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The Office has followed through with some very bizarre storylines over the years. In its nine seasons, fans have seen the rise and fall of Ryan to Michael taking a minor hostage and the peculiarity of Andy’s character. However, even in the thick of all of it, one of the most fantastically exciting characters that the series has ever introduced has to be that of Jan Levinson.

A still of Jan Levinson from The Office | Credit: NBC

Starting off as a slightly self-aware character who was stuck in the chaos of Michael’s workplace, she very quickly became one of the most unhinged characters in the series. This can all be traced back to one moment in his character. One that her actress, Melora Hardin, came up with.

Jan and Her Decent Into Madness

When Jan Levinson was first introduced in The Office, she was the personification of the corporate side of Dunder Mifflin.

Jan Levinson-Gould – no, not Gould! Right from the start, audiences are introduced to a character in The Office who seems like a typical corporate boss, appearing as Steve Carell’s quirky Michael Scott’s superior. But little did the fans know, this seemingly calm figure would spiral into one of the most unhinged characters television has ever seen.

Melora Hardin as Jan in The Office episode Dinner Party Credits: NBC

The brilliant actress who brought Jan to life, Melora Hardin, once admitted she didn’t feel like she belonged on set and that just might be what brought the character’s essence just to perfectly on the screen. Here’s the story of how television’s most iconic sitcom villain came to be!

What Melora Hardin Sacrificed to Perfectly Birth The Office‘s Jan Levinson to Life!

From the get-go, it’s clear that Steve Carell’s Michael Scott isn...

In an alternate take of The Office, Karen Filippelli got the ending she deserved—and we’re all for it. Rashida Jones, who played the lovable yet unlucky Karen, was left hanging in the original storyline as Jim dashed back to Pam. But in this alternate version, Karen finally scored a win—a moment that would’ve given her character a more satisfying send-off.

Rashida Jones and John Krasinski in a still from The Office | Credits: NBC

For anyone who felt Karen deserved a happier wrap-up, this scene offers a glimpse of the ending that could’ve been, giving us all some serious “what if” vibes.

Alternate Ending for The Office Season 3 Gave Karen the Closure She Deserved The main cast of The Office | Credits: NBC

“They walk off together.” In an alternate ending for The Office Season 3 finale, Jim and Pam shared a different final moment—one that gave...

Hank Steinberg, a veteran writer and producer who created CBS’ “Without a Trace,” TNT’s “The Last Ship” and ABC’s “For Life,” has entered into a broadcast direct deal with Fox Entertainment.

Under the terms of the pact, Steinberg will develop new, Fox-owned scripted dramas for the network. He currently executive produces “Doc,” an upcoming medical drama based on the globally acclaimed Italian series, “Doc – Nelle tue mani” that will debut in Fox’s midseason lineup.

The series, which stars Molly Parker, follows Westside Hospital’s chief of internal and family medicine Dr. Amy Larsen, who must navigate an unfamiliar world after a brain injury erases the last eight years of her life, leaving her with no recollection of patients she’s treated, colleagues she’s crossed, the soulmate she divorced, the man she now loves and the tragedy that caused her to push everyone away. She can...

On Saturday 13 July 2024, Talking Pictures TV broadcasts Dixon of Dock Green!

The Job Season 17 Episode 26 Episode Summary

In this episode of “Dixon of Dock Green” titled “The Job,” airing on Talking Pictures TV, the storyline unfolds with a gripping mystery. When a petty criminal is discovered in a critical condition after being found in the river, bound and gagged, the team faces a race against time to uncover the truth behind the incident. As the investigation progresses, viewers can anticipate intense moments of suspense and detective work as the team delves into the circumstances surrounding the victim’s plight.

The episode promises to deliver classic police procedural drama, blending suspenseful storytelling with the meticulous unraveling of clues. “Dixon of Dock Green” continues to captivate audiences with its portrayal of police work and community dynamics, offering a compelling narrative that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats. Tune in to...

Fire Country blazed onto the scene in 2022, hooking viewers immediately with its unique perspective.

It bridges the divide between those on the "right" side of the law and "criminals" trying to redeem themselves.

Fans thrived on the action-packed scenes, unique fire calls, and inspirational characters throughout Fire Country Season 1.

The main character -- and series co-creator -- Max Thieriot juggles a redemption arc from prisoner to inmate firefighter planning a life on the outside.

But many fans felt the same magic wasn't there for Fire Country Season 2.

Related: Fire Country Season 2 Report Card: From Smoldering Worst Parts to the Flames of Success

Despite the reduced excitement for Fire Country's sophomore season, the hit show received an order for a third season.

