Comedy Headlines for 10/10/2012

What’s happening in the comedy world…

  • Lewis Black’s limited run on Broadway, Running on Empty, opened last night. The eight performances go through Oct. 20, 2012, at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
  • FX announced it will postpone the broadcast of season four of Louie to spring 2014. It had been planned to debut in summer 2013, but Louis CK, the show’s creator/star/writer/producer/director/co-editor, requested a longer break.
  • NBC announced it would not debut the new seasons of Community and Whitney in new Friday-night time slots on Oct. 19, 2012, as planned, citing the need to focus marketing on other nights. The shows are not canceled, however.
  • Comedy Central has ordered a pilot of the webseries Broad City, starring Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson and executive produced by Amy Poehler.
  • FOX made full-season back orders for two of its new sitcoms. The Mindy Project‘s rookie season now will run 22 episodes, while Ben & Kate will go for 19.
  • FOX also made a couple of put-pilot commitments. One, to an sitcom starring Rachel Harris and Angela Kinsey called Dirty Blondes, based on their real-life friendship — Ruben Fleischer will direct the pilot. Another, to Adulting, a single-cam based on blogger-turned-author Kelly Williams Brown’s upcoming book, Adulting: How to Become a Grown-Up in 387 Easy(ish) Steps, Wait. The book isn’t out yet and it’s already a TV pilot? Yikes! Oh, J.J. Abrams is executive-producing. Bad Robot, bad!
  • CBS bought into Nobody Trusts Maz, putting into development a sitcom idea from Maz Jobrani starring the stand-up comedian as a Persian-American married to an Irish-American woman, and dealing with their respective in-laws.
  • YouTube announced several new official channels, including one — Jash — which will feature content from Sarah Silverman, Tim & Eric, Reggie Watts and Michael Cera. Another, the Video Podcast Network, will launch with video versions of podcasts from Adam Carolla, among others. Both are backed by a company called HaChaCha, and will bow in January 2013.
  • GSN has ordered a second season of the game show, The American Bible Challenge, which is hosted and produced by Jeff Foxworthy.
  • Arrested Development, returning from the TV dead to live on Netflix, has cast Chris Diamantopoulos in a recurring role. Diamantopoulos recently played Moe in the big-screen The Three Stooges remake/reboot.
  • NBC has made a script commitment to a sitcom co-written by and starring Tommy Johnagin, based on his life experiences.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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