'Medium' meets 'Night of the Living Dead'

"Medium's" move to CBS has given the show a sense of certainty it didn't have in the past couple seasons at NBC -- which is why you'll see Patricia Arquette fighting off George Romero zombies this fall.

The show is working on a Halloween episode that will insert Arquette's character, Allison Dubois, into scenes from Romero's classic horror film "Night of the Living Dead," series creator Glenn Gordon Caron said Monday (Aug. 3) at the TV Critics Association summer press tour. "It's going to be sort of the landscape of her dreams in that particular episode," he says.

(And yes, that does mean that Allison will emerge from the coma she slipped into at the end of last season, Caron confirms. That hardly qualifies as a spoiler, though.)

So what does the change in networks have to do with it? For one thing, "Medium" hasn't premiered earlier than mid-November since its second season, which didn't allow Caron and his team to do time-specific episodes like that.

"The good news is we're on CBS now, and for the first time in three years ... we're going into the beginning of the season knowing when we're premiering -- in the fall -- and doing 22 episodes," Caron says. "As a storyteller, that's a huge thing, because it means I can say to you that on Halloween, we will be doing thus and so. That's a luxury we've not had for three years."

Caron couldn't resist making a couple digs at his former home -- of being paired perennial Friday-night leader "Ghost Whisperer," Caron says, "Given our history, it's nice to follow a show that people really like" -- but he acknowledged that "Medium" had a nice run on NBC.

"We had five good years," he says. "Had we not, we wouldn't be here today."

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Related:

'Medium' builds a bridge for CBS
'Mentalist' moves, 'Medium' finds a home on CBS
CBS fall premiere dates
Full coverage of the summer TV press tour

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