Series Regulars Will Return

Like many series recently, Fire Country has maintained a regular cast of characters who play integral parts in the storyline.

However, to keep things fresh,...

Jet frontman Nic Cester revealed in a recent interview that he auditioned to be the singer of AC/DC in 2016. The job eventually went to Axl Rose, but Cester has quite a story to tell his grandkids one day.

Twenty years ago, Jet were the hottest rock export out of Australia, with hits like “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” and “Cold Hard Bitch” featuring a sound that melded the power of fellow Aussies AC/DC with the garage-rock stylings of The White Stripes.

Get Jet Tickets Here

As Cester told Australian radio station Triple J, he got the call to audition for the vacant AC/DC singer slot when Brian Johnson had to step away from the band due to hearing issues.

“I was staying with my in-laws and I got up in the morning and read the paper and it said that Brian Johnson was not in the band anymore,...

Exclusive: Aunt Viv is coming to The Last O.G. as Janet Hubert joins the cast of the TBS comedy, starring Tracy Morgan and Tiffany Haddish.

Co-created and executive produced by Jordan Peele, The Last O.G. follows Tray (Morgan), an ex-con who is shocked to see just how much the world has changed when he is released from a 15-year prison stint. After finding a place to live and new forms of income, Tray continues to meet challenges as he re-paves his way in his newly affluent Brooklyn neighborhood. TBS renewed the comedy for season 4.

The Daytime Emmy-nominee will join The Last O.G. as Miss May Miller. One of Roberta’s (Anna Maria Horsford) oldest and dearest friends and weekly bid whist partner. As Brooklyn teens they were rivals. However, in their later years they settled into a strong friendship as part of a weekly card playing foursome who weigh in...

Denis Leary has signed a broadcast development deal with Fox Entertainment.

Under the deal, Leary and his production company, Amoeba, will develop and produce series for Fox. Leary may also star in any series developed under the agreement, which encompasses comedy, drama, and animation.

“Everyone at Amoeba is excited about this partnership and we look forward to creating new, cutting-edge content at Fox,” Leary said. “As well as using their luxury suites for World Series games and the Super Bowl.”

“Welcome Denis,” Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier added. “You’re paying face value for all tickets and twice face-value for Boston and New England.”

This extends Leary’s relationship with Fox, as he currently stars in the networks comedy series “The Moodys.” That show was recently renewed for a second season after debuting its first this past winter. The second season is slated to debut next spring.

“Through his warm,...

Denis Leary has been cast in a lead role in Fox’s upcoming event series “A Moody Christmas.”

The single-cam comedy follows Dan Moody as he returns home to spend Christmas with his dysfunctional family. When he arrives, he’s met with the inevitable madness of a family whose members are all hiding things from each other.

Leary will play Sean Sr., the patriarch of the Moody family, all of whom return home to Chicago for the holidays, hiding secrets from one another. The role will mark Leary’s first in a broadcast series in nearly two decades, with the actor having previously starred in and co-created the ABC series “The Job” back in 2001. Leary’s best known television series is the FX dramedy “Rescue Me,” which Leary also co-created in addition and played the lead role. That show earned eight Emmy nominations throughout its seven-season run. Leary also created...

Denis Leary will star in “A Moody Christmas,” Fox’s upcoming holiday event series.

The six-episode comedy, adapted from the Australian series of the same name, centers on the Moodys, “including Sean Sr. (Leary), his wife, their three grown children and an assorted mix of extended family members who gather for the holidays, with each packing his/her own eccentricities and complications,” Fox said.

The “Rescue Me” star/co-creator will play Sean Sr., “the beloved patriarch of the Moodys, a tight-knit, but slightly dysfunctional, family of five, all of whom return home to Chicago for the holidays, hiding secrets from each other – as if the holidays weren’t stressful enough!”

Also Read: Fox Sets 'A Moody Christmas' Holiday Event Series Based on Australian Comedy

Co-produced by CBS TV Studios and Fox Entertainment, “A Moody Christmas” will air this December on Fox.

“We have always wanted to work with Denis, whose signature gruffness,...

Exclusive: Denis Leary is set to star in A Moody Christmas, Fox’s half-hour single-camera holiday event series, an adaptation of the Australian series of the same name, to air in December. The series hails from CBS TV Studios, which will co-produce with Fox Entertainment.

Written by comedy veterans Bob Fisher, Rob Greenberg and Tad Quill, the six-episode A Moody Christmas centers on the Moodys, including Sean Sr., his wife, their three grown children and an assorted mix of extended family members who gather for the holidays, with each packing his/her own eccentricities and complications.

In his return to broadcast TV, Leary will play Sean Sr., the beloved patriarch of the tight-knit but slightly dysfunctional family of five, all of whom return home to Chicago for the holidays, hiding secrets from one another – as if the holidays weren’t stressful enough!

