Community Gets Return Date!

Back when NBC's fall lineup was first announced last summer, the 4th season premier of Community was scheduled to premier on Friday October 19th.  However, as we previously reported, a few weeks before Community was scheduled to return NBC decided to delay the return indefinitely.  In the interim  the Greendale 7 released the following video:

   

Well, now it looks like October 19th will be on February 7th!  NBC is now announcing that the 4th season of Community will premier on February 7th in its old Thursday night 8:00pm time slot which will become available after the shortened final season of 30 Rock ends its run.  

It was also reported that the new white house comedy 1600 Penn (starring Book of Mormon's Josh Gad) will premier on Thursday January 10th at 9:30pm.  The following Thursday on January 17th, Parks & Rec will move to its new 8:30 time slot, taking over for Up All Night, which as we reported yesterday will be going on hiatus as it transitions to a multi-camera sitcom.  It seems like The Office will finish up its final season in its usual Thursday night at 9:00pm time slot. Here's a trailer for the new NBC comedy 1600 Penn:

The Farm and Up All Night News!

Amidst the crazy storm going on outside, we actually have some big news stories for you.  First, the potential Office spin-off The Farm is officially not going to happen.  The proposed show was going to center around Dwight Schrute and his various Schrute relatives on the beet farm where they live.  An upcoming episode of The Office was supposed to act as a back door pilot, however before it even had a chance to air NBC has decided not to move forward with it.  The pilot is still planed to air as an Office episode later this season, but it looks like it will not become a show.  Rainn Wilson tweeted the following announcement:

In other NBC comedy news, Up All Night will undergo another major change this season.  The show, which recently underwent a transition by canceling Ava's Oprah-esque show within the show to focus more on family life, will now be transitioning from a single-camera comedy to a multi-camera sitcom.  I have never heard of a show changing from single-camrea to multi-camera before, so this should certainly be interesting.  The decision was apparently made as a result of Christina Applegate and Maya Rudolph's recent SNL hosting stints, and seeing how well they do in front of a live audience.  The show will reportedly continue to be single camera until December, at which point it will go on a 3 month hiatus. (Perhaps Community will fill in this time slot???)  It will then return in April as a multi-camera sitcom, complete with a studio audience and laugh track.  While Up All Night has never done too well in the ratings (as is sadly the case with all other Thursday night NBC comedies), with 30 Rock and The Office ending this season (and the apparent cancellation of The Farm), it seems that NBC is trying its hardest to build Up All Night to be a future Thursday night anchor alongside Parks & Rec.  Hopefully this latest change will work!  Should be an interesting transition!

And a few minor hurricane-related TV tidbits.  All new prime time comedy shows for tonight have been canceled (including a new How I Met Your Mother), however Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will reportedly air tonight, without a a studio audience! After initially offering anyone who'd be in attendance a free point of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, he later (smartly) sent them all home to be safe.  The audience-less show is scheduled to air tonight on NBC at its normal 12:37am time slot with SNL's Seth Meyers as his guest!  Hope we keep power long enough to watch!  Stay safe everyone!

Arrested Development Reunion on Up All Night!

Up All Night staged a mini Arrested Development reunion this week as Tony Hale guest starred on the show as Reagan's dentist.  While he spends most of his screen time acting with Christina Applegate (Reagan), he does have a brief encounter with his Arrested Development co-star Will Arnett (Chris) which is just about as perfect as you could hope for:

Hale greeting Arnett's character with "What's up my brother!" was an obvious reference to his popular Arrested Development catch phrase "Hey Brother!".  Check out a supercut of all of Buster's (Hale's) "Hey Brother!" moments from Arrested Development below, many of which are directed at Will Arnett's character GOB.

Hopefully Up All Night can get David Cross or Jason Bateman or another one of Will Arnett's Arrested Development co-stars to come on next!  And we're only a few short months from Spring 2013, when Arrested Development season 4 will be coming out!  Steve Holt!

October SNL Hosts Announced!

