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.
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 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 8
CBS announced the new entertainment special Norman Lear: A Life on Television, to air tonight - Friday, Dec. 8 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs). Presented by Entertainment Tonight, this one-hour special features new interviews with stars of the long-running comedies Lear created, including Jimmie Walker from Good Times and Mackenzie Phillips from One Day at a Time, in addition to never-before-seen interviews from the ET vault. Also included with this new footage and interviews is an in-depth sit-down interview with Lear that ET host Kevin Frazier conducted when Lear celebrated his 100th birthday, in which he reflected on his lengthy, groundbreaking career.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 4)
Friday, December 8
- Eddie Murphy (The PJs) - Watch Eddie on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Da'Vine Joy Randolph (Only Murders in the Building/High Fidelity/People of Earth/Selfie) - Da'Vine appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- John Caponera (The Good Life) - John is a guest on a repeat of Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen on CBS between 12:37-1:37am.
- Robert Smigel (Let's Be Real) - Triumph the Insult Comic Dog aka Robert Smigel chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- Noah Galvin (The Real O'Neals) and Molly Gordon (Ramy) - Noah and Molly talk about Theater Camp on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am.
- Eric Stonestreet (The Santa Clauses/Modern Family) - Eric talks about The Santa Clauses on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Kenan Thompson (Kenan/Kenan & Kel) - Kenan sits down with Sherri to talk about his new book, When I Was Your Age, on Sherri, so check your local listings.
- Sebastian Maniscalco (Bookie) - Sebastian appears on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
New on DVD/Blu-ray (September-December)
09/05 - Young Sheldon - The Complete Sixth Season
09/12 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Second Season
09/12 - Rick and Morty - The Complete Seasons 1-6 (Blu-ray) (DVD)
09/26 - Family Matters - The Complete Series
09/26 - Step by Step - The Complete Series
10/10 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - The Complete Season Thirteen / The Complete Season Fourteen
10/17 - ALF - The Complete Series (Deluxe Edition) (Shout! Factory Special Offers)
10/17 - Night Court (2023) - The Complete First Season
11/07 - South Park - The Complete Twenty-Sixth Season (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/14 - Leave it to Beaver - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/05 - Father Knows Best - The Complete Series
12/05 - The Odd Couple - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/12 - The Dick Van Dyke Show - The Complete Series
12/12 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 2 (Blu-ray)
12/12 - That Girl - The Complete Series
12/19 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - The Official Restored Complete Series
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