On the next episode of Burn Notice, tonight’s “Hot Spot,” Michael, Fiona, and Sam pretend to be a gang of ruthless car thieves.

The undercover work is for their latest case targeting a thug who has been threatening a local high school football star. When they’re not busy with that, Michael and Fiona also manage to locate the person responsible for trying to murder Michael by setting up the bomb that torched his loft.

Michael Irving guest stars as Coach Sean Martin on this one. And, unless my eyes are deceiving me, that’s former Blade: The Series star Kirk Jones, also known as Onyx hip-hopper Sticky Fingaz, playing the lead bad guy in the promo video after the jump. Very nice.

Follow the cut for a few “Hot Spot” photos and the promo clip just mentioned.

NOTE: Click each image for the larger version.

Burn Notice airs Thursdays on USA at 10pm EST.

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NBC is rolling out the sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes clips for next Monday’s Chuck, “Chuck Versus the Third Dimension,” the first fresh episode of the sophomore series in 2009.

This is the one in 3D where Lost alum Dominic Monaghan drops by to reprise his role as Charlie Pace play a rock star who causes Chuck Bartowski some serious headaches after the team rescues him from certain death.

Take a look at the earlier post “Preview: Dominic Monaghan in ‘Chuck Versus the Third Dimension’” to see the guest star in action, and follow the jump for a couple of video clips that provide an in-depth look at the episode.

I can’t wait for Chuck to get started again, especially since the show has so many great guest stars and plotlines coming up. If you’re a fan, make sure to begin tuning in on February 2 to help raise the ratings as high as possible and encourage NBC to reward the series with a third season.

Now on to the videos after the jump, the first of which features guest Monaghan among the cast members interviewed.

Chuck airs Mondays on NBC at 8pm EST.

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The two comedy veterans play happily married, mature art director Mason and happily single, immature copywriter Conner, respectively, two advertising professionals and best friends whose relationship is rocked when Mason gets a promotion that makes him Conner’s boss at their Chicago agency.

Considering that the series is executive-produced by the same creative minds responsible for giving the world TNT’s hit crime drama The Closer, Trust Me has oodles of potential. Airing in the post-Closer time slot certainly helps, as well, although I do find the procedural-comedy combination a bit unappealing. I’m sure the shows will make it work, though.

Both make their 2009 debut next Monday, January 26, with Trust Me airing the series premiere “Before and After” at 10pm EST. Sneak a peek at what’s in store beforehand in the two-minute preview clip after the jump. I definitely can’t complain after watching it.

NOTE: If you haven’t already, you can also meet the cast of the series in the earlier post “Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanagh Want Us to Trust Them.”

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Longtime viewers will remember that the midseason hiatus began with a bomb waiting for Michael in his apartment. Well, I’m happy to say the former spy survives the disastrous explosion, but it does leave a noticeable mark on his attitude.

As a result, when he decides to help a father with a dying son who has been scammed by a shady drug company, Michael’s approach gives the series a fresh new feel. Yes, it’s darker and moodier, but at the same time, it also has the welcome potential to create more explosions as the season progresses.

I’ve seen the episode, so trust me: If you’re a Burn Notice fan, you won’t want to miss this one. It’s what some folks who like fancy words tend to call “seminal.”

Also coming up tonight on comedy television are new episodes of all four Thursday-night NBC sitcoms and ABC’s Ugly Betty. Synopses follow the jump.

Ugly Betty
Sisters on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Betty struggles to balance her professional and personal responsibilities, and she and her older sister clash over a family crisis. [8pm, ABC]

My Name Is Earl
Darnell Outed, Part 2

Darnell is forced to put his family in hiding and adopt a new identity after Joy ruins his cover in the Witness Protection Program, and Earl and Randy make a shocking discovery. [8pm, NBC]

Kath & Kim
News

Kath tries to help Kim with her latest ill-advised scheme: becoming an anchor at the local news station. Yeah — Good luck with that! [8:30pm, NBC]

The Office
Prince Family Paper

While the Dunder Mifflin worker bees argue over the hotness of an actress, Michael and Dwight infiltrate a rival company to get some inside scoop. [9pm, NBC]

30 Rock
Retreat to Move Forward

Jack convinces Liz to go with him on a corporate retreat, Kenneth tries to teach Tracy about his eating habits’ negative impact on his diabetes, and Jenna becomes indebted to Frank while preparing for her role as Janis Joplin. [9:30pm, NBC]

NOTE: All times are Eastern Standard Time.

