By Rachel Bennett
Television Editor & Columnist
Every Friday, Rachel recaps the week’s major TV-related news, announcements, and gossip!
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TOP STORIES
• The 2013 Writers Guild Awards nominees are out, with AMC’s Breaking Bad emerging as the most-nominated program. The drama received five nominations (You know what this means).
• AMC’s The Killing appears to be officially coming back, as showrunner Veena Sud as well as executive producers Nicole Yorkin and Dawn Prestwich are writing the third season.
• Oh boy, am I excited for the new season of HBO’s Girls ever since the first trailer debuted online.
• Following cameos from Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer, John McCain and Olympia Snowe, former Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich will make an appearance on an upcoming episode of NBC’s Parks and Recreation.
• Here’s your weekly Girl Meets World update: Ben Savage, who played Cory Matthews on ABC’s Boy Meets World, hints that beloved characters may show up in Disney Channel’s sequel series. “Obviously, I don’t want to give away too many details. But there’s definitely been discussions about some of everyone’s favorite characters popping up in the show and making appearances.” He adds, “We want to do justice to the characters, and we want to make sure we respect people’s memories of the show.” Check out TV Contributor Carson Blackwelder’s and my differing opinions on the spinoff.
SHOW BIZ
• MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head creator Mike Judge, who also wrote and directed the 1999 cult classic Office Space, is developing and will direct the pilot for a new HBO comedy. The series, called Silicon Valley, is set “in the high tech gold rush of modern Silicon Valley, where the people most qualified to succeed are the least capable of handling success.”
• Mad Men actors Jon Hamm and John Slattery will return to the director’s chair for the sixth season of the AMC drama. Slattery has already directed three episodes, whereas Hamm helmed one hour last season.
• Plan B, Brad Pitt’s production company, is working on a HBO drama called Paper. It will focus on a debt collector and is based on a 2010 New Yorker piece titled “Pay Up.”
• There is life after ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager: Molly Ringwald is developing a show centering “a mom who moves back to her hometown and has to deal with some lingering social baggage from her high school days.” The Lifetime series will also star Ringwald.
COMINGS AND GOINGS
• Michael Richards (NBC’s Seinfeld) could potentially return to TV, as he’s landed a regular role in the pilot Giant Baby. The TV Land project also stars Kirstie Alley and Rhea Perlman (both of NBC’s Cheers).
• Speaking of Seinfeld, series star Jason Alexander will appear in at least one episode of NBC’s Community this season. The actor recently tweeted, “Filming a crazy episode of Community this week. Can’t say much about it but it’s a fun one.”
• USA Network’s Covert Affairs star Piper Perabo will see sparks fly with Matthew Perry on NBC’s Go On.
• B.J. Novak, Ryan Howard of NBC’s The Office, will visit former officemate Mindy Kaling on Fox’s The Mindy Project. He will appear in two episodes as a possible love interest for Mindy (Kaling).
• Model and actress Brooklyn Decker will be the apple of every guy’s eye in an upcoming episode of Fox’s New Girl.
• Several of TV’s familiar faces will guest star on FX’s The League: Seth Rogen (NBC’s Freaks and Geeks) and Jeff Goldblum (NBC and USA Network’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent) will reprise their guest roles, whereas J.B. Smoove (NBC’s Saturday Night Live), Jayma Mays (Fox’s Glee) and Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad) will also show up.
• Sean Bean (HBO’s Game of Thrones) is stepping in for Brendan Fraser (The Mummy) as the lead of TNT’s drama pilot Legends. Fraser departed the series in November following creative differences with executive producer Howard Gordon (Showtime’s Homeland).
RUMOR MILL
• “I don’t think it’s been quite resolved, but after going through what we went through with Charlie Sheen, it’s been a piece of cake,” says CBS CEO and President Les Moonves regarding the recent controversy surrounding Two and a Half Men star Angus T. Jones. Moonves adds, “By the way, [Jones is] still collecting his $300,000 per week.”
• Kyle Chandler, of NBC and DirecTV’s Friday Night Lights, doesn’t seem too keen on the proposed movie adaptation of the football series. He says, “It ended at exactly the right time, and exactly the right way.”
• A “quite iconic” TV actress may play Nolan Ross’ (Gabriel Mann) mom on ABC’s Revenge.
• “Mandy did something really quite inappropriate, which I’m not going to divulge,” says Rupert Friend of being on the Homeland set with costar Mandy Patinkin. “But put it this way, you wouldn’t expect it in a room full of consenting adults. While singing. Which is something I didn’t think I’d be faced with in my entire career.” What could it be?!
• Don’t expect to see Fox’s Fringe stars Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv back on TV anytime soon. Both say they will most likely forgo the 2013 pilot season following the Jan. 18 series finale of their sci-fi drama.
SNEAK PEEK
• Girls isn’t the only HBO comedy returning this winter: The Enlightened season two trailer reminds us there’s even more to look forward to come Jan. 13.
• “Could be some gunplay involved,” says Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) in the season four trailer for FX’s Justified.
• Elisabeth Moss, aka Peggy Olson on Mad Men, is looking quite fashionable on set. With a new job and wardrobe, Peggy’s movin’ on up!
• Seth Green reunites with his The WB and UPN Buffy the Vampire Slayer costar Alyson Hannigan in these pics from CBS’s How I Met Your Mother.
• The Dec. 17 series finale of The CW’s Gossip Girl is almost here, so take a look at these photos from the TV event. XOXO, or something like that.
FRIDAY FUN
• Chris (Jackson Pace) is definitely my favorite of the Brody children on Homeland, even if (or especially because) he’s always asked to leave the room.