“We have always wanted to work with Denis,...

Do you ever find yourself rewatching old episodes of a show you loved as a kid - like, say, Spongebob Squarepants - and suddenly realizing there were jokes that went way over your head when you were younger? Well, that exact scenario unfolded for Reddit user FlyingNimbus33, who discovered a sneaky joke while watching The Office episode titled "The Job."

During the season-three finale, Michael Scott prematurely names Dwight Schrute as his successor before interviewing for a Dunder Mifflin corporate job he's confident he'll get. Overcome with his sudden power, Dwight taunts Jim Halpert by welcoming him to Hotel Hell, an establishment where "the sheets are made of fire" and he runs the show as coowner alongside Satan. And that's when the hidden one-liner comes in.

Related: Someone Compiled the Best Pranks From The Office, and Now I'm Cry-Laughing

Dwight proudly tells Jim that his Hotel Hell salary is $80,000, which...

Making all of us not in New York jealous yet again, the Film Society of Lincoln Center has partnered with Istituto Luce Cinecittà to present a complete retrospective of Luchino Visconti’s feature films. Most of the Italian master’s work, from “The Leopard” and “Rocco to His brothers” to “Senso” and “Death in Venice,” will be screening on new restorations and imported prints; the series will conclude with a weeklong run of “Ludwig,” playing here on a new 35mm print. Avail yourself of a trailer for the series below.

Visconti’s films are a sensory delight, and “The Leopard” — based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s majestic novel of the same name — is especially acclaimed. His 1963 adaptation, which runs just shy of three hours, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was released on DVD and Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection. Flsc’s look back at Visconti’s career doesn’t stop there,...

Italian director Ermanno Olmi, known for humanist dramas in which he explored spirituality and social themes such as “The Tree of Wooden Clogs,” which won the 1978 Cannes Palme d’Or, has died.

He was 87. Olmi died in a hospital in Asiago, Northern Italy, not far from Bassano del Grappa where since the 1980’s he had been running an innovative film school called Ipotesi Cinema. His wife and children were beside him. The exact cause of death is not know, but Olmi had reportedly been ill for some time.

Olmi, who began his career making short documentaries and often worked with non professional actors, also won the 1988 Venice Golden Lion for his “The Legend of the Holy Drinker,” starring Rutger Hauer. It’s based on a book by Austrian author Joseph Roth about a homeless man living under the bridges of Paris. After receiving a small loan by an anonymous stranger,...

It took one day at a time, but Norman Lear’s long-gestating comedy project “Guess Who Died” finally has a home: NBC.

The Peacock network has given a pilot production commitment to the single-camera comedy, which Lear recently re-developed with Peter Tolan.

Set in a retirement village, “Guess Who Died” has been in the works for at least seven years. Lear had pitched the show around town several times, and expressed dismay that the show wouldn’t get made because of its focus on older characters.

Read More:Norman Lear Teams Up With Peter Tolan to Revive His Senior Citizen Comedy ‘Guess Who Died’

But “Guess Who Died” gained momentum after Lear, at age 95, earned raves for the recent successful remake of his 1970s comedy “One Day at a Time,” executive produced by Gloria Calderon Kellett and and Mike Royce. That show comes from Sony Pictures TV, as does “Guess Who Died.

Norman Lear is moving one step closer to making his long-gestating comedy “Guess Who Died” a reality.

Emmy-winning writer Peter Tolan (“The Larry Sanders Show,” “Rescue Me”) has joined the project as co-writer with Lear on the show, which is set in a retirement village. Lear has been working on the show for at least seven years, and frequently brings the project up in interviews. But until recently, he expressed dismay that it might never get made.

But now the legendary TV producer, at age 94, is on another hot streak. Following the recent successful remake of Lear’s 1970s sitcom “One Day at a Time,” now reimagined at Netflix with stars Justina Machado and Rita Moreno, Sony Pictures TV is developing “Guess Who Died” as a spec comedy script.

That means it’s still in very early stages of development, but the addition of Tolan gives it more momentum. Tolan...

Many of us, during this election cycle, have found us switching from live TV to our Netflix queues in search of escapism. But because the two people currently running for president of the United States have been in the public eye for decades, there’s always a danger that you might be reminded, on-screen or through some clever joke, that November 8 is coming.

By the numbers, odds are pretty good that between the two candidates, the one you’ll see will be Donald Trump. According to IMDb, since 1981 Donald Trump has made over 230 film and television appearances — 219 as “Self” and 20 as an actor usually playing “Donald Trump,” though there may be some overlap between the two.

