessica’s family–we’ll have to wait until next week.