BY ALI GOLDSTEIN/NBC/NBCU PHOTO BANK/GETTY IMAGES. Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski, and Alec Baldwin in a 30 Rock scene.
Update, 5/11: NBC tells Vanity Fair that it has renewed Parks and Recreation for a 22-episode season and ordered 13-episode seasons of Community and 30 Rock. The network declined to say whether these would be the final seasons for any of the series.
A trio of devastating television developments today: NBC reportedly plans to raze 75 percent of its beloved Thursday-night comedy lineup. The rumored casualties: 30 Rock, Community, andParks and Recreation—all three of which represent some of the smartest (if only moderately watched) comedic output by any network right now. Instead of canceling the shows outright, the Peacock network will reportedly announce shortened final seasons for each at next week’s annual “upfront” presentation in New York City. The fourth Thursday-night sitcom, The Office, which is in its eight season, is predicted to remain on the air.
The network has already confirmed series orders for six new comedies, including Go On, from NBC alum Matthew Perry; The New Normal, from Ryan Murphy; 1600 Penn, the White House comedy starring Bill Pullman and Jenna Elfman; Anne Heche’s Save Me; and Animal Practice, a veterinary-clinic-set sitcom starring Justin Kirk. Judging by NBC’s recent comedy batting average, at least one of these shows should make you laugh.
Next year will mark 30 Rock’s seventh season, the fifth for Parks and Recreation, and the fourth for Community. Earlier this year, 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin, who has won two Emmys for his portrayal of Jack Donaghy, alluded to a near-future exit from the network, when he covertly tweeted, “I think I’m leaving NBC just in time.” To deal with this blow, we defer to a piece of Jack Donaghy’s immortal wisdom: “We all have ways of coping. I use sex and awesomeness.”
CBS wasn’t bluffing … ’cause the network has made good on its threat to sue ABC over an upcoming reality show which CBS claims is a blatant rip off of “Big Brother” … and it’s NASTY.
As we previously reported, CBS fired off a cease-and-desist letter to ABC last week … claiming “Glass House” is “strikingly” similar to “Big Brother” — a bunch of people living in a house and competing for prizes.
Now, in a lawsuit filed in federal court in L.A., CBS states, “If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then CBS should take pride in ABC’s latest reality television project, ‘Life in a Glass House.'”
In the suit, CBS refers to “Glass House” as a “carbon copy” of “Big Brother” — and calls ABC’s decision to green light the show an “obvious attempt … to capitalize on its unique success.”
CBS claims its trying to stop ABC from committing a blatant theft of its copyrightable expression, trade secrets and other confidential information.
CBS also claims ABC has hired at least 19 former “BB” staffers to work on “Glass House” — and believes the employees are actively disclosing CBS’s trade secrets and confidential information to produce the show. CBS also believes at least one “Glass House” exec has been trying to poach current “BB” employees.
CBS wants at least 3 former high level “Big Brother” employees who signed with “Glass House” to fork over $500,000 EACH for allegedly violating a confidentiality agreement they had with CBS.
Three. That’s the number of Glee episodes left in the third season and the percent possibility that Brittany will graduate this year. But that girl could beat the odds.
Anyway, Glee is definitely packing a whole bunch in their final episodes of the season, including the big guest stars, the big musical numbers and the answer to a big question:
Earlier this month, we noted Hillary Clinton’s sudden surge in coolness after the Secretary of State spent a night dancing and drinking beer at a bar in Colombia, where she was attending an international summit. (President Obama, who attended the same summit but was not pictured in blurry bar photos the next day, we theorized, had faked an illness so that he could catch up on Mad Men and aimless Wikipedia searches in his hotel room.) But just how is Hillary Clinton accelerating her awesomeness this week? By coolly rejecting tenuous casting offers for popular prime-time television shows.
On last night’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Jason Segel appeared to promote his new comedy The Five-Year Engagement. But before discussing the movie, the comedic actor excitedly dove into an anecdote about how, according to Segel, the stateswoman recently got in touch with him to turn down a role that she was never officially offered on his CBS sitcom, How I Met Your Mother.