Read More: Donald Trump: By Roasting Him, We May Have Validated Him

This includes talk shows and news programs, but it’s still more than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who has 196 listed appearances as “Self,...

Michael Moore has been unsurprisingly outspoken this election season. Last year he was among the first to predict that Donald Trump would win the Republican nomination for president, and late last month he listed five reasons why the Gop candidate could actually win. Today he’s in the Huffington Post with a new article titled “Trump Is Self-Sabotaging His Campaign Because He Never Really Wanted The Job In The First Place,” which posits that the Republican standard-bearer only ran in order to increase his media profile — and now the situation has gone further than even Trump thought it would.

Read More: Michael Moore’s 12-Year Project: How His Film Festival Changed a City

Others have suggested similarly over the past year, owing largely to Trump’s unorthodox (to put it mildly) campaign strategy. Despite never intending to make it this far, Moore argues, “Trump, to his own surprise, ignited the country,...

Questions I have after watching two episodes of "Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll," the new FX comedy created by and starring Denis Leary, which debuts tomorrow night at 10: In what year does this show think it takes place? Leary plays Johnny Rock, former lead singer of The Heathens, a band that had a meteoric rise and abrupt fall in the early '90s. Dave Grohl appears early in the pilot to explain that The Heathens were a huge inspiration for Nirvana. But Johnny, in both past and present, sports a rooster haircut that hasn't been fashionable since Rod Stewart and Ron Wood abandoned it in the mid-'70s. The Heathens' signature song, which provides the show its title (albeit one borrowed from a much better song — also from the '70s — by Ian Dury) is catchy, but sounds like a mix of punk and glam rock that had little place...

Tonight Fox launches its worst comedy and its best comedy, back-to-back. In a perfect world nobody would watch the insipid, pandering, racist and unfunny Dads at 8 p.m. and simply tune in a half hour later for Brooklyn Nine-Nine, one of the funniest comedies in a long time. Brooklyn Nine-Nine had either the audacity or smarts to attempt to breathe life into a genre that hasn't been exploited much, mostly because it's really hard to do -- a comedy about cops. Yes, Barney Miller and Police Squad are the gold standards, and Denis Leary's The Job

read more...

Fox has one of its better slates coming your way with the new season, especially if you take the midseason shows into account. Some of these shows may not jump out at you now as must-see, but some of them are going to take over, if I’m any judge anyway.

Clear showcase offerings Dads, Almost Human, and Us & Them are guaranteed to take off early. Almost Human has J.J. Abrams recognition to pull people in, though it looks to be a show that could flounder after a few episodes, even if I hope it doesn’t. The other two are going to become hits. Unfortunately, we have to wait until mid-season for the Gavin & Stacey remake.

Rake also looks like a winner, as long as the translation can be made to work as an Americanized product, and the show actually delivers what made the Australian original so brilliant.

Take...

Good News: AMC has renewed The Walking Dead for a fourth frame. Bad News: Minus Showrunner Glen Mazzara, who is stepping down after shepherding the series through a tumultuous second and fantastic third season. [Source]

Good News: ABC is ringing in the new year with double doses of Happy Endings and Don’T Trust The B… starting Sunday January 6th at 10Pm, in addition to the show’s regular Tuesday at 9Pm timeslot. Bad News: For 666 Park Avenue fans, who will now have to wait until sometime this summer when ABC promises to run burn off the show’s remaining episodes. [Source]

Good News: CBS has announced a February 8th premiere date for The Job. Bad News: No, The Job isn’t the return of Denis Leary’s short-lived single camera comedy, but rather another tired reality competition series that is being billed as a cross between The Apprentice and Shark Tank.

Exclusive: ABC, the network behind the underrated 2001 Denis Leary-Peter Tolan cop comedy The Job, seems determined to get a police half-hour series on the air next season. In a late buy, the network has put in development a single-camera comedy starring comedian/writer Hannibal Buress. It joins three other cop comedy projects at the network. Co-written by Buress and Rob Sheridan, the untitled comedy is inspired by Buress’ standup and has him starring as a cop in a small town. Sheridan and Buress’ manager, 3 Arts’ Dave Becky, executive produce, with Buress co-executive producing for ABC Studios. Besides the Buress/Sheridan project, ABC has Feel The Force, an ensemble cop comedy written and executive produced by Bill Lawrence, which has a put pilot commitment plus penalty; paranormal cop comedy Strange Calls based on the Australian series, which has a put pilot commitment, and Rookie, a cop comedy executive produced by Will Gluck which,...

I love the art of animation, and it's amazing to see how far things have come and advanced over the years. The industry is changing in terms of technology, but what it all really comes down to is telling good stories. There's been a lot of great animated movies this year, and many of them are up for several awards at the 40th Annual Annie Awards.

