The Producers Guild of America announced its picks for top TV shows this week, and Showtime led all other networks with four nominations.
Weeds and Californication made the short list for comedies, while Dexter got a nod in the drama category and This American Life received spot on the list for non-fiction television.
The winners will be announced at the PGA Awards ceremony on Jan. 24 in  Hollywood.
Check out the PGA’s full announcement of the nominees after the jump.

Images: Courtesy of Showtime

It’s TV’s biggest night and Showtime will be well represented on the Emmy red carpet, with the stars of Weeds, Dexter, and United States of Tara up for acting awards and This American Life, Weeds and Dexter vying for top honors in various series categories.
Here, Weeds’ Elizabeth Perkins arrives at a reception for award nominees held Thursday. Perkins is up for best supporting actress in a comedy.

Showtime earned tons of other Emmy nominations, including for performances by Dexter’s Michael C. Hall and Jimmy Smits, United States of Tara’s Toni Collette, and Weeds’ Mary-Louise Parker. Check out the full list …read more

It’s Emmy time! Showtime’s comedy and drama series have scored eight big noms, with Dexter and Weeds well represented, along with their stars.
The really exciting nominations, though, are for United States of Tara’s Toni Collette, Weeds’ Elizabeth Perkins and Dexter’s Jimmy Smits. All three actors turned in phenomenal performances last season and totally deserve the recognition from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Here are the main noms for Showtime shows:

Dexter, best drama series

Weeds, best comedy series

This American Life, best nonfiction series

Michael C. Hall, Dexter, best actor in a drama

Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds, best actress in a …read more

Ira Glass is a man on a mission. Even as the Showtime version of his fabulous radio series This American Life has been scaled back from 6 episodes to just a few, he’s carrying the TAL torch around the country through a series of lectures and live specials at auditoriums and music halls.
This weekend Glass is scheduled to speak in Tulsa, Oklahoma, so the daily paper there interviewed him and put together an awesome animated short based on the conversation. Here are a few excerpts. You can get the whole shebang on the Tulsa World Web site.
What have you learned …read more

Sigh. Looks like the amazing true-life stories on This American Life are really, really hard to find. It may be true that everyone has a story, but not all of those stories lend themselves to documentary film.
Instead of the six-season series Showtime fans have come to expect, TAL creative genius Ira Glass says the show may become a two- or three-story special this year.
“Doing this makes me sympathetic to those reality show programmers and respectful of the dramatic cunning involved in making those shows happen,” he told Creators Syndicate.
Too bad, but you can’t fault the Emmy-winning series’ quest for quality. …read more

If you want to snap up the second season of Showtime’s This American Life when it comes out on DVD next week, you’ll have to hit up a Borders bookstore.
The chain has the exclusive rights to the early release of the disc set, as it did with Season 1, Home Media Magazine reports.
The DVD featuring Ira Glass and co.’s excellent short documentaries about ordinary folks will be on shelves at Borders stores and available at Borders.com starting Jan. 20. It’ll retail for about 20 bucks.
No word yet on when the Season 2 DVD will be available in wide release.
Image: Courtesy …read more

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At the Nokia Theater in LA, the publicists, stylists and papparazzi are gearing up for Emmy night. The awards ceremony is just hours away. We can’t wait to see how Showtime fares — some among the popular press consider these offerings long shots, but we’re pulling for them, conventional wisdom be damned!:
Dexter is up for best drama series and Michael C. Hall is nominated for best actor for leading the cast as Dexter Morgan.
Weeds‘ Mary-Louise Parker, looking gorgeous last night at a pre-Emmy bash, is up for best actress in a comedy series, even as …read more

Dexter may be Showtime’s best shot at primetime Emmy glory this year, though several other original series got the nod when the awards nominations were announced today. Dexter scored noms for best drama series and best actor for Michael C. Hall’s portrayal of Dexter Morgan.
Weeds‘ Mary-Louise Parker is up for best actress in a comedy series, based on her dryly funny turn as Nancy Botwin, and Ira Glass’ This American Life snagged a nomination for best nonfiction series. Kudos, all!
We’re not done yet, though. Catherine Keener made the list for best actress in a movie or mini-series for her …read more

The 10 Questions feature with Ira Glass is out and available for iTunes download. If you’d rather read it, here’s a transcript. I found it clever and self-deprecating, which seems to be Mr. Glass’ MO. He’s booked as a guest on Late Night with Conan O’Brien May 23, should you wish to hear more of his witty banter.
Here are my favorite Time questions and answers:
Do you have a relationship with your cousin, composer Philip Glass?
When I was growing up in Baltimore, he had long moved away to become [laughs] one of the most famous composers of the 20th century. I …read more

Now that the second season of Ira Glass’ terrific series This American Life is in full swing on Showtime, the blogosphere has come alive with commentary. I’ve already raved about eps 1 and 2, but check out what others have to say:
Kiki at Cold Sake says the show might cure her aversion to all things NPR: “Ira Glass, the host, is my dream combination of Mark Cohen from Rent and Edward Norton – geeky cool (but a teeny bit old). And the stories were so captivating … It’s all so beautifully shot and edited. It’s getting a series …read more