Test Pattern: What's Your Indispensable TV Network?

We all have the networks--whether broadcast or cable, legacy or newbie--that we gravitate to, but I was wondering this morning about so-called indispensable networks.

Given that I write about television, nearly all networks could be said to be indispensable in one way or another, but what I was pondering was that one specific television channel that you can't turn away from, that you automatically switch to when you turn on the television, or which you have on as background while you're doing other things in our multi-tasking obsessed society.

Many years ago, that channel was--perhaps not surprisingly for those of you who know me--Food Network, but it was replaced by BBC America around 2000 and for many years that was my go-to network, the one spot on the metaphorical dial that I could always depend on for diverting fare, soothing background noise, or a sense of the familiar and comforting.

For whatever the reason, sadly, that's not the case anymore and--shock, horror--I've actually gone so far as to remove BBC America from my list of TiVo favorite channels as it's become a 24-hour network showcasing little other than Star Trek: The Next Generation, Top Gear, and repeats of three ubiquitous Gordon Ramsay reality series. (Three standouts this year: crime drama Luther, reality series The Choir, and culinary competition series Come Dine with Me all had short runs, unfortunately, and Doctor Who can't run all year long.)

But that's a rant for another post (and, believe me, it's coming).

What I am curious about is whether you have a specific network that fulfills those needs and just what network that might be. Are you addicted to USA? Hooked on HBO? Famished for Food Network? Drawn to Cartoon Network? Ingratiated towards IFC? Perpetually amazed by AMC?

Head to the comments section to discuss and debate.

Culture Clash: Brief Thoughts on IFC's The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret

I really wanted to like IFC's David Cross-led comedy The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, a co-production with Channel 4's More4 in the UK.

After all, the series was created by Cross and Shaun Pye (Extras) and stars Cross, Will Arnett, The Inbetweeners's Blake Harrison, and Sharon Horgan (Pulling). So I should really love it as I would seem to be the target audience for such a dark and depraved comedy of errors set against a backdrop of cultural differences between Americans and Brits.

But try though I might, there's something entirely off about Todd Margaret, at least in the three episodes that were submitted to the press for review. I couldn't shake off the feeling that this wasn't so much the story of an American adrift in England but rather an effort to smash together US and UK comedy styles. It doesn't quite gel, however. The effect feels a bit like a traditional US sitcom and a quirky UK one at the same time but also like neither.

Which isn't to say that there aren't a few laughs, because there are a few chuckles to be had here now and then.

Cross' titular character, salesman Todd Margaret, finds himself stranded abroad in an unfamiliar country when his new boss (Arnett) sends him to Blighty to hawk unsafe energy drinks to a new market. Upon arriving, this sad sack manages to blisteringly burn his hand, meet adorable cafe owner Alice (Horgan), have his luggage blown up, and then wet himself after his manipulative assistant Dave (Harrison) convinces him to drink several Thunder Muscle drinks. After which he wets himself and causes significant damage to the cafe.

The subsequent episodes--all of which begin with a courtroom scene in which a litany of charges against Todd are being read--continues the same themes as Todd tries to blend in (terribly), is played a fool by Dave again and again, and attempts to woo Alice, all while pretending (A) to be a local lad from Leeds, (B) have a dead father, and (C) know what he's doing at all.

The over-the-top situations that follow attempt to approximate some element of satire or farce but Todd Margaret is such a sad sack, so horrifically ill-at-ease with everyone around him (and himself), and so utterly clueless, that the air is taken out of the sails more than a little bit.

In other words, what this flabby comedy needs is some muscle.

The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret begins tonight at 10 pm ET/PT on IFC.