Some of the movies nomainated include Brave, Frankenweenie, Hotel Transylvania, ParaNorman, Rise of the Guardians, The Pirates! Band of Misfits, and Wreck-It Ralph. Out of those films my favorite is a toss up between Wreck-It Ralph and ParaNorman, those were two pretty incredible films. I think ParaNorman has the edge though.

Some of the other animated properties nominated are Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1, Disney Tron: Uprising, Justice League: Doom, Robot Chicken ‘DC Comics Special', South Park ‘Raising the Bar’, and several others.

The International Animated Film Society (Asifa-Hollywood) has announced the nominees for the 40th Annie Awards also known as Animation's Highest Honor. Disney/Pixar led the nominees with "Brave," "Frankenweenie," and "Wreck-It-Ralph" getting Best Picture nods. The 40th Annual Annie Awards will take place on February 2, 2013 at UCLA.s Royce Hall, in Los Angeles, California.

And the nominees for the 40th Annual Annie Awards are:

Best Picture nominees:

Brave - Disney/Pixar)

Frankenweenie -The Walt Disney Studios

Hotel Transylvania - Sony Pictures Animation

ParaNorman - Focus Features

Rise of the Guardians - DreamWorks Animation

The Pirates! Band of Misfits - Aardman Animations

The Rabbi.s Cat - Gkids

Wreck-It Ralph - Walt Disney Animation Studios

Annie Award for Best Animated Special Production

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 . Warner Bros. Animation

Best General Audience Animated Television Production

Archer .Space Race, Part 1. . Weissman Markovitz Communications for FX

Bob.S Burgers .Earsy Rider...

DVD Release Date: Sept. 25, 2012

Price: DVD $95.99

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

All seven seasons of the FX drama TV show Rescue Me are in this Complete Series boxed set.

The television series, which aired from 2004 to 2011, stars Denis Leary (The Amazing Spider-Man) as Tommy Gavin, a New York fireman after 9/11 who’s having problems with … everything — his job, his family, his girlfriends and his on-again-off-again wife (Andrea Roth, TV’s Blue Bloods).

Created by Leary and Peter Tolan (TV’s The Job), Rescue Me also stars Steven Pasquale (TV’s Up All Night), Daniel Sunjata (The Dark Knight Rises), Callie Thorne (TV’s Necessary Roughness) and Robert John Burke (Safe).

The 26-disc set contains all 93 episodes of the show, which blends drama and comedy, dealing with such issues as life after 9/11, divorce, alcoholism and dysfunctional family.

Rated Ma for mature content, Rescue Me was nominated for a Golden Globe for...

Exclusive: After almost two years at the helm of Ellen DeGeneres’ A Very Good Production, Lauren Corrao is leaving the company, which has a multi-faceted deal with Warner Bros TV Group spanning several divisions. The parting of the ways was a mutual decision — Corrao has opted to move on, and DeGeneres is now looking for a new executive. Corrao joined A Very Good Production in fall 2010 as its first development executive in the company’s buildup into a full-fledged production entity. During her tenure, A Very Good Production landed a pilot order for comedy The Smart One at ABC this past season. Corrao, former Comedy Central president of original programming and development, left the cable network at the end of 2009 to return to producing. During her seven-year stint at Comedy Central, she oversaw The Sarah Silverman Program, Chappelle’s Show, Drawn Together, Reno 911! and Important Things With Demetri Martin. Before that,...

FX is getting back into business with Rescue Me co-creator/star Denis Leary. The cable network has handed a pilot order to comedy Bronx Warrants. Created by Dean Lorey (Arrested Development), it is based on the real life exploits of David Joglar and Richard Wetzel. Bronx Warrants is a comedy revolving around a group of errant warrant detectives in the Bronx assigned to arrest individuals with outstanding warrants. With bonuses paid out for each “body” they bring in, the detectives are out to get rich rather than dole out justice. Lorey, Leary and Jim Serpico serve as executive producers; Tom Sellitti is co-executive Producer, Joglar and Wetzel are co-producers. Bronx Warrants is produced by FX Prods. “Dean Lorey has taken this unique police squad and created a hilarious and surprising world of characters and situations,” said Eric Schrier, Head of Series Development for FX and Evp of FX Prods. Leary,...

The TV upfronts are in full swing, and CBS has announced its upcoming slate of shows for 2012 - 2013. There are 19 current series returning and four new series. Dramas include Elementary, Vegas, and Made in Jersey. The only new comedy is titled Partners.