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The episode’s not just a big deal because of Monaghan, of course, but also because (1) it’s the first new Chuck of 2009 and (2) it will supposedly be broadcast in exciting 3-D. I say supposedly because I’ve tried watching 3-D TV and movies before, and neither ever did a thing for me. Maybe this time will be the charm.

Monaghan plays — surprise … not! — a rock star, this one named Tyler Martin. When the international sensation becomes the target of deadly crooks, Team Chuck steps in and saves his butt. Dear old Chuck then has second thoughts about that turn of events when he and Tyler have all kinds of problems during a night hanging out.

Football player Jerome Bettis also guest stars as Big Mike’s old buddy Jimmy, one of the Buy More bunch hoping to get his hands on Morgan’s extra backstage pass to Tyler’s concert.

Monaghan has the whole rock star thing nailed, so this entire episode sounds like tons of fun. Check out Monaghan in action on the show in the two-scenes-in-one preview clip below to see what I mean.

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Quantum Leap and Enterprise star Bakula has come onboard to play Chuck and Ellie’s oft-mentioned yet never-before-seen daddy. Considering his huge background and following in the science-fiction television genre, I’m sure fans everywhere are feeling all kinds of thrilled about his casting.

Says series creator Josh Schwartz to E! Online: “They [the Bartowski kids and their estranged dad] haven’t seen each other for a long time. His dad is a little bit of an eccentric. He’s a sweet man, but has been off the reservation for a while. Chuck promised Ellie he would find him for the wedding, and when he finds him, he may not actually want to be found.”

Schwartz tells Entertainment Weekly’s Ausiello in addition: “[Chuck's dad is] living in a trailer, he’s disheveled, he’s paranoid and he’s claiming constantly that Ted Roark [Chevy Chase] — who he used to work with — stole all his ideas from him. And Ted Roark has now become this super-successful software billionaire, and Chuck’s dad has become an eccentric, living in the shadows.”

Which brings us to the second piece of casting news: Saturday Night Live and comedy icon Chevy Chase taking on the role of the aforementioned alleged thief who stole all of Daddy Bartowski’s tech mojo. Both actors are slated to hang around for a three-episode arc that begins three (there’s that number again!) months from now, in April.

Chuck returns with brand-new episodes on Monday, February 2, at 8pm EST. Maybe we’ll get news of a Season Three renewal before then.

But for now, who’s excited about these well-known names of small and big screens showing up? I know I am!

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E! Online’s Kristin and tons of other TV industry insiders in the know all report pretty much the same dismal development: ABC is holding off on airing the final episodes of canceled gems Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, and Pushing Daisies until the summer.

For those of us who remember the vastly boring wasteland the summer TV season used to be before basic cable swooped in and made it a legitimate occasion for new stuff, waiting isn’t such a big deal. But, for fans who wanted closure as soon as possible, it’s a whole ‘nother story I’m sure.

The reason for the delay is very simple, of course. Chalk it up to money, meaning ratings too low to have a large enough positive impact on the network’s bottom line. As Kristin points out, the shows that replaced the three series in their former time slots, including repeats of other series, have been bringing in much more Nielsen bacon — often twice as much or more.

Consequently, don’t expect any new Daisies, Dirty, or Eli until June or later. There are four episodes left on the shelf for the last two shows and three for the first.

With regards to the rescheduling, TV Guide quotes ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson as saying, “I really love those shows. I commend the producers. They delivered what they promised, but we just weren’t able to get the numbers that we needed. I wish we had been able to give the producers series-ending notice. Because of the timing, unfortunately, we weren’t able to.”

Sound sincere to you? Yes or no, it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: Just be happy ABC plans to air the remaining installments at all … and hope (fervently) the situation stays that way. For more on the cancellations, read Dissed by ABC: Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies.

How do those of you who are Daisies, Dirty, and/or Eli fans feel about this news? Leave a comment or vote in the poll below.

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Ever gracious and entertaining, the star of film and television recently answered questions to help spread the word about the return of Burn Notice next Thursday, January 22, at 10pm EST. The first of seven remaining episodes out of the midseason stable is the medical-scam caper “Do No Harm.”

If you weren’t already salivating to pick up where the current sophomore season left off last September and to see what happens to Sam Axe (Campbell) and his fellow spies Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) and Fiona Glenanne (Gabrielle Anwar) next, maybe the following fun interview will help get you in the proper mood.

Do you have a most memorable moment from filming the series?