The next 2 Saturday Night Live hosts have been announced!  So far, still no hosts from our New SNL Host Wishlist or Guest Blogger Daniel's New SNL Host Wishlist, but we're excited for these hosts none the less!  After previously announced Daniel Craig hosts SNL this Saturday night, here's who the next SNL hosts will be:

10/13 Christina Applegate (with musical guest Passion Pit)

Christina Applegate will be returning to SNL to host for her second time, after previously hosting almost 20 yeas ago back in 1993.  While we were hoping that Will Arnett would be the next Up All Night star to host following Maya Rudolph last year, we're very excited to see Applegate back on the show.  She's very funny each week on Up All Night, so hopefully her hosting stint can help boost the ratings for the struggling show.  Applegate has also appeared in many hilarious comedy films, most notably in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Bergundy opposite Will Ferrell.  Maybe Will Ferrell will make a cameo as Ron Bergundy to promote their upcoming Anchorman sequel coming out next year? When in Rome! Here's Christina Applegate's monologue from her first time hosting in 1993:

10/20 Bruno Mars

Up next will be singer Bruno Mars, who will pull double duty as host and musical guest.  Bruno Mars is an interesting choice as he doesn't really have much acting experience.  Although, I suppose I would have said the same thing about Justin Timberlake before his first time hosting, and he turned out to be probably the greatest SNL host of the past decade.  So who knows, maybe Bruno Mars will be great.  Or maybe he'll be unmemorable like other pop stars who've hosted lately like Taylor Swift or Katy Perry.  I guess we won't know for sure until October 20.  Either way, we're excited for the show and looking forward to see how he does!  

Emmy Roundtable: Comedy Showrunners

Ever wonder what would happen if you took the showrunners of 6 of TV's biggest comedies, sat them around a table, and let them talk for an hour?  Well, you'd get something like this.  As we lead into the Emmy Award season (nominations will be announced July 19, with the awards ceremony taking place on September 23), The Hollywood Reporter sat down with the showrunners of The Office (Paul Lieberstein, who also plays Toby), Modern Family (Steve Levitan), How I Met Your Mother (Carter Bays), Up All Night (Emily Spivey), New Girl (Liz Meriwether), and The Big Bang Theory (Bill Prady) to discuss what it's like to put together these a successful TV comedies.  As big fans of most of these shows, it was really interesting to get to know the people in charge, and learn more about our favorite shows.  Check out the video below!  (Or if you don't have an hour to spare, you can read the transcript here.)

BREAKING NEWS: NBC Fall Schedule Released!

Moments ago, NBC released their Fall 2012 Schedule. The big news is that The Office will indeed be returning for a 9th season, joining previously announced renewed series 30 Rock, Parks & Recreation, Community, and Up All Night.  Interestingly, it looks like Community is moving to Friday nights (oddly paired with the surprisingly renewed Whitney), with 30 Rock, Up All Night, The Office, and Parks & Rec staying on Thursday nights.  Regardless, we're just happy that all our favorite NBC comedies are coming back, and we'll still have our 2 hour comedy block every Thursday night.  Check out the full NBC Fall Schedule below from TVLine.  Shows in blue are new, and you can click on them to learn more about them.

MONDAY
8/7c The Voice
10 pm REVOLUTION

TUESDAY
8 pm The Voice
9 pm GO ON
9:30 pm THE NEW NORMAL
10 pm Parenthood

WEDNESDAY
8 pm ANIMAL PRACTICE
8:30 pm GUYS WITH KIDS
9 pm Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
10 pm CHICAGO FIRE

THURSDAY
8 pm 30 Rock
8:30 pm Up All Night
9 pm The Office
9:30 pm Parks and Recreation
10 pm Rock Center with Brian Williams

FRIDAY
8 pm Whitney
8 pm Community
9 pm Grimm
10-11 pm Dateline NBC

SATURDAY
Encore programming

SUNDAY
7 pm Football Night in America
8:15 pm NBC Sunday Night Football

SUNDAY (Post-football/Winter 2013)
7 pm Dateline NBC
8 pm Fashion Star
9 pm The Celebrity Apprentice
10 pm DO NO HARM

NOT RETURNING NEXT SEASON: Are You There, Chelsea?, Awake, Bent, Best Friends Forever, Chuck, Free Agents, Harry’s Law, The Playboy Club, Prime Suspect and The Firm.