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.

Community's PaleyFest panel from last night with table read now streaming here from Hulu

Great art, huh? It's from the Six Seasons and a Movie art show from last year. More on that at this link. More on this artist, Arica Houy, at her website.

Two clips after the jump, the entire PaleyFest panel from Tuesday night and then a preview of this week's episode of Community. You might wanna call some Nielsen box holding friends of yours and make them watch if you wanna see more of this show. (Things are dicey ratings-wise at best.)

Breakfast with Maron and Oswalt, Attempting Normal, patent trolls

Good morning Marc Maron and Patton Oswalt.

BTW, Maron's new set of essays, Attempting Normal, pictured here despite the lack of text to wrap around said image (editors note: I found text, it's a "win win"), is now available for pre-order from Amazon and will be at all the usual outlets April 30th, BUT ... even more important at this moment is this from Maron's newsletter this week. A patent troll is descending on the podcasting world right now:

If you all weren’t aware yet you should know that some podcasters are under attack from patent trolls. Adam Carolla is actually being sued. A patent troll called Personal Audio claims to own the patent for podcasting and is suing Adam and some other podcasts and sent letters of coercion to me and about a dozen others. It’s serious bullshit. I know you’re thinking, “How can you patent ‘podcasting?’ That’s ridiculous.” It is ridiculous, even when you look at the patent, but now someone has to pay LOTS of money to prove that.

Patent trolls are companies who don’t make anything or don’t sell anything, but own patents and use them as a weapon to extort money from businesses and individuals, usually demanding licensing fees that are cheaper than actually litigating a case in court. A patent troll uses patents as legal weapons, instead of actually creating any new products or coming up with new ideas. Instead, trolls are in the business of litigation (or even just threatening litigation). The business model works because patent litigation is so expensive—often costing well into the millions of dollars. This means that when facing the threat of a patent suit, many will choose to settle instead of fight. Of course, this just further emboldens the patent trolls.

Podcasters are uniting to figure out a course of action and help each other. The EFF has been helping us and also asking us to help them support new legislation called the SHIELD Act to make Patent Trolling less prevalent. Please go here eff.org/shield and let your representatives know how you feel.

I may need more of your help around this problem in upcoming months. I will let you know.

For more on patent trolls from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, click here.

All the ideas for posts for this blog I had this week while doing other things

I was, uh ... busy.

Yeah, that's right, that's the ticket. (For you kids, that's a quote from a Jon Lovitz SNL character that I still enjoy, though I no longer enjoy Lovitz.

1) Wednesday's TV aliens are very different. In The Americans, the aliens are Soviet era spies. On The Neighbors there are actual extraplanetary aliens yet still spies of a sort. We know the endgame for the Soviets, we have no idea what will happen when "Jackie Joyner Kersee" and "Larry Bird" (they're all named after famous athletes) complete their mission. So, what's the more interesting show? Huh? Nah, I'm just kidding. They're both good though. Say what you want about high concept comedies, but they have been a part of the TV landscape forever, whether it's Gilligan embarking on a three hour tour of the harbor or a Park Ave. lawyer and his Hungarian wife getting back to nature in Hooterville. Yes, I also kind of admired
that Cavemen series. Not saying it was great, saying I admired the attempt. One other thing The Neighbors has is a child actor who bares a striking resemblance not only in look but in tone to Emo Phillips. And he's perfect in this. His name is Ian Patrick (pictured) and you might have seen him recently in David Wain's Wanderlust (playing on cable).