Sarah Michelle Gellar’s husband Freddie Prinze Jr. will appear on at least two episodes of ABC’s “Boston Legal” this fall.

Prinze, who hasn’t made a movie without an animated dog since 2001’s “Summer Catch,” will do an arc on the “Practice” spinoff as Donny Crane, the son of William Shatner’s quirky legal ace Denny Crane. Donny operates a suburban storefront legal office, but Denny’s underachieving son has inherited some of his father’s unconventional courtroom brilliance.

The “Mutant X” scribe has kept a low profile in recent years, helping his wife Sarah Michelle Gellar and Scooby-Doo fight crime and making occasional talk show visits.

‘Method & Red’ go up in smoke

News out of the “Method & Red” camp on Tuesday may harsh the buzz of the show’s most dedicated fans. Fox’s hip-hop/stoner comedy may not be canceled, but it could be on the verge of being cashed.

Early word on the Defamer Web site was that the show’s writers had been sent home and that “Method & Red” was about to be weeded out of Fox’s lineup. The truth lies somewhere obscured by a haze of smoke.

Fox sources report that while “Method & Red” is, indeed, on hiatus, it was a planned break and the show will still return to complete its original 13-episode run starting on Sept. 8. Anything beyond those 13 episodes is still floating around in the clouds.

“JEOPARDY’ RATINGS JONESING FOR JENNINGS

It turns out that the recent “Jeopardy!” ratings bump had little to do with viewers rediscovering their love for answers phrased in the form of questions and everything to do with their devotion to a certain geeky Mormon millionaire. In its first week of a summer rerun cycle, “Jeopardy!” saw its viewership plummet.

After four consecutive weeks on top of the syndicated ratings charts, “Jeopardy!” fell to third for the week ending Aug. 1. After pulling in a 9.6 rating and nearly 14.3 million viewers for the week ending July 25, “Jeopardy!” slipped to 6.0 rating and just over 8.6 million viewers.

The week’s top two syndicated programs were “Wheel of Fortune,” which also took a hit, falling to a 7.3 rating and nearly 10.9 million viewers, and “Everybody Loves Raymond” (6.1 rating, 8.9 million). “Raymond” was one of the few syndicated programs to show improvement over the previous week.

Viewers were, apparently, less interested in repeats of old college tournaments after Jennings’ 38-episode run, during which he amassed winnings of $1.3 million. The Jennings streak was put on hold after July 23. “Jeopardy!” and Jennings will return with new episodes starting Sept. 6.

In addition to the repeat factor, the “Jeopardy!” numbers likely suffered from extensive coverage of the Democratic National Convention, which would have preempted the show in many markets.