TVSquad

When I interviewed Susanne Daniels, the President for Entertainment at the Lifetime Network, she was high on the success of Army Wives, and anxious to bring more comedy to the network.

"Viewers tell us that they love our comedies, our movies, Army Wives. I would argue that more people identify Reba and Will and Grace with our network now than the networks that launched them. And I was at the WB when Reba launched!" she said in TV Week. Well, now she's launching a new comedy, this time for Lifetime.

Lifetime has ordered 13 episodes of a new sitcom called Rita Rocks for this fall and cast Nicole Sullivan as Rita. The show will be part of a one-hour comedy block with Reba. "We've assembled a fantastic team in front of and behind the camera," said Ms. Daniels in a statement today.

Michael Ausiello at TVGuide.com has been playing with his calculator, or maybe it was an abacus. Anyway, Mike has used some oh-so-creative math to add two and two together to get a major revelation on a CBS sitcom. Okay, here's the scoop. Mr. Ausiello has gotten an exclusive casting tidbit from How I Met Your Mother.

Alicia Silverstone, star of Clueless on the big screen, Miss Match on the small, has been signed for a series of episodes, a mini-arc.

Funny ladies Rosie O'Donnell (Nip/Tuck) and Fran Drescher (The Nanny) are working together on creating a new "fun, happy, family comedy" for TV. On Rosie's website, Fran and Rosie teamed up on camera to talk -- primarily about Fran's "cancer schmancer" campaign for public awareness -- but at the end, Rosie and Fran revealed a sitcom they are planning in which they'll star together.

There's no question that Fran and Rosie are funny women with loyal fans. The Nanny was a CBS hit for six seasons. Rosie, who more recently has been a source of controversy like her very tumultuous time as a cohost on The View, has also been a success on TV. While she was on The View, the ratings were higher than ever before or since. She also had an Emmy-award winning daytime talk show for six years straight which had a vociferous following.

It's so nice now that the WGA strike is over and all the shows are coming back, isn't it? It's like we're suddenly inundated with presents galore. Just the idea of new shows puts a smile on my face; let's hope it's still there once the shows air!

ABC has announced that Samantha Who?, their most promising new sitcom of the season, will be returning with six new episodes on Monday, April 7 (at 9:30). But maybe the network's biggest news is a time shift. Starting April 24, Lost will commence five new episodes at 10:00, rather than 9:00. Also on April 24, Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy both return with five new episodes each.

If you're a relatively new TV network known for scripted dramas, reality shows and theatrical performances, who would you want to star in your first sitcom? If you said "Flavor Flav", then you and MyNetworkTV have a lot in common.

The show will be called Under One Roof and is about a former convict (played by Flav) who moves in with his wealthy, conservative brother and his brother's family. He then starts teaching his nephew to be a gangster rapper. I only wish I was kidding.

In July, I was at a sitcom writing seminar in which Sam Simon (who helped develop The Simpsons) declared: "the sitcom is dead." Veteran comedy writer Ken Levine (who hosted that sitcom seminar), however, disagrees. Ken believes the traditional multi-camera sitcom might be on a respirator, but still has a pulse. Levine said, "I would amend Sam's statement and say that yeah, the bad, stale, family sitcom with tired rhythms, forced laughs, and bogus characters is dead."

I guess if you're trying to revive the dying sitcom, a good way to start is by assembling a top-notch team. And Fox's new Wednesday night comedy, Back to You, does just that.

It's a typical night in Moscow. You have just finished supper and are now ready to sit down with your wife, children, parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to watch some television. On the screen a sad-faced shoe salesman is anchored to his living room couch watching his own TV. Strutting behind him is his gaudily-dressed, shockingly red-haired wife. To the side his ditsy blonde-haired daughter and fairly intelligent son, who dreams of something bigger in his life, bicker over something or other.

Sounds a bit like Married... With Children, doesn't it? Well, truth be told, it actually is. The name of the show is Schastlivy Vmeste (translated to Happy Together) and it is an authorized copy of the former FOX sitcom featuring Russian cast members and dialog. It is also a huge hit in Russia, especially among younger viewers. According to a spokesperson for Russian channel TNT, Vmeste is the most popular scripted series among the 18 to 30 crowd.

A pilot for the medical sitcom This Might Hurt (which will include some improv) has been picked up by FOX. The series will focus on a private practice where a pediatrician, an internist and an OB-GYN work together -- though presumably not at the same time, and not on the same person.

The new series was created by actor (You, Me, and Dupree; the failed CBS pilot, Giants of Radio), writer (The Wayne Brady Show) and director (Giants of Radio) Jason Winer, who, according to Variety, got the idea by spending time in a doctor's office. Also, he correctly points out that pain is funny.

