The TV Column: At Fox, Spielberg project's biggest special-effect: The massive delay! Tuesday, March 15, 2011; 7:47 AM Fox unveiled its summer prime-time schedule Monday. The schedule includes "MasterChef" on Mondays and Tuesdays, "So You Think You Can Dance?" on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and "Glee" reruns on Thursdays. But it does not include that promised late-May two-hour pilot screening/sneak peek of its long-awaited, much-delayed, highly hyped orgy of special-effects excess from Steven Spielberg: "Terra Nova." Back in May of 2010, when we were a carefree young columnist frolicking around Manhattan like a lamb in springtime - as the broadcast networks unveiled to advertisers their plans for this current TV season - we reported that Fox promised advertisers that the network was going to foist "Terra Nova" upon an unsuspecting public some time during this 2010-11 television season. Of course, Fox also promised that same day that it was going to cut back the "American Idol" results show to 30 minutes this season. By August, as a more mature TV Columnist who was beginning to suspect some rannygazoo was going on, we reported that Fox had announced at Summer TV Press Tour 2011 that it would instead launch "Terra Nova" with a two-part sneak peek at the two-hour pilot - the second hour of which would air right after the final performance night of "American Idol," just as Fox had done with such success in '09 with "Glee." The series itself would join Fox's schedule in the fall of the 2011-12 season. "It was mainly due to the scope of what this show is going to take," Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly explained to the press as we watched with jaundiced eye. "We got into it knowing it was going to be ambitious - knowing that we had enormous . . . groundbreaking digital effects we were bringing to it," Reilly continued. "We had to create an entire world and mythology," he said. But, frankly, even locking in a location has had a unique set of challenges . . . blah, blah, blah . . . explored everywhere from Lousiana to Hawaii to Australia to Orlando . . . blah, blah, blah . . . It really became apparent, to do this show right, we were going to need the time. So we decided to make a virtue out of it, slow it down . . . blah, blah, blah . . . the two advantages of doing the spring [sneak peek] are this: Blah, blah, blah. And now, on Monday, a thoroughly jaded TV Columnist brings you word that those hellhounds at Fox have scrubbed "Terra Nova" from our May dance card and have no intention of giving us even a whiff of the series until the start of the 2011-12 television season - more than one year after they began promising it. This time, special effects are taking the blame. " 'Terra Nova' is one of the most ambitious television series ever produced," Reilly - still Fox's programming chief - said modestly in a statement. The cutting-edge visual effects used to create the world of 'Terra Nova,' which is of massive scope and scale, require more time to be realized. This aspect of the series is essential, so we are pushing back the special early preview date to give the visual-effects team the time needed for their groundbreaking work. Anticipating your next question: No, it just seems as though Reilly gets paid by the word. "Terra Nova" is about a family living in the year 2149. Earth is overpopulated and horribly polluted, unlike now. The family members join a band of settlers who travel back in time to prehistoric Earth to fix this and that in the future, which, unfortunately, leaves them too busy to focus on fixing the runaway cost of TV series production in the year 2011. The price tag on the "Terra Nova" pilot alone has been guesstimated at anywhere between $10 million and $14 million, depending on your source. Sheen gets some TLC File this under: Why you might want to think twice about giving an interview to NBC News's "Today" show. Discovery's TLC cable network has bought a fast-tracked "documentary" about sacked "Two and Half Men" star Charlie Sheen. "Charlie Sheen: On the Brink" will debut Sunday on the Silver Spring-based network that's home to "Sister Wives," "LA Ink," "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant," "My Strange Addiction" and "Hoarding: Buried Alive," among other programs. The one-hour special will use footage from NBC News's recent interview with Sheen, mostly seen on the "Today" show. And that's possible because "Charlie Sheen: On the Brink" is being produced for TLC by Peacock Productions - which is, according to its own account, the "award-winning, nonfiction production company that combines the editorial expertise, technical resources and seasoned production talent of NBC News to offer a wide-range of programming." Yes, Peacock Productions - that's "peacock," as in "NBC's logo until Comcast took over" - is part of the NBC Universal family. But this "documentary" will rush in where NBC News - even on the "Today" show - feared to tread: The Land of Whole Hog. "CS:OtB" is, TLC says, going to look at "what has been considered the very public unraveling of actor Charlie Sheen." The show will blend "news footage with all-new original interviews" to explore "Sheen's erratic and unpredictable behavior from the perspective of the media who have covered him, and addiction and behavioral specialists." It will navel-gaze awhile, regarding whether "Sheen's recent actions are a carefully crafted media stunt or the result of years of drug addiction finally taking its toll." "CS:OtB" not only will update that NBC News interview but also will include behind-the-scenes footage, as well as brand-new "expert" commentary, including - you know it's coming - MacKenzie Phillips! Yes, MacKenzie is going to talk - again - about life as a celebrity who has dealt with drugs and recovery. "Charlie Sheen: On the Brink" will also take us "inside Sheen's home" to examine his relationship with "the women in his life" and his kids. Then, to put the story in a larger context, Peacock Productions is going to "highlight other celebrity meltdowns that have captured public attention and offer insight into what drives this bizarre behavior." Which we like to think of as Peacock Productions' way of putting on notice any celebrity who's ever had something the media has called a "meltdown" and has subsequently appeared in an interview on an NBC show.