TV Land Orders New Sitcom Starring Jim Gaffigan; FX Laughs It Up on Monday Nights with Sheen, Grammer and Lawrence

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

TV Land Orders New Sitcom Starring Jim Gaffigan; FX Laughs It Up on Monday Nights with Sheen, Grammer and Lawrence

TV Land has picked up The Gaffigan Show, created by Peter Tolan and Jim Gaffigan. The network has ordered 10 episodes. Jim Gaffigan is The New York Times best-selling author of Dad is Fat. The single-camera series is inspired by Gaffigan's real life, exploring one man's struggle in New York City to find a balance between fatherhood, stand-up comedy and an insatiable appetite. The Gaffigan Show will shoot in New York and premiere on TV Land in 2015. Peter Tolan (The Larry Sanders Show) will serve as executive producer alongside Jim Gaffigan and Jeannie Gaffigan. Brillstein Entertainment Partners' Alex Murray and Sandy Wernick will also executive produce along with Michael Wimer of Fedora Entertainment. Seth Gordon (The Goldbergs) directed the pilot episode.

The series will also air on Comedy Central, a sister Viacom network, within one week after its TV Land premiere. Gaffigan has a large, loyal fan base on Comedy Central with his stand-up specials and on social media with over two million Twitter followers. Ashley Williams (How I Met Your Mother) will co-star in The Gaffigan Show as Jim’s wife. Cult comedy favorites Adam Goldberg (Fargo) and Michael Ian Black (Ed) also star as Jim's best friend and his wife's meddling confidante, respectively.

Charlie Sheen

FX will serve up original Monday laughs in late summer. Charlie Sheen returns to Monday nights in original back-to-back episodes of Anger Management beginning Monday, August 4 at 10:00 PM ET/PT on FX. The series will follow the double-episode 9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT premiere of FX's new 10/90 sitcom Partners, starring Kelsey Grammer and Martin Lawrence. Both Lionsgate-produced comedies will air back-to-back episodes for five consecutive weeks. Anger Management has now completed 80 episodes of its 100-episode order and will enter syndication this fall (check local listings for time and station). Partners, also crafted using the unique 10/90 syndication model pioneered by Lionsgate's Debmar-Mercury, is now commencing its initial 10-episode run.

In the first new episode of Anger Management airing August 4, Charlie Goodson (Charlie Sheen) struggles to resist the advances of his friend Sean's (Brian Austin Green) gorgeous younger sister and in the second, he deals with the unexpected consequences of meeting his girlfriend's best friend. The series ensemble also includes Shawnee Smith, Laura Bell Bundy, Noureen DeWulf, Michael Arden, Derek Richardson, Barry Corbin, Brett Butler and Daniela Bobadilla.

Partners - Martin Lawrence and Kelsey Grammer

Partners opens after Allen Braddock (Kelsey Grammer), a blue-blood Chicago lawyer, is fired from his father's law firm for his questionable ethics and is brought down to the courthouse to be punished. There he runs into Marcus Jackson (Martin Lawrence), a man-of-the-people community lawyer who is representing himself in his own divorce settlement hearing. The two men strike a deal and end up forming an unexpected partnership. In the second episode, the partners suspect that a high-end wedding planner is taking advantage of same-sex couples and while Marcus sees this as an opportunity to help a young couple that was duped, Allen focuses on the lucrative potential in cornering the market on future same-sex divorces. When they pose as a couple to get evidence, it shines a light on the problems in their own relationship. Other series regulars include Telma Hopkins, Rory O'Malley, McKaley Miller, Edi Patterson and Danièle Watts.

Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Friday, December 14

Fresh Off the Boat - "Cousin Eddie" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
The battle begins between mother and son when Eddie informs Jessica that he wants to spend Christmas with friend Nicole in New York. But Jessica insists that tradition prevails and he needs to spend the holiday with the family, so he does everything within his power to try and get her to crack and allow him to go. Meanwhile, Louis and Evan do their best to try and help an overwhelmed Emery decide on which one of his numerous friends to invite to the family’s Christmas Eve dinner.

Speechless - "J-I-- JINGLE T-H-- THON" (ABC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
A Christmas tree fire leads Maya to tell a small lie with big consequences. Meanwhile, Ray struggles to live in Pepper’s shadow as Dylan twists the knife, and JJ encourages Kenneth to stand up to his sisters (guest stars Niecy Nash and Lisa Leslie).

I Love Lucy - "I Love Lucy Christmas Special" (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT)
I LOVE LUCY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL features “The Christmas Episode” and the newly colorized “Pioneer Women.” Both were colorized with a nod to the 1950s period in which they were filmed. The main titles and end credits are seamlessly combined into one set at the beginning and end of the hour, with no interruption between the episodes.

