TV Hangover

James Wolk Tapped to Star in CBS’ Summer Drama ‘Zoo’ based on the James Patterson bestseller. Wolk will play a renegade zoologist who is tasked with trying to figure out why animals are suddenly attacking humans. (via)

Hulu has acquired exclusive streaming rights to Starz’s cult comedy “Party Down,” it was announced Wednesday.

From Friday, August 29, every episode of Party Down will be made available on Hulu Plus, while the first five episodes will be available for a limited time on Hulu.com, which is free and ad-supported for non-subscribers. (via)

Gillian Jacobs will play a recurring character in the fourth season of Girls, reports TVLine. The publication says Jacobs will first appear in episode five and is apparently playing a character named “Mimi-Rose.” (Fittingly, episode five is also called “Mimi-Rose,” and maybe the show will just be all about Gillian Jacobs doing stuff now?) Jacobs is the first cast member of Community to score a major role in the aftermath of that series’ cancellation, and she’s, oddly enough, the second Community cast member to appear on Girls, after Donald Glover’s two-episode stint back in season two. (via)

Showtime's Masters of Sex has enlisted a Breaking Bad favorite. Betsy Brandt has boarded the second season of the Showtime drama, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Brandt will recur and play Barbara, new secretary to Dr. William Masters (Michael Sheen). She fills the role previously held by Margo Martindale's Miss Horchow, who guest-starred in the series premiere, and Caitlin Fitzgerald's Libby, who temporarily filled in as his secretary in season one. (via)

The network is teaming with This Is the End duo Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and Breaking Bad's Sam Catlin to adapt Vertigo's Preacher, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. '

Based on Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's 1990s comic series from DC Comics imprint Vertigo, Preacher revolves around Rev. Jesse Custer, a badass Texas preacher who, after losing his faith, learns that God has left heaven and forsaken his duties. Jesse becomes the only one who is able to track God down and hold him responsible for his abdication. Tulip O'Hare, Jesse's beer-guzzling vampire ex-girlfriend, accompanies him on his quest for answers. But the story doesn't end there: The Saint of Killers, an immortal killing machine and Western lone gunman type, is hot on their trail with his sights set on Jesse. (via)

The series finale has been set for March 26 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. A special one-hour live show, Psych After Show, will follow at 10 p.m. ET/PT, featuring a Q&A discussion with series creator Steve Franks and the entire cast taped in front of a studio audience in Los Angeles.

After eight seasons on Showtime with Weeds, Jenji Kohan is headed for HBO. 

The Weeds and Orange Is the New Black creator is developing a provocative period drama for the premium cable network,The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The untitled Salem period drama explores the circumstances surrounding one of the most compelling chapters in American history, when intolerance and repression set neighbor against neighbor and led a town to mass hysteria.

Fox is developing a single-cam comedy with Molly Shannon, Variety has confirmed.

From 3 Arts in association with 20th Century Fox TV, the untitled project centers on Fiona, a woman at the top of her career who clashes with her stay-at-home pregnant daughter.

Shannon will play Fiona, and produce the project. Bruce McCulloch, who worked with Shannon on “Superstar,” penned the project and will exec produce alongside David Miner and Greg Walter. (via)

Written by Brooklyn-based writer/playwright Kyle Jarrow and executive produced by Michael London (Milk),ZE is described as a raw, quirky family drama about a FTM (female-to-male) teen and his family. A personal choice takes on controversial public significance when a Texas teenager announces she’s transgendered and will be living life as a boy.  As his dysfunctional family spirals into identity crises of their own, he discovers that despite his appearance, he may be the most well-adjusted of them all. 

Lisa Kudrow has been tapped for a recurring role on the ABC series’ upcoming third season. In typical Shonda fashion, details about Kudrow’s character are kept under wraps, but I’ve learned that she plays a politician. On the Kerry Washington-starring drama, Kudrow is joining her long-time producing partner Dan Bucatinsky, who received an Emmy nomination for his recurring role as Cyrus’ (Jeff Perry) long-suffering husband. This marks Kudrow’s biggest series acting commitment in a long time. Since the end of Friends and her follow-up series, the cult HBO comedy The Comeback, Kudrow has been focused on producing as well as her online-turned-TV improv show Web Therapy. (via)

Jonathan Banks will appear in 11 episodes of Community‘s fifth season. Banks, who earned a Supporting Actor Emmy nomination this summer for his work on Breaking Bad, will tackle the role of Pat Nichols, an intense criminology professor with a mysterious background in military and police work. The Wiseguy alum makes his first appearance in the second episode of the season when Annie (Alison Brie) enrolls in his class.

Larry Wilmore & Issa Rae have teamed to co-write a comedy series project for HBO, with Rae set to star. The project focuses on the awkward experiences and racy tribulations of a modern day African-American woman. These are also themes Rae has tackled in her successful webseries, The Misadventures Of Awkward Black Girl. Wilmore will executive produce with 3 Arts, which manages both him and Rae, while Rae will co-executive produce. (via)