Day: March 17, 2010

Congratulations to rising stand-up comedian Kumail Nanjiani, who got cast today in the TBS hourlong comedy pilot, Franklin & Bash. "I play a nerdy hyper intelligent lawyer who is an extreme germophobe," Nanjiani told me today. "So far, I got the nerd part down." TBS lifted the contingency on the project earlier this month by tapping Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer as the titular leads for the hourlong comedy, in which they'll play lifelong friends and street lawyers who, after a high-profile case, get recruited by the firm they defeated. Malcolm McDowell will play the head of that firm. The show comes from Bill Chais and Kevin Falls, with producer Jamie Tarses, and is being produced at FanFare Productions for Sony Pictures Television. Filming happens later this month into April. If the show gets picked up (and the chances are much greater with TBS), this also means Nanjiani is one step closer to an ultimate comeback for John Mayer. As Nanjiani has recounted to various comedy club audiences in the months since his awkward on-stage encounter with Mayer, he had joked to the rock/blues guitarist at one point: "I said, US Weekly doesn't take pictures of me, and he said, 'And they never will.'" Background references: Kumail Nanjiani talked to me about his busy year on the rise in 2009, and John Mayer talked to me about his awkward...