CBS is moving around a few of their returning shows. 2 Broke Girls will be moving to Monday at 9 p.m., Two and a Half Men moves to Thursday at 8:30 p.m., CSI: NY will open Fridays at 8 p.m. and The Mentalist moves to Sundays at 10 p.m.

Here is the press release from CBS:

CBS announced today its new 2012-2013 primetime schedule, ordering four new series and making four key time period moves to further enhance television’s top-rated schedule. CBS will finish the season as America’s most-watched network for the ninth time in the past 10 years, leading in viewers by the widest margin of any network in 23 years.

CBS is spreading the love for the 2012-2013 TV season and making some moves.

Next season, "Two And A Half Men" will follow the network's No. 1 comedy "The Big Bang Theory" on Thursday nights and "The Mentalist" is heading to Sundays, airing after "The Good Wife."

CBS picked up six new series for the 2012-2013 TV season: four new dramas -- Sherlock Holmes-centric "Elementary," "Vegas" with Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis, legal drama "Made in Jersey" and cop drama "Golden Boy" -- and two new comedies -- "Partners," a bromantic comedy, and L.A.-set "Friend Me." CBS added one new show to each weeknight (save Wednesday).

"These new series feature a great range of bold concepts, rich characters, big stars and fresh faces," CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler said in a statement. “From a new take on Sherlock Holmes to an epic battle for control of 1960s Las...

CBS is spreading the love for the 2012-2013 TV season and making some moves.

Next season, "Two And A Half Men" will follow the network's No. 1 comedy "The Big Bang Theory" on Thursday nights and "The Mentalist" is heading to Sundays, airing after "The Good Wife."

CBS picked up six new series for the 2012-2013 TV season: four new dramas -- Sherlock Holmes-centric "Elementary," "Vegas" with Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis, legal drama "Made in Jersey" and cop drama "Golden Boy" -- and two new comedies -- "Partners," a bromantic comedy, and L.A.-set "Friend Me." CBS added one new show to each weeknight (save Wednesday).

"These new series feature a great range of bold concepts, rich characters, big stars and fresh faces," CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler said in a statement. “From a new take on Sherlock Holmes to an epic battle for control of 1960s Las...

Continuing its development season orders, ABC on Friday picked up The Smart One, a half-hour comedy starring Portia de Rossi (Arrested Development), penned by Donald Todd (Samantha Who?) and to be executive-produced by Ellen DeGeneres and Lauren Corrao (The Job). Todd also serves as an Ep.

Check Out TVLine’s Pilot Season Lingo Guide and Our List of Ordered Pilots

A multi-cam sitcom, The Smart One stars de Rossi stars as a brilliant and successful woman who begrudgingly goes to work for her less-brainy but more popular sister — a former beauty queen and weather girl who is now, somehow, a big-city mayor.

Exclusive: Peter Tolan is heading back to the firehouse. In a competitive situation, ABC has landed Angela’s Bachelors, a singe-camera comedy written by the Rescue Me co-creator, which will be set at a Boston firehouse. I hear that the project, from Sony Pictures TV where Tolan is under an overall deal, has received a put pilot commitment and a premium license fee. Based on Brian O’Reilly’s book Angelina’s Bachelors: A Novel With Food, the TV adaptation, titled Angela’s Bachelors, centers on well-educated and proper top chef Angela Bracken who, following a very public embarrassment at her new restaurant in New York City, moves to Boston to start over. After a fire in her apartment, she winds up working as the cook for the men in a local firehouse, elevating the tastes and lives of the rough and tumble crew as they knock her down a...

CBS has started developing a new drama set in the world of evening news. The network has asked for a script for The Producer, The Hollywood Reporter says. The project is being penned by Rick Dresser, who has previously worked on shows such as The Job. Meanwhile, Jerry Weintraub - whose credits include The Karate Kid and Ocean's Eleven - will executive produce. HBO also recently ordered a show about life in a (more)...

Funnyman Denis Leary is demanding Ashton Kutcher's state-of-the-art trailer when he starts work on his new sitcom because he's tired of having to share his personal space with writers and producers.

The actor was stunned to read about the trailer Kutcher has landed himself on the set of comedy show Two and a Half Men - and he insists he deserves a similar palace on wheels as he starts work on a new TV project.

He tells The Hollywood Reporter, "On (TV shows) Rescue Me and The Job, my trailer became the writers' trailer... Six guys in one regular-sized trailer.

"When we go into production on the half-hour (show), I'm getting that Ashton Kutcher trailer and it's going to be (co-writer) Peter (Tolan) and me each with our own floors."...

Details have started to emerge about Sean Hayes' new starring vehicle at NBC, including the fact that it's attracted a high-profile writer to help shape it.

