[Televisionary]

Good morning and welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Everyone wanted to talk about yesterday's announcement that ABC had picked up five series (three dramas and two half-hour comedies) and had seemingly passed over Rob Thomas' Good Behavior (based on the Kiwi series Outrageous Fortune ). But there's still hope for the Catherine O'Hara-led dramedy. ABC says that it hasn't yet made a decision on Good Behavior, half-hour comedy Never Better (starring Damon Wayans), or the untitled legal drama from David Hemingson (the script of which I quite enjoyed)... and it still has yet to screen Prince of Motor City and Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas . Keep your fingers crossed, Rob Thomas fans. ( Variety ) SPOILER ALERT! Lost will resurrect--for one episode, anyway--one of its dead characters, likely as a flashback, vision, or ghostly apparition. And, no, it's not Artz. ( Entertainment Weekly 's