Thanks for putting up with me this week, y'all. Tim will be back on Tuesday.
BUSINESS TIME
... Something called RumorFix is reporting that Jennie Garth and Luke Perry are developing a sitcom together but not dating (because apparently that was a thing). There have been rumblings about this reunion since the Old Navy commercial, but I guess this is our confirmation from Garth's rep. The resulting series will probably be the best original comedy that TV Land has. [RumorFix]
... It's important to consider the source here, but TMZ is reporting that Randy Jackson is out as a judge on American Idol. The long-suspected move has yet to be confirmed by Fox or the show's producers, because they're consistently fine with letting rumors run rampant about Idol so that interest remains high (which is smart, by the way). Ditching The Dawg would complete the dissipation of Idol's original judge cohort, though he would possibly stay on as a lower-rung mentor. Jackson has never been great at the gig, but he's showed signs of life over the last few seasons. I'll probably miss him, considering Idol has been swayed by the buzz for The Voice and now thinks that famous judges are more important than the contestants. [TMZ / NYT Media Decoder]
... Ken Kwapis is having himself a week. The director/producer's Trending Down, a dark comedy about a man losing his company around his 35th birthday, is close to a pilot order with casting at Showtime. Kwapis has also sold not one but two projects to NBC: Fred and Marilyn, about the relationship between a writer and his mother, and Joey Pigza (based on the Jack Gantos book series), which is being billed as "a high-definition family comedy," whatever that means. Three pieces of great news in 48 hours will forever be known as #KwapisSwag. [Deadline Hollywood ] and [TV Line]
…CBS and AT & T don't want to be the next AMC and DISH, so the two parties have agreed to a new retransmission fee deal that will keep CBS-owned stations and Showtime on AT & T's U-Verse package. Thank goodness, I didn't want to see CBS commercials with Chuck Lorre-approved toilet-humor potshots at U-Verse. [THR]
... Good(ish) news: After a few recent guest-star appearances, Robin Williams is coming to television more permanently (or at least trying to). Bad(ish) news: He's doing so on the wings of a David E. Kelley script. The untitled Kelley script is being eyed by CBS, despite intent to shoot in the single-camera style, and will follow Williams as an advertising executive working alongside his daughter. What are the odds that, if this thing makes it to series, one of the first dozen episodes features a trial? 1:1? 1:10? [Deadline]
CASTING NEWS
... Julia Ormond has agreed to star in a Lifetime pilot called Witches of the East End, based on a book of the same name. She will play the mother to two daughters whom she's negated to tell one important thing: They're adopted. No, they're witches. I mean, they might be adopted but that's neither here nor there. This is Ormond's first official regular role on television and a bit of a "get" for Lifetime. [Deadline]
... Much like Lost before it, 30 Rock's final season will be all about providing answers to its great undiscovered mysteries. That's right folks, we're finally going to meet other members of Kenneth's family... and more importantly, they're going to be played by Catherine O'Hara and Bryan Cranston. O'Hara will play his mother, while Heisenberg will take on the role of the immortal Ron, her "friend." [TV Guide]
... NBA champion, foodie, and possible human/dinosaur hybrid Chris Bosh will guest-star as himself in an upcoming episode of NBC's Matthew Perry comedy Go On. Bosh will stop by the radio studio of Perry's Ryan King, but chances are he won't actually enter the recording studio so that he can instead hang around outside hoping for someone to give him an easier opportunity. Sports jokes! [THR]
"YEAH, BUT WHAT'S ON THE CHAIR'S IPOD?" NEWS
... Last night was all about Clint Eastwood's speech at the Republican National Convention (if you haven't seen it yet, this is bigger than not watching Rebecca Black's "Friday" during its first month, so do your civic duty and watch the video above) and according to The Hollywood Reporter's scientific poll of interviewing 12 people on the convention floor right after, Clint just killed it. Elsewhere, on air, Rachel Maddow called it "the weirdest thing I have ever seen at a political convention." If I were an undergraduate student at any major university in the country, I'd start the Kickstarter right now to get Clint to give the commencement address where he could undress the president's chair about recycling fees. [THR / Huffington Post]
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