The comedy, which the network announced earlier this month, will star Hayes as half of a gay couple raising a 12-year-old son, EW reports. The show has also hired "Rescue Me" co-creator Peter Tolan to write and executive produce the pilot. Michael Wimer will also executive produce.

Hayes won an Emmy in 2000 (and was nominated six more times) for playing Jack on "Will & Grace." The new project would be his first regular role on a series since that show ended. Hayes is also an executive producer of NBC's new drama "Grimm" and TV Land's "Hot in Cleveland."

Prior to "Rescue Me," Tolan worked on comedies including "The Job," "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Murphy Brown." He's written and produced a couple of comedy...

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline's coverage of TCA. With their seriocomic firefighter drama Rescue Me ending its run on FX in September, series co-creators Denis Leary and Peter Tolan are embarking on another series project together. "I guess I can say right now that Mr. Leary and I are tomorrow starting writing on our next show, a half-hour for him to star in," Tolan told Deadline today after the TCA panel on the final season of Rescue Me. He described it as "strictly a comedy, like nothing we've done before. It's not a traditional comedy, probably for cable. We're doing it totally on spec and taking it out." Before Rescue Me, Leary and Tolan co-created the underrated ABC cop comedy The Job, which also starred Leary. Tolan said that after 10 years of working together, first on The Job and then on Rescue Me, he figures that he and Leary...

As a general rule, the best TV shows don’t last very long. The whole apparatus of television production inexorably trends towards creative entropy: The original writing staff leaves or gets lazy, the actors become bored and overpaid, the newer characters are never as interesting as the original characters (with some very notable exceptions). I never understand people who get angry that Arrested Development was canceled “too early.” The show had 53 fricking episodes — 41 more episodes than Fawlty Towers ever had — and pretty much every episode is worth watching. I’d say that roughly three to seven seasons is the TV...

I have mixed feelings about Denis Leary. Always have. The last few seasons of Rescue Me descended into sort of vanity-project territory for the foul-mouthed Irish comedian (seriously, how many twenty-somethings can you bang in one episode), although we really did like the super-underrated cop show The Job. Oh, and he uses the actress Diane Farr a lot, which is awesome, because nobody else seems to understand how great she is.

read more...

By Annlee Ellingson

(March 2011)

Nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley, the Cinequest Film Festival has merged film and technology for two decades. The event was an early adopter of digital capture and exhibition as well as distribution across all platforms from the big screen to DVD to TV to the Internet to handheld devices.

The tradition continues in the festival’s 21st edition with a program that includes 3-D programming and panels, including the world premiere of the stereo version of “Plan 9 from Outer Space,” two 3-D shorts programs and seminars on the art and science of stereo filmmaking.

Meanwhile, Cinequest is screening 173 films this year from 41 countries — 75 of which are U.S., North American or world premieres. Audiences are expected to near 100,000, with more than 700 artists slated to attend.

This evening’s opening-night film is “Passione,” John Turturro’s musical love poem to the city of Naples.

By Annlee Ellingson

(March 2011)

Nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley, the Cinequest Film Festival has merged film and technology for two decades. The event was an early adopter of digital capture and exhibition as well as distribution across all platforms from the big screen to DVD to TV to the Internet to handheld devices.

The tradition continues in the festival’s 21st edition with a program that includes 3-D programming and panels, including the world premiere of the stereo version of “Plan 9 from Outer Space,” two 3-D shorts programs and seminars on the art and science of stereo filmmaking.

Meanwhile, Cinequest is screening 173 films this year from 41 countries — 75 of which are U.S., North American or world premieres. Audiences are expected to near 100,000, with more than 700 artists slated to attend.

This evening’s opening-night film is “Passione,” John Turturro’s musical love poem to the city of Naples.

James Wolk, the star of Fox's short-lived "Lone Star," is moving to Washington.

Wolk has landed a lead role in "Georgetown," an ABC drama pilot from executive producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage ("Gossip Girl," "The O.C."). He'll play a presidential speechwriter who's starting to become disillusioned with his job, Deadline reports.

"Georgetown" will also focus on the friends and colleagues of Wolk's character. Will Fetters ("Remember Me") wrote the script and is a co-exec producer.

Wolk's "Lone Star" co-star, Eloise Mumford, has also joined an ABC pilot: "The River," a drama about a group of people who go searching for a famed adventurer who has disappeared in the Amazon basin. She'll play a helicopter pilot who's also searching for her dad, a TV cameraman who went missing along with the adventurer.

Other casting news:

More than a decade after "Home Improvement" ended, Tim Allen is returning to ABC in...