Channel Surfing: More on Party Down Cancellation, NBC Dumps Persons Unknown on Sats, Weeds, Big Love, and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Following yesterday's brutal cancellation of Party Down, Hitfix's Alan Sepinwall talks to Party Down executive producer Rob Thomas about the cancellation of the Starz comedy. "No one on our side is particularly shocked by the news," Thomas told Sepinwall about the cancellation. "Frankly, the waiting has been excruciating, and there's a certain amount of relief in knowing and being able to move on." Thomas indicated that the series was heading towards a third season renewal before newly installed entertainment czar Chris Albrecht was brought in. "There's little to no doubt that we were going to get one until Chris came in," said Thomas. "But I do think if we had done better numbers, Chris would've kept us. I don't think Chris wanted to come in and clean house. I just don't think he had quite the emotional attachment that people who had been at Starz through the birth of the show had towards it." (Hitfix)

E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos also spoke briefly with Rob Thomas about the Party Down cancellation and learned that he's working on a new project. "I'm writing a drama pilot set in the world of corporate espionage for Showtime," Thomas told Dos Santos yesterday. [Editor: of course, that came out when Dos Santos asked Thomas about what was happening with a Veronica Mars feature film, so Neptune fans, I wouldn't keep holding our breaths on that one.] (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

If you're one of the few tuning in to NBC's serialized thriller, don't get too attached to watching Persons Unknown on Mondays. The Futon Critic is reporting that NBC is shifting Persons to Saturday evenings at 8 pm ET/PT beginning July 17th. Mondays will now how repeats of America's Got Talent at 8 pm, new episodes of Last Comic Standing at 9 pm, and Dateline at 10 pm. Persons Unknown will air its final Monday airing on July 5th. (Futon Critic)

SPOILER! Looking for some dirt on Showtime's Weeds, which returns August 16th? TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck talks to Weeds' Hunt Parrish about the sixth season, which finds the Botwins on the run. "Nancy would never leave her family behind so we're all on the run together. We pick up and move states. It's cool to see this family outside of their world," said Parrish. "We've only had one consistent set in the nine out of thirteen episodes we've shot so far [the Bowtin's RV]. We're filming on location a lot." Look for Nancy to move from pot into the hash business as well. (TV Guide Magazine)

ANOTHER SPOILER? Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello has some dish on the fifth season of HBO's Big Love. "The new season starts shooting July 13, and based on some fresh casting intel, we’ll be seeing a lotta fallout from the Henricksons’ 'outing' as polygamists’, especially at the elementary school some of the kids attend," writes Ausiello. "Maybe Bill will find a sympathetic ear in Richard Dwyer, the Majority Leader of the Utah State Senate and a new recurring character? On second thought, not likely, eh?" (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

The CW has announced its plans for fall, unveiling its autumn launch dates for new and returning series. Up first: America's Next Top Model, kicking off on Wednesday, September 8th, along with new drama Hellcats. The Vampire Diaries and Nikita kick off on Thursday, September 9th. 90210 and Gossip Girl return September 13th, One Tree Hill and Life Unexpected launch on Tuesday, September 14th, and Smallville and Supernatural return to the schedule on Friday, September 24th. (Variety)

SPOILER! TV Guide Magazine's Will Keck is reporting that Harriet Sansom Harris (Frasier) will reprise her role as Felicia Tilman on ABC's Desperate Housewives next season as part of the return of Mark Moses' character Paul to the series. "We are definitely going to show Harriet on the show," an unnamed source confirmed to Keck. "We will be using her to clarify how Paul got out of jail." Felicia, after all, had faked her own death in order to point the finger of suspicion on Paul as revenge for Paul's murder of her sister, Martha Huber. "I had lunch with (series creator) Mark Cherry who gave me an idea of some of the fun stuff he wants Paul to do," Moses told Keck. "It's going to be a great run and very interesting to see which of the housewives still think Paul's guilty and which won't. And just why is he coming back to Wisteria Lane?" (TV Guide Magazine)

Heidi Klum and reality shingle LMNO Productions have teamed up to produce family reality series Seriously Funny Kids, which will, per Variety's Michael Schneider, "go on location to where the kids are and document their reactions to various scenarios." Project will be pitched to networks very soon. (Variety)