“The Christmas Episode” finds the Ricardos and Mertzes decorating Lucy and Ricky’s Christmas tree and reminiscing about how their lives have changed since the arrival of the Ricardos’ son, Little Ricky (Keith Thibodeaux). Flashbacks recall the night Lucy tells Ricky she is pregnant, the time Lucy shows up unexpectedly as part of a barbershop quartet, and the day Ricky and the Mertzes rehearse taking Lucy to the maternity ward.

“The Christmas Episode” was first broadcast on CBS on Christmas Eve, 1956. The episode was not included in the series’ long history of rebroadcasts, first on CBS Daytime and later in syndication. Long thought to be lost, the program was rediscovered by CBS in 1989.

In “Pioneer Women,” Lucy and Ethel’s hopes of joining the posh Society Matrons’ League leads to a bet with their husbands over which sex – the men or the women – had it harder living in a bygone era. They select the turn of the last century, and as Lucy and Ethel start to bake their own bread and churn their own butter, the men become acquainted with straight-blade shaving and riding home from work on horseback. They all have some “‘splainin’” to do when two ladies from the Society Matrons’ League stop by for an unexpected visit.

“Pioneer Women” was originally broadcast on March 31, 1952, and became an immediate viewer favorite.

The Dick Van Dyke Show - "The Dick Van Dyke Show -- Now in Living Color!" (CBS, 9:00PM ET/PT)
The special features the season one episode “Where Did I Come From,” written by Carl Reiner, and the season four episode “Never Bathe on Saturday,” also written by Reiner. The main titles and end credits of the two episodes are seamlessly combined into one set – at the beginning and end of the hour – with no interruption between the episodes.

The Emmy Award-winning series starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore as television comedy writer Rob and his wife, Laura Petrie; Larry Matthews as their son, Ritchie; Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie as Buddy Sorrell and Sally Rogers, co-writers on the fictional “The Alan Brady Show”; Carl Reiner as Alan Brady; Richard Deacon as Mel Cooley; Jerry Paris as Dr. Jerry Helper; and Ann Morgan Guilbert as Millie Krumbermacher Helper.

In “Where Did I Come From,” 6-year-old Ritchie asks his parents the inevitable “where did I come from?” question, and they recall the days before his birth. The episode was first presented on Jan. 3, 1961 during the series’ first season.

In “Never Bathe on Saturday,” the Petries’ romantic second honeymoon becomes a disaster when Laura’s toe gets caught in a bath spout. The episode was first presented on March 31, 1965, during season four.

Last Man Standing - "The Gift of the Mike Guy" (Fox, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Vanessa helps the family realize the importance of its long-standing holiday family traditions.

The Cool Kids - "Margaret Dates the Zodiac Killer" (Fox, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Margaret begins dating Karl, a fellow resident who may or may not be the "Zodiac Killer."

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 10)

Friday, December 14

Karen Gillan (Selfie) - Watch Karen on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC. She talks about The Party's Just Beginning on the BUILD Series at 2pm.
Tony Shalhoub (Wings/We Are Men) - Watch Tony on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle, Laura Linney (The Big C) and Nick Kroll (The League/Cavemen) - Bryan, Laura and Nick make special guest appearances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
Bill Burr (F Is for Family/Townies) - Bill is a guest on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Busy Philipps (Vice Principals/Cougar Town) - Busy appears on a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Romany Malco (Weeds/Blunt Talk) - Romany is a guest on a repeat of Last Call with Carson Daly at 1:35am on NBC.
Kathryn Hahn (I Love Dick/Happyish/Transparent/Free Agents) - Kathryn talks about the film Private Life on LIVE! with Kelly and Ryan, so check your listings.
Ellie Kemper (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt/The Office) - Ellie appears on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings.
Minnie Driver (Speechless/About a Boy) - Minnie is a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings.
Leah Remini (Kevin Can Wait/The Exes/Family Tools/The King of Queens/Fired Up) - Leah visits The Wendy Williams Show, so check your local listings.
Angela Kinsey (The Office/Haters Back Off/Your Family or Mine/The Hotwives of Orlando) - Angela and her husband Joshua Snyder serve up monkey bread and chocolate peppermint cupcakes on Rachael Ray, so check your local listings.
Vanessa Hudgens (Powerless) - Vanessa talks about Second Act on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am.
Chris Elliott (Schitt's Creek/Get a Life) - Chris talks about Clara's Ghost on Couch Surfing at 8am.
Tia Mowry (Instant Mom/The Game/Sister, Sister) - Tia talks about Hallmark Channel's A Gingerbread Romance on Home & Family on Hallmark Channel at 10am ET/PT.
Christine Lakin (Hollywood Darlings/Step by Step) - Christine is a guest on Steve, so check your local listings.