“Every time I’m on the red carpet and [reporter ask me], ‘Who is the mother going to be?’ I always say Hillary Clinton, just as a joke. And then I got a letter in the mail that was like, ‘I appreciate your request but I must say that I am very busy doing politics. If the opportunity ever arise, I would be happy to do something together. —Hillary Clinton.’ [Laughing.] I got a rejection letter from Hillary Clinton.”
That’s right. If you make a snide joke about casting Hillary Clinton on the red carpet, she will allegedly locate her coolest stationery, find your address, and personally reject your fake casting offer. (Not to mention create an entertaining anecdote that topic-bombs the late-night-talk-show segment you were supposed to dedicate to your upcoming movie.) Point: Hillary Clinton. At this rate, Clinton will either inspire her own Chuck Norris–style satirical factoids, start quoting Tupac Shakur on Capitol Hill, or spur her own Ryan Gosling–style meme, which she will respond to in the coolest fashion possible. Oh wait.
The new HBO series Girls isn’t exactly a show for dudes. It’s being called Sex and the City for twenty-something millennials (primarily of the female persuasion), but there’s enough clever writing and humor to lend it some appeal on both ends of the gender spectrum. There’s also Allison Williams, one of the show’s leading ladies, who makes a convincing case for tuning in.
Substitute store-brand cranberry juice for Cosmos, slip on thrift store flats instead of Manolo Blahniks, shrink a Park Avenue apartment and move it to Brooklyn, and stick four female twentysomethings with thankless jobs and you’ll get Girls, HBO’s hyped new Judd Apatow-produced comedy series that’s essentially the starkly realistic byproduct of the fantasies Sex and the City instilled in its younger audiences.
Created by and starring one of the funniest females in the biz, Lena Dunham, the series, which airs every Sunday at 10:30 p.m., follows four (the three others including Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke and Zosia Mamet) privileged young women trying to navigate their life in New York City.
After last night’s impressive premiere episode, we’re sure you want to know more about the women who fearlessly portray the show’s engaging characters. We did a bit of Googling and made this cast guide for you and anyone who’s just as curious. Consider it the after-show introduction to the stars of the Girls.
Lena Dunham Who she is on the show: Hannah Horvath
As Hannah Horvath, Dunham is the girl of the show whose lofty ambitions far exceeds her will to actually accomplish anything, yet her naiveté makes her the endearing lead. She believes herself to be the “voice of her generation,” yet she hasn’t penned more than the memos she writes for her internship. After being cut off by her well-to-do parents, she’s attempting to land a paying job, yet she doesn’t realize her own quirks make her unhirable. Most crippling of all, she’s convinced of a relationship with a scrawny man-child to whom she seems to mean nothing more than a perennial hook-up.
It was a blast from the past at the 10th annual TV Land Awards Saturday in New York City, as many of television’s top casts reunited for a nostalgic flash of star power and boob-tube mania.
The fête saw players from some of TV’s most beloved shows catch up for the first time in years, including the casts of Murphy Brown, Laverne & Shirley and In Living Color.
Talk about prime time!
So how do the shows’ stars look now, and what have they been up to?
Emily Maynard may have called it quits with Brad Womack, but that doesn’t mean she’s given up on love altogether. Emily, who was deemed the “winner” of Brad’s heart on The Bachelor, is coming back to reality television as ABC’s newest Bachelorette!
According to People Mag, Emily is “scared to death” about looking for love on television … Keep Reading >>
Huzzah! Television’s most adorkable half-hour comedy, New Girl, has been picked up for a second season. What fresh misadventures will the second season bring? And what does the well deserved series extension mean for the likelihood of a Schmidt-centric spin-off? Have our dreams of Who Gives a Schmidt?, starring Max Greenfield and Chloe Moretz as his caustic little sister, been dashed against the rocks?
There’s more good news for the (many, we hope!) of us rooting for Jess’s new relationship with wealthy, 40-something helicopter parent Russell (Dermot Mulroney). Mulroney told The Los Angeles Times, “I’ve finished my run, and they’ve finished doing this season. But I’ve been harassing [creator Liz Meriwether] about how to get Russell back on.” The return of Russell! We love Russell. We feel like the employees of Instagram right now.
Tommy Z.™
Geek For Life™ 