Exclusive: The Job and Rescue Me alumna Diane Farr is reuniting with the two series' co-creator Peter Tolan. She is set as the female lead in Fox's comedy pilot for Fox Council of Dads. Also set as leads in the project are Patrick Breen and SAG president Ken Howard. Inspired by Bruce Feiler's non-fiction book, the pilot, which is being directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, tells the story of Michael who, just before he dies, enlists five of his guy friends from all aspects of his life to become a “council of dads” to his two young children. Farr will play Michael's wife, recent widow Catherine, who is absolutely intent on complying with her husband's dying wish but quickly finds out that the five guys on the Council can agree about absolutely nothing. Breen and Howard will play two of the Council's members. Howard plays Michael's dad Burt,...

As a teenager Denis Leary’s No Cure for Cancer was my favorite comedy album (read: “the only comedy album I actually listened to at the time”) and I was a huge fan of the short lived cop show comedy The Job, but that’s no reason to cast him, as the Heat Vision Blog reports, as Captain George Stacy in Marc [...]...

By mastrfshrmn

We admit that we miss Rescue Me—our TV week just feels emptywithout it. But there is one good thing about the fact that the show long agofilmed the entire final season. Writer/producer/star Denis Leary seems to havea lot of extra time on his hands.

That’s good news for fans of the acerbic comedian. Here are fivereasons why:

5. Standup Animated—Leary obviously has more energy to putinto non-Rescue Me content for his production company Apostle. The first newoffering is an animated web series called Shortie. The groovy toons provide avisual to classic standup routines by Joe Yannetty, Pete Correale, Adam Ferraraand Leary himself.

4. Live Short—Apostle also just recently premiered the shortfilm Inside Out starring Bruce Altman and Michael Boatman. Anything produced bythe comic mind that brought us The Job is worth checking out.

3. Let the book controversy begin—Denis has had time towrite another book.

Two alums from the underrated ABC comedy (and old favorite of mine) The Job, co-star Diane Farr and co-creator/executive producer Peter Tolan, have set up hourlong projects at Fox. Farr's project is based on her upcoming semi-autobiographical book You Can't Love One of Them, while Tolan's is a medical drama written by Glen Mazzara (The Shield). Both have received script commitments. Farr's show hails from 20th Century Fox TV and production/management company Generate, which has an overall deal with the studio. Farr will write and produce the project, which revolves around several interracial couples living in the South in a post-Obama world. Farr, whose husband is of Korean decent, developed the characters after tracking couples across America for the past five years. Generate principals Pete Aronson (The Bernie Mac Show) and Jordan Levin are executive producing. In addition to her acting credits, which include Rescue Me, Californication and Numbers,...

Diane Farr has never had a problem hanging with the boys, whether that be on Loveline, The Job, Rescue Me, or Californication. So it’s somehow fitting that she’s brought AssCastles to Funny or Die. For each installment, she takes a tour of a real “AssCastle” — that’s any home with three or more bedrooms that a man resides in without a wife or children and maintains for the sole purpose of “pulling down ass.” She walks through the house with the owner, who takes her through his rap (which room he starts in, which room he puts his best shine on,...

NBC has snagged Brave New World, a workplace comedy project from The Job and Rescue Me co-creator Peter Tolan. The project, from Sony TV where Tolan is based, revolves around the staff at a Plymouth Plantation-type living museum that have people reenact the way the Pilgrims once went about their days. Tolan, who is the writer-executive producer, indicated at last week's TCA that the show might be going to NBC. But I am told that the decision came down to the wire, with NBC and Fox both bidding on it. NBC is the workplace comedy leader at the moment with 5 series, The Office, 30 Rock, Parks & Recreation, Community and Outsourced. After a sluggish start, the broadcast marketplace is picking up pace, with 2 pitches landing put pilot commitments today after interest from multiple networks, Brave New World and a medical drama from Rina Mimoun. In addition to Brave New World, Tolan recently...

The networks aren't the only channels with new shows and schedules to announce -- cable channels do, too!  Here's a quick look at what's to come for TNT, TBS, and FX:

TNT:

Franklin & Bash: TNT might have cancelled Raising the Bar after just two seasons, but they haven't given up on making Mark-Paul "Zach Morris" Gosselaar into a TV lawyer.  Thus, we've got this show, where Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer play two young "street" lawyers who are newly hired at a stuffy old firm run by Malcolm McDowell.  Premiere yet to be announced. Rizzoli & Isles: based on the characters in Tess Gerritsen's mystery novels, Jane Rizzoli, played by Angie Harmon, is a Boston homicide dectective, and Maura Isles, played by Sasha Alexander, is a medical examiner.  They're best friends and often work together on cases.  The Sopranos' Lorraine Bracco also stars.  Premieres July 12 at 10 pm. Memphis Beat: another cop show,...