Hot for Fall: Fox Comedy Spinoff of Nerdist Podcast Intros Spells Hardwick/Dykstra Legendary Landslide Comedy

In what is being called one of the hottest trending Fall pilots, Fox has ordered to pilot presentation a pitch from unlikely Legendary Television in conjunction with Nerdist TV and executive producer Chris Hardwick. The single-camera comedy project would see him and real-life girlfriend Chloe Dykstra build on the chemistry they exhibit during the intros Hardwick records in Dykstra's company for each of the more recent Nerdist podcasts which are available from iTunes and from Nerdist.com.

In the project Hardwick would play a young Microsoft executive who lives with his second wife (Dykstra) on Whidbey Island in Washington where the recent landslide has taken almost all of their backyard save a short strip that has now shifted physically over the property line and into his neighbor's yard.

That neighbor happens to be the Hardwick character's first wife, who lives there with jock son Art (his birth certificate reads "R2" after the Star Wars droid but he's changed it to dad's chagrin) and a new boyfriend. Casting rumors place Samm Levine in the running for the boyfriend role, replacing Kumail Nanjiani who is now attached to the Mike Judge project at HBO with TJ Miller.

When asked for comment,. Nerdist podcast cohost Matt Mira said, "I have a girlfriend again too. I didn't for a while and now I do again. I might not still be on TV every day but I have a girlfriend!"

There was an attempt to contact Hardwick's other Nerdist cohort, Jonah Ray, but the only person who answered when called was a very slick sounding guy who only seemed to want to talk about, well ... pussy.

They're looking for James Burrows for the pilot. They won't get him, they just look at him as he parks his car on the lot and goes off to make TV without them.

Are you still reading this? What's today's date?

Karen Gillan's next gig, stopping terrorism in San Diego

She's been all over the universe and traveled through time with an alien being wearing a bow tie. So of course the logical next step is San Diego. Right?

The former Doctor Who companion is in the first week of shooting the new season of NTSF:SD:SUV:: in Los Angeles. Paul Scheer stars. This is his photo.

Karen also has a movie pending but I'm not sure it's getting US release. That's a shame because it costars
Iain De Caestecker from The Fades, that great BAFTA winning apocalyptic drama that got canceled after its first season, which sucks. That doesn't mean you don't get to see him again, he was cast in the Joss Whedon S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot.

Otherwise, per Karen's Twitter she's been in Los Angeles watching movies, going to concerts and ... NOT DRIVING! Which seems ridic. Someone get her a car and teach her to use it.

Two pilot castings that are very exciting if you're me or like stuff I like

I'm gonna do a very cool TV drama pilot, "Backstrom":deadline.com/2013/03/rainn-…
— RainnWilson (@rainnwilson) March 18, 2013

I like Rainn Wilson in the films he's done, notably Super and Hesher, but I've never been a huge fan of The Office. So when the Dwight spinoff didn't pass muster with the network (it aired this past week and it seems it didn't score with the show's viewers either) he was free to pursue other stuff that I thought would just be films and SoulPancake.com, his website/movement/community. But now word that Wilson will star in the Hart Hanson-conjured adaptation of the series of Swedish crime novels featuring detective Evert (Everett for the US version) Backstrom.

This is a description of Evert Backstrom that's been translated from the Swedish edition of Wikipedia: "Backstrom is a cynical and prejudiced person complete lack of good qualities. He is a racist , sexist, homophobic, he has poor hygiene, are overweight, dishonest and selfish. Furthermore, he is described as efficient, self-righteous and petty. He dislikes people in general and thinking disparaging thoughts of everyone around. He drinks too much, stealing at work, and everywhere else where he can access, he manipulates and mess with their surroundings and evade all forms of onerous work."

I am totally on board. Aren't you? Lots to work with there, interesting guy. He should have a great time playing inside that character.

“@realsharhorgan: @kristenschaaled I'm so happy!” That is all I need to hear. I adore you!
— Kristen Schaal (@kristenschaaled) March 15, 2013

Now, this very cryptic exchange on Twitter happened on March 14th. What you might not have known is that Mandy Moore had dropped out of the ABC pilot for the US version of the British hit Pulling. Created by Sharon Horgan, it has three female leads which will now be Horgan, June Diane Raphael (Mrs. Paul Scheer, currently starring in S2 of Yahoo Screen's Burning Love, season one running currently on E!) and Kristen Schaal.

Everything is funnier with Kristen Schaal. EVERYTHING!

I hope both of these shows make it.

Tonight on a Joe Mande-written Parks & Recreation ...

Okay ... truth? I've spent the last ten minutes looking for a pic of Joe as his character Morris on NBC's Parks & Recreation.

I can't find one. Okay, fine. I am sure this problem will solve itself after tonight. I did find Jenny Slate as Jean-Ralphio's problem sister in a pic from tonight's episode, though.

Here's a tweet from Joe from today:

I wrote tonight's #ParksandRec episode feat. Jason Schwartzman, @jennyslate25, @rejectedjokes & a breakout performance by #Morris. 8:30 NBC
— Joe Mande (@JoeMande) March 14, 2013

No clip, though. No clip? Well then I'll just give you a couple clips of Joe Mande stand up, how 'bout that? They're after the jump. He's really funny, you should follow him on the Tweety.

Canadians! I feel your pain

People who say Canada and the US have the largest unguarded border between countries in the world have never tried to watch Hulu.
— Sarah Findlay (@s_findlay) March 9, 2013

I have never heard nor seen US/Canadian border issues more succinctly described. I feel your pain, too. Whenever I pine for stuff playing on BBC iPlayer. Cheers!

Janeane Garofalo gets geeked on, my secret fantasy about her and she swears she's not the voice of Daria

Do you know Kerri Doherty? I didn't until today, so you're still possibly cool if you knew before me. Of course my age places me so outside the loop that you might also be not as cool as you think.

Sorry.

Kerri does this Geeking Out web series. Lots of great guests have already done the show: Michael Showalter, Kyle McLachlan, Mike Birbiglia ... and today Janeane Garofalo, which you can watch above.

Note: Janeane is not and never was the voice of Daria Morgendorfer.

Finally, and this is just as appropriate a place as any to admit this, I had this dream a while back that I was at the Montreal Comedy Festival doing Janeane's HBO half hour verbatim dressed just like she did that night and at the end she comes up on stage with a bouquet of flowers for me during a huge standing ovation.

And I did not do one hit of acid in college. Impressive fantasy life, huh?

Video - New Craig Ferguson stand-up special premieres exclusively on Netflix March 15

Netflix continues to dangle its giant appendage of new exclusive-to-them product waiting for you to bite. Ooh, don't bite. Oh what the hell, I'm gonna bite and now that Craig Ferguson -- I'm Here To Help is exclusive to Netflix, I'm gonna activate my 30-day free trial when it starts streaming on March 15.

I took a screen grab of one of the three clips that I've posted after the jump, this grab in particular is for those of you who will no doubt photoshop suitably low res pics of yourself behind Craig doing whatever it is that you'd like to do behind Craig. Hey, send me copies of those, okay? No, no contest, I just wanna see 'em.

Craig's guests tonight on his CBS show are Christina Hendricks and Jackie Collins. That's a lot of sexy to dangle in front of him, should be a good time.