TVSquad

Sometimes, when it's too rainy outside to go anywhere and the air is full of a sense of doom and gloom, all you want is to just hole up indoors and watch hours and hours and hours of nonstop Canadian sketch comedy and cross-dressing. Hey, I can't possibly be the only one that feels that way, because otherwise, the Kids in the Hall complete series megaset wouldn't have been made. I had a full rainy week to lounge around with this lovely collection and we got to know each other pretty well. It's a real sweetheart, to be sure... A real cross-dressing, head-crushing, fact-sharing, cabbage-headin' sweetheart.

Some interesting news coming out of ABC today, one of which is a surprise, the other of which isn't:

First the non-surprise: Both TV Week and Kristin Dos Santos at E! Online are reporting that Pushing Daisies has been picked up for the rest of the season. That means 22 episodes of non-contact cuteness from Ned and Chuck. Ratings for the first three episodes have been solid, and -- at least based on the fun third episode -- worries about how the show might operate with budget restrictions have been so far unfounded.

The surprising ABC news: The former Ms. Veitch is also reporting that three more scripts have been ordered for Bruce McCulloch's Carpoolers, bringing the total order to 12 episodes. Despite the pedigree, the show hasn't been all that impressive so far either in quality or in the ratings. This makes me wonder if ABC is ordering more scripts in case there's a writers' strike.

When I wrapped up my interview with Bruce McCulloch -- executive producer of ABC's Carpoolers and a member of the legendary comedy troupe Kids In The Hall -- I asked him if there was anything else he might be working on. "Yeah, I'm going to have a heart attack next March, and I wanted people to know about that," he joked. For a guy who has worn a lot of hats in his career, nothing has kept him busier than being the boss.

Carpoolers, a single-camera comedy premiering on ABC tonight at 8:30 PM ET, is about four guys who use their carpool to explore what's going on in each other's lives. The show is McCulloch's brainchild, which means he's involved with everything from the writing to how many donuts will be on the craft services table. Yet he still has time to write and perform his own surreal works, as well as perform occasionally with the Kids, who have been together for almost a quarter-century.

I got a chance to speak to McCulloch last week, and we talked about what it's like to premiere after the season's most lambasted new show (Cavemen), what parts of himself he sees in each of his main characters, what it's like to work with Fred Goss and Jerry O'Connell (who spoke to our friends at AOL last week), and why the Kids have managed to stay together for so long. Highlights are after the jump, as well as an audio embed of the interview (35 minutes).

We TV Critics are dead on our feet now that we're in the last two days of a near-three week press tour at the Beverly Hilton, but that hasn't stopped us from getting dish from actors and producers here to hawk their fall ABC series.

On stage to promote Cashmere Mafia (a series about four women living life in New York City) creator Darren Star was asked about his other program about four women that call the Big Apple home. Star says: "There's a [film] script. It's in the form of pre-production."

The career trajectories of the former Kids in the Hall have been fascinating to behold. Dave Foley went from a starring turn in News Radio to a funny, but strange co-hosting gig on Celebrity Poker Showdown. Mark McKinney appeared briefly on SNL and now sits around the writer's room of Studio 60 hoping Aaron Sorkin will throw him a bone and actually let him write something. Kevin McDonald turns up in bit parts everywhere and keeps a steady gig as the voice of Lilo and Stitch's alien life form Pleakley. Scott Thompson visits Conan every once in awhile, but my favorite Bruce McCulloch's post-Kids appearances have been few and far between. McCulloch served a brief stint as a SNL writer and wrote and directed the forgettable film Dog Park.