I'm not finding a lot of information about this, and probably wouldn't have found anything if my pal Wild Bill hadn't sent me a link to this article.

Buried within a lot of other NASCAR news is just a few words about a possible NASCAR-based sitcom being developed for FOX that will center on a "dysfunctional race team." That's the only details we have so far. The series could debut in January, but we'll let you know for sure when more information starts to pop up.

I think the phrase "hit or miss" is appropriate when it comes to television and Jeffrey Tambor. He's been involved with some truly great series (The Larry Sanders Show, Arrested Development), and some not-so-great series (Twenty Good Years).

Now, Tambor is heading back to the small screen to star in The Captain, which was recently approved for a six-episode, midseason run on CBS. Tambor stars as a retired writer whose apartment building is soon occupied by a younger writer, played by Fran Kranz. The series also stars Raquel Welch, Al Madrigal, Valerie Azlynn and Joanna Garcia.

Recently, Bob made an aside about how he can't find Kate and Allie anywhere on television. Well, I have good news for Bob and for anyone else who was a fan of that sitcom: WE (that's the Women's Entertainment network, not the pronoun) will begin showing episodes in June.

In fact, the popular '80s sitcom will be introduced with a marathon running from noon until 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 2. The series will then slip into its regular Monday night slot at 7:00 p.m.

Kate and Allie focused on two divorcees who decide to move in together and help raise each other's children. The series starred Jane Curtin (Allie) and Susan Saint James (Kate), and while I watched it a lot growing up (my mom loved the show), I think I was a bit too young to appreciate it. One of the things I love about having a Tivo is recording those old shows I only vaguely remember to see how good they really are. Lately, I've been watching a lot of Alice, but now I'll have to add Kate and Allie to the lineup, too.

Does this really surprise anyone? Sanford and Son, Redd Foxx's sitcom from the 1970s, might be made into a feature film with Bernie Mac taking on the role of Fred Sanford popularized by the late Foxx. The film has been kicking around the studios for a few years now, and is currently at Sony. Nick Cannon is also slated to play Lamont Sanford, Fred's son.

I'm not a big fan of TV to movie adaptations, but I do recognize that sometimes they can work. The movie Charlie's Angels, which I found rather insipid, was at least based on three crime-fighting chicks, a concept that lends itself to a full-length movie. I'm just not sure how Sanford and Son could be stretched beyond half an hour, taking into consideration the show was essentially built around Foxx and his comedy. The show could have taken place in a bicycle repair shop and I don't think it would have made much difference. Unless some filmmaker out there has something truly amazing in mind for this flick, it seems better to just let it go.

Barry Sonnenfeld (Addams Family, Men in Black) is executive producing the new ABC comedy Notes from the Underbelly, about a couple, Andrew and Lauren (Peter Cambor and Jennifer Westfeldt) who become pregnant and must deal with advice from their friends and family while also dealing with the pressures of giving up their once carefree lifestyle for a more mature one. See Joel's take on the series here (he didn't like it much).

The couple's friends include overzealous parents Julie (Melanie Paxson) and Eric (Sunkrish Bala); Cooper (Rachael Harris), an attorney who values her work over the idea of raising a family; and Danny (Michael Weaver), a womanizer.

It appears that all the stereotypes needed for a basic sitcom are in place, now it's just a matter of seeing if everything can come together to create something that's worth watching. I must say, though, that the premise alone doesn't sound all that exciting.

Anna mentioned back in November that TBS was creating a pilot for Blue Collar comedian Bill Engvall, best known for his "here's your sign" routine. Now we know that the new series will be called The Bill Engvall Show (what else?) and will star Engvall and Nancy Travis. Engvall will play Will Pearson, a family counselor and father of a teenage daughter and two boys. Travis will play his wife, Susan.

Much like a majority of Engvall's comedy, the new show promises to be a simple, family-friendly comedy shot in typical multi-camera fashion in front of a studio audience. The series debuts sometime this summer.

Fans of Engvall's stand-up can also catch him March 25 at 9:00 p.m. on Comedy Central in a new special: Bill Engvall: Fifteen Degrees Off Cool.

The Hollywood Reporter is saying that Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammer are in talks to co-star in a sitcom together. The comedy is called Action News, in which Heaton and Grammer would star as a reunited anchor team at a local television station. It's being written and produced by Steven Levitan of Just Shoot Me, Greg the Bunny and Stacked, and Christopher Lloyd of Wings and Out of Practice.

I'm always a fan of a comedy that's based in a newsroom because I think there is a bottomless supply of humor. But, Patricia Heaton drives me nuts. I didn't like her on Raymond-- by the end of that series, she was a whining, yelling shell of a housewife. And those grocery stores ads are infuriating! I'm lukewarm on Kelsey Grammer.

What do you think of the possible pairing?