BRUCE CAMPBELL: For me, I’m just convinced one day that some bystander’s going to shoot me with a gun. And the reason why I say that is because my character Sam has a rifle with a scope and often he’s up on high rises and overpasses taking potshots at people.

And sometimes you can’t see the crew connected to me, because they put me sometimes far away. And Miami has a lot of guns, and so I’m just afraid some do-gooder’s going to see me up there firing away and they’re going to save Miami from that criminal. And then Burn Notice will have three main characters.

How much of yourself do you see in Sam?

BRUCE CAMPBELL: Well, that’s always a tough call. Actors can’t escape their own physical being. You’re always going to see Bruce Campbell there doing whatever. I don’t drink as much as Sam does and I don’t womanize as much as Sam does because I’ve been married for 17 years to the same woman. So, it’s always fun to just let loose.

Sam is a much more relaxed character than me. I live in the Pacific Northwest and by the time I show up in Miami this March, I’m going to be white and pasty and I’m going to be squinting at the sun because it’s been raining and snowing here in the Pacific Northwest. So, I’ll go back down to Miami, I’ll strip my work boots off, my jeans off and get back into that character, get back into that basically removing clothing.

You know, I get my t-shirts off, I get my flannel shirts off and start getting back in flip flops and shorts because I literally live at the complete opposite end of the country and it’s a huge adjustment every year. But it kind of cracks me up that people perceive me as this kind of, hey, beach guy with a beer in his hand, and I’m kind of the opposite. I’m such a woodsy guy. I like mountains and streams and rivers and lakes.

Every time we see Sam, it seems like he has a beer in his hand. What are you actually drinking?

BRUCE CAMPBELL: Well, as an actor you can’t even really go near that these days. The days of sort of the John Wayne drinking in your trailer days are kind of over.

It’s just good old-fashioned water. Because sometimes if you put real fizzy stuff in there or even like they have the non-alcoholic beer, which still has a little percentage of alcohol, but it will just make you burp. It gets you all bloated and burpy. So, I just go for water.

What we do is we use always a colored bottle. You’ll notice it’s either a green bottle or a red bottle, and it kind of disguises what’s inside. You’ve blown my cover. Sorry.

What would you say to someone if they came up to you and said that they were such a big fan of yours that they named their son Ash [after Campbell's Evil Dead series character Ashley "Ash" J. Williams]?

BRUCE CAMPBELL: I’ve already had that. Multiple times, as a matter of fact. I would say have a long and prosperous life as Ash. And hopefully he’ll have a life that’s not as bad as being named Sue, you know? But Ash is a little on the girlie side, so he might have to stand up tall.

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The gimmick casting of note is the appearance of The Hills cast members Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt on How I Met Your Mother, along with additional guest stars Kendra Wilkinson, the Playboy Playmate from The Girls Next Door, and Kim Kardashian of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

CBS is billing all of the guests as reality stars, but considering the female cameos, I thought the casting was going to have something to do with a wet-dream sequence for Barney. Turns out, Marshall comes down with a case of reality-star haunts, which is much less predictable and likely funnier.

The rest of tonight’s new comedy programming follows.

The Big Bang Theory
The Killer Robot Instability

Penny’s observations about Wolowitz’s romantic life (or lack thereof probably) depress him enough to cause him to lose interest in a future fighting robot competition. Fighting robots actually sound fun. [8pm, CBS]

How I Met Your Mother
Benefits

Ted and Robin designate themselves “friends with benefits” to improve their roommate situation, and reality-tv stars badger Marshall from the pages of his magazine. [8:30pm, CBS]

Rita Rocks
Old Friends

Facebook allows Rita to regain contact with an old friend. [8:30pm, Lifetime]

Two and a Half Men
Thank God for Scoliosis

Charlie and Jake compete to gain the attention of a waitress, while Alan tries to dampen his attraction to his receptionist. Carol Kane (Taxi) guest stars as the receptionist’s mother. [9pm, CBS]

Worst Week
The Article

After unintentionally interrupting Angela’s visit with her gynecologist, Sam writes about the experience to get over it, but his work is found by the wrong person. [9:31pm, CBS]

NOTE: All times are Eastern Standard Time.

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Clocking in at a measly 21 seconds, the video still manages to give fans a taste of what’s coming up — boozing, boxing, and frying-pan fights, from the look of it — as well as confirm the previously publicized Tuesday, March 17 second-season premiere date.

Episodes will air at 9pm EST, and there are a total of thirteen ordered. Now, take a look at the super-short “Beatbox” promo below and get excited for the demon-hunting days ahead.

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