E! Online's Megan Masters talks to Bristol Palin about her guest role on ABC Family's Secret Life of the American Teenager. "I was excited to work with the cast and just to contribute to this show's message," Palin told E! Online's Masters. "I feel obligated [to speak out] because I've lived through this experience...the more I talk about it and the more I can be hands on about it, the better I feel about myself...'m not an actress. I'll leave that up to the experts, but I had a great time here. I don't think I'll be doing any more acting in the future." (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared are coming back to television. Well, sort of. IFC has acquired syndication rights for the series, from executive producer Judd Apatow, and will begin airing Freaks and Geeks this Friday at 11 pm ET/PT (along with repeats on Sundays at 10 pm and Mondays at 11 pm), while Undeclared will bow in the fall. (IFC will also air a never-been-aired episode of Undeclared.) (Variety)

Following a successful grassroots campaign waged on Facebook, Travel Channel has saved reality series Three Sheets. The travel series, which follows Zane Lamprey on a beer quest, will shift from the now defunct Fine Living (which morphed into Cooking Channel) to Travel, which has acquired all back episodes and will begin screening new episodes as well. (Hollywood Reporter)

Sundance Channel has hired former Travel Channel executive Michael Klein as SVP of original programming and development. He'll report to Sarah Barnett and be based out of New York. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: "Fringe" Stars Tease Season Two, Maura Tierney Leaves "Parenthood," ABC Lures "Secret Millionaire," and More

Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing.

Fringe stars Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, and John Noble tease some details about the second season of the FOX sci-fi drama, which launches next week, during a video interview on the set of an Entertainment Weekly photo shoot for the magazine's Fall TV Issue (on newsstands today). (Entertainment Weekly)

NBC has announced that Maura Tierney (ER) has left the cast of Parenthood in order to undergo treatment for breast cancer. The series, from executive producer Jason Katims, was originally slated to launch this fall on the Peacock but the network delayed the series until midseason in order to allow Tierney to begin treatment. Unfortunately, that treatment will continue to interfere with the series' production schedule. Tierney and Parenthood have agreed to go their separate ways and Tierney's role, that of harried single mother Sarah Braverman, will now be recast. (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)

ABC has acquired six episodes of Secret Millionaire, the FOX reality series that wasn't picked up for a second season. Series, from RDF USA, will return to production later this year and will launch on ABC in midseason. (Variety)

CBS is said to be close to reaching a deal with Craig Ferguson and Worldwide Pants that will keep the Scottish host on board The Late Late Show through the 2011-12 season. (Variety)

BBC One has commissioned The Wizard of Oz, the latest in its line of star formats such as How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, I'd Do Anything, and Any Dream Will Do. Project, from Talkback Thames, will search for an actress to play Dorothy and a canine actor to play Toto in an upcoming Andrew Lloyd Webber musical production of Oz in London's West End. Judges have yet to be announced for the series, slated to launch in 2010, but Graham Norton will return as host. (Broadcast)

IFC has ordered six half-hour episodes of reality series Dinner with the Band, in which chef Sam Mason will cook a meal for some of the music industry's top indie bands, who will perform and chat over dinner. Series, which is set to debut on November 24th, has already lined up Les Savy Fav, Kid Sister and Flosstradamus Men, Final Fantasy, Yacht, and Sharon Jones &the Dap-Kings. (Variety)

William Hurt (Damages) and Ethan Hawke (XXXX) have joined the cast for an international co-production adaptation of Herman Melville's 1851 novel "Moby Dick." Hurt will play megalomaniac captain Ahab while Hawke will play the ship's first officer, Starbuck. Budget for the Tele Munchen production, a joint venture between Germany's RTL, Austria's ORF, and RHI Entertainment, is said to be in the range of $25 million. Script was written by Nigel Williams and will be directed by Mike Barker. (Hollywood Reporter)

Brian Austen Green (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and Graham Greene (Twilight Saga: New Moon) will topline Hallmark Channel period telepic The Wild Girl, about a would-be photojournalist in the 1930s (Green) who joins up with some Americans en route to Mexico to rescue a kidnapped boy. Project, written by Ronald Parker (Broken Trail), will be directed by Don McBrearty. (Variety)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: "Chuck" Tops Save Our Shows Poll, Adult Swim Hires UK "Office," Shonda Rhimes Talks Denny, "Grey's Anatomy," and More

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing.

Not unsurprisingly, NBC's Chuck has topped USA Today's Save Our Show poll, scoring 54 percent of the 43,000 viewers who cast their votes in the ten-day online poll. The Warner Bros Television-produced series scored the top spot overall as well and was the most favored choice among men, teens and twenty-somethings, thirty-somethings, forty-somethings, whites, Asians, Hispanics, Westerners, Southerners, Northeasterners, and Midwesterners and the fourth favored choice among women as well. (If that's not cross-cultural appeal, I don't know what is.) (USA Today)

Adult Swim has acquired rights to the original UK series The Office, starring Ricky Gervais, from BBC Worldwide and will air both seasons as well as the Christmas special (which marked the series finale) this summer. Move marks the second deal between Adult Swim and BBC Worldwide, which previously sold rights to comedy The Mighty Boosh to the cabler, which launched the series on March 29th. (via press release)

As production on ABC's Grey's Anatomy approaches the 100th episode, creator Shonda Rhimes talks to USA Today's Bill Keveney about the ABC drama, Denny, spin-off Private Practice, and her new pilot Inside the Box. "We're heading on a journey," said Rhimes about Grey's Anatomy's use of Izzie's dead lover Denny. "[Viewers] are in the middle and don't have a map, so they can feel lost. But I know where we're going. For me, it's about looking at the larger picture. [...] What I thought was interesting was that anybody who knew anything about our show would think we had a ghost on our show. In the world in which our show operates, there is a way things happen, and clearly we don't do ghosts." (USA Today)

Disney has announced that it has joined NBC Universal and News Corp as a joint venture partner and equity owner of Hulu. Under the deal, Hulu will now be able to offer full-length episodes of current and library titles from Disney such as Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Private Practice, and Scrubs, among many others. "From our landmark iTunes deal to our pioneering decision to stream ad-supported shows on our ABC.com player, Disney has sought to meet the constantly evolving viewing habits of our consumers, and today's Hulu announcement is the next important step in that ongoing journey," said Robert Iger, President/CEO of The Walt Disney Co. (Hollywood Reporter)

Jon Gosselin, star of TLC's reality series Jon & Kate Plus 8 has issued a statement to Entertainment Weekly after US Weekly published a photo of him leaving a club at 2 am with a female friend. "Like most people, I have male and female friends and I'm not going to end my friendships just because I'm on TV," said Gosselin in an exclusive statement. "However, being out...late at night showed poor judgment on my part. What makes me sick is that my careless behavior has put my family in this uncomfortable position. My family is the most important thing in my life and it kills me that these allegations have hurt them." (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

ABC Family has officially cancelled freshman comedy Roommates. The writing was on the wall when the basic cabler opted to burn off the final eight episodes of the series over two consecutive Monday evenings, with the final four episodes to air in a two-hour block this coming Monday night. (Hollywood Reporter)

Entertainment Weekly's Marc Bernardin wonders why viewers seemingly don't want science fiction on television anymore, with most recent sci fi series--Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse, Chuck, Life on Mars, and Pushing Daisies--either canceled or on the bubble for next year. "Have we, as a society," writes Bernardin, "just become too -- gulp -- stupid for science fiction?" (Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch)

NBC has renewed reality series Celebrity Apprentice for another season and plans to air the next cycle in spring 2010. "It's a valuable franchise and proven competitor," said NBC Universal's alternative topper Paul Telegdy. [Editor: meanwhile, there's still no news of a possible Chuck renewal. Sigh.] (Variety)

TNT will expand its original programming to three nights a week this summer, with Mondays playing host to The Closer and Raising the Bar beginning June 8th, Tuesdays the home of Wedding Day, HawthoRNe, and Saving Grace beginning June 16th, and Wednesdays the berth for Leverage and Dark Blue starting July 15th. (Futon Critic)

IFC has announced a slew of new programming for the 2009-10 season, including Chris Kattan-led three-part comedy Bollywood Hero, airing August 6-8th, Food Party, launching June 9th, which features a "surreal mixture of puppets, weird special effects and cooking hosted by [Tru] Tran," six-part series Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut), which features interviews with the surviving members of the comedy troupe, telefilm Laurel K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, which will debut in 2010, and Dinner with the Band. The cabler also announced that it has acquired BBC comedy series Ideal and Wrong Door and Canadian series The Jon Dore Television Show and renewed Z-Roc and The Whitest Kids U Know. (Hollywood Reporter)

Discovery and Hasbo have closed a deal for a joint venture that will encompass a television network and a website which are dedicated to family-based entertainment. Discovery will receive $300 million for the entertainment assets of its Discovery Kids Network in the US which will be rebranded next year and will feature series from Discovery's library of educational programming as well as series based on Hasbro properties including G.I. Joe, Transformers, Romper Room, Trival Pursuit, Cranium, and My Little Pony. (Hollywood Reporter)

Reveille has announced that it has teamed up with publisher Rodale to develop a reality series based on David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding's best-selling non-fiction book "Eat This, Not That!" (via press release)

Nikki Finke is reporting that, in light of the recent approved merger between William Morris Agency and Endeavor, that the majority of the TV reality department, including Mark Itkin, John Ferriter, and Colin Reno, have decided to leave and set up camp at CAA while talent agent Dana Simms asked to be released from her contract. (Deadline Hollywood Daily)

CMT has picked up musical series The Singing Bee, which aired its first season on NBC last year, and will launch the series' second season on June 16th. So far the series, which is produced by Gurin Co. and Juma Entertainment, has no host but the producers say that they are close to closing a deal on that front. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: IFC Stakes Claim to "Anita Blake," Bryan Fuller Talks "Heroes" Return, "Life on Mars" Series Finale, and More

Welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. I promise no April Fool's Day jokes here, just real TV-related headlines this morning.

IFC and Lionsgate Television are developing telepic Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, based on Hamilton's best-selling Anita Blake novels about the female vampire hunter who also works as a police consultant on supernatural crimes. The movie, which will be produced by Lionsgate and After Dark Films, was written/executive produced by Glen Morgan (The X-Files) and will be shot this summer. (Variety)

SCI FI Wire has an exclusive interview with Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller about his return to NBC's Heroes, what went wrong with the series, and how he intends to fix it. "After I finished watching [the "Villains" episodes the producers sent over], I wasn't sure I could do this," said Fuller. "I didn't recognize the show anymore. It had become something else entirely. My favorite characters had become my least favorite, and there was a second I thought I had to get out of this. Then I started reading the 'Fugitives' scripts, and I thought it was picking up again. There were some stumbles along the way, where it started to get muddy, but I was more inspired." (SCI FI Wire)

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello talks to Life on Mars executive producers Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg about the series finale of the US adaptation of the British series, which wraps its run tonight on ABC. "There is a very clear and definitive answer as to what his journey has been about and how all the pieces over the past 17 hours play into that journey," said Appelbaum about the resolution to Sam Tyler's story. "At the same time, we hope, like all great finales, it still leaves things open to interpretation. But if there's one thing we feel pretty good about it's that in the afterlife of Life on Mars on DVD or wherever, it will exist as a cohesive, complete thought that will all make sense." (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)

Pilot casting alert: Kevin Rahm (Desperate Housewives) and Jeff Davis will star in ABC comedy pilot presentation This Little Piggy; Dash Mihok (Punisher: War Zone) has joined the cast of CBS comedy pilot The Fish Tank; Rob Huebel (Human Giant) and Julio Oscar Mechoso (Cane) will star in FOX comedy pilot The Station, directed by Ben Stiller; and Alison Brie (Mad Men) has joined the cast of NBC comedy pilot Community. (Hollywood Reporter)

FOX has found their replacement for the axed MADtv. The network is launching an untitled latenight series starring Wanda Sykes in the 11 pm timeslot on Saturday evenings. Series, which will largely resemble the format of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, will launch either this fall or January 2010. Meanwhile, Spike Feresten's latenight FOX talkshow is said to be on the bubble. (Broadcasting & Cable)

AMC is developing reality docuseries True West, that will "follow a group of modern cowboys as they pursue a trade that's quickly vanishing." Project, executive produced by Brett Morgen, is still in its early stages. "We had been putting the word out very quietly but sort of consciously that we were looking at unscripted series, with the mandate being that we were looking for an unscripted series that plays like a drama series," said SVP of original programming Joel Stillerman. "We're not looking to do a competition show or one that's heavily formatted." (Variety)

BBC Worldwide has offered episodes of cult British comedy The Mighty Boosh on iTunes. Episodes from the series' third season will be available at the iTunes store for $1.99 each after they air on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim every Sunday night. The first episode is currently being offered at the reduced price of $.99, so act now! (via press release)

Discovery has renewed five unscripted series including American Loggers, Destroyed in Seconds, How Stuff Works, Time Warp, and Treasure Quest, each of which has been picked up for a seconf season. (Variety)

FOX's The Simpsons are being memorialized on a 44-cent first-class stamp designed by series creator Matt Groening, which celebrates the animated series' twentieth anniversary. The stamp, which features the Simpson clan, will be unveiled on April 9th. (Hollywood Reporter)

Fine Living has ordered a second season of 26 episodes of Whatever, Martha!, the unscripted series that showcases Alexis Stewart and friend Jennifer Koppelman Hutt commenting on old episodes of Martha Stewart Living. (Variety)

SAG and AFTRA have jointly reached a tentative new three-year commercials contract, which is subject to the approval of the SAG/AFTRA Joint National Board and sees an increase of more then $36 million in wage hikes and other payments. AFTRA national president Roberta Reardon called the new contract "a major victory for our unions -- and a victory for organized labor as a whole." (Hollywood Reporter)

USA Today's Gary Levin looks at the belt-tightening going on at the networks and how rough economic times are forcing the networks to get smarter with their money during development season. Still, there are a few big-budget pilots on the horizon (like ABC's $7 million Flash Forward) even as the nets look to trim costs by shooting in less expensive locales (hello, Atlanta!), using digital video rather than 35 mm film, and going back to multi-camera on more comedies rather than go for the more expensive single-camera style. (USA Today)

Heroes creator/executive producer Tim Kring has signed a deal to create interactive entertainment applications for Nokia's Ovi Store, launching this summer. (Variety)

BBC One has confirmed that heisty dramedy The Invisibles will not be returning for a second season. The series, which starred Anthony Stewart Head and Warren Clark, did not find an audience when it aired last summer. "In spite of a great cast and production team, The Invisibles didn't find its audience," said a BBC spokesperson. "We remain very proud of it but it won't be returning." (The Daily Mirror)

Nikki Reed has been named VP of current and development for Universal Cable Prods., where she will be tasked with developing scripted series for non-NBC Universal-owned cable networks. (Hollywood Reporter)

Stay tuned.

Channel Surfing: "Lost" Premiere Title Revealed; ABC "Maid" to Order, "Friday Night Lights," and More

Good morning and welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. (Is it really Wednesday already? Wow.)

Doc Jensen has the scoop on the title of the fifth season premiere of Lost: "Because You Left." Wowsers, that's a fantastic title, no? You'll have to brave reading through Jeff's write-ups of the Lost panel at Comic-Con and the new Dharma Initiative-based ARG (along with an important message about the upcoming Stand Up 2 Cancer television special on September 5th) but it's right there at the very end of Doc's latest treatise on the ABC drama. (Entertainment Weekly)

Sigh. Yet another feature film en route to the small screen: ABC has given a put pilot commitment to a series adaptation of the 2002 Jennifer Lopez feature film Maid in Manhattan, about a maid--not the Jennifer Lopez character but a different maid--and single mother who works at a posh Manhattan hotel and falls for a politician who mistakes her for a guest. (I guess those new maid uniforms must be pretty darn chic these days.) Project will be written by Chad Hodge (Runaway) and will be executive produced by Jennifer Lopez, Joe Roth, Simon Fields, and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas. (Hollywood Reporter)

IFC has acquired all three seasons of British comedy series The IT Crowd, which aired in Blighty on Channel 4. Move comes a year after NBC developed and then dumped (rather unceremoniously) a US adaptation of the hit series about two IT workers and their rather clueless female boss that starred the original's Richard Ayoade along with Joel McHale and Jessica St. Clair. Cabler plans to launch the original UK version of The IT Crowd on September 29th. Deal was brokered by distributor Fremantle, which has also sold BBC2 series Look Around You to Adult Swim/Cartoon Network and live-action/animated hybrid sketch comedy series Modern Toss to IFC. These deals make me wonder a little why these series aren't ending up on digital cabler BBC America, which clearly could use an influx of new comedy (besides for the upcoming--and rather fantastic--first season of Gavin and Stacey). (Variety)

NBC/DirecTV's drama Friday Night Lights, entering its third season in October, has found a new quarterback in the form of former Peter Pan/Clubhouse star Jeremy Sumpter, who will play J.D. McCoy, a freshman QB who moves to Dillon with his family and finds himself competing with Saracen (Zach Gilford) for the top spot on the team."J.D.’s a straight and narrow kid who’s been bred to be a football player by his father, and lives in the shadow of his father, who's a big personality," according to FNL executive producer Jason Katims. "There’s an interesting story about this kid feeling somewhat suffocated by his dad and starting to look more to Coach as a mentor." Casting comes on the heels of Janine Turner and D.W. Moffett joining the cast. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)

And speaking of Saracen, Kim Dickens (Deadwood, Lost) has signed on to play Matt's never-bef0re-seen mother. (TV Guide)

HBO has cast Jane Adams (Frasier) as the female lead opposite Thomas Jane in the one-hour dramedy pilot Hung, to be directed by Alexander Payne (Election). Adams will play Tanya, a local poet who helps sad sack high school basketball coach Ray (Jane) market his, er, unique skills as he enters a more lucrative field of work. (Hollywood Reporter)

In other casting news, Cynthia Stevenson (Dead Like Me's superlative Joy) will star opposite Bob Saget in comedy series Surviving Suburbia, launching Sunday nights in September as part of the CW's Media Rights Capital-controlled programming block. (Hollywood Reporter)

Next season's edition of America's Next Top Model features yet another first as it welcomes its very first transgender competitor in the form of Maryland contestant Isis, a former receptionist. (US Weekly)

Remember when sitcoms were fueled by superstar standup comedians? No longer as more and more comedy series are being populated with serious actors. What caused this change? "The nature of television comedy has shifted," The Office's Rainn Wilson said in an interview. "Over the past five or 10 years, the phenomenon of standup actors getting development deals, centered on his brightly lit comic personality, is not happening as much.Today you have more interesting setups for comedy, so you need actors to fill that. What you have in sitcoms right now are very funny character actors. Even Alec Baldwin, for example, is just a funny character actor who for years was trapped in a leading man's body. Steve Carell can do it all, from Little Miss Sunshine to really broad stuff." Read Wilson's take on this fascinating trend. (Variety's Award Central)

Finally, HBO's comedy Entourage is now available to download for $1.99 a pop via Apple's iTunes store, which is offering all episodes of Seasons One and Two beginning today, with Season Three turning up on August 18th and Season Four on August 26th... the perfect time to catch up before Entourage's fifth season launches on September 7th on HBO. (Variety)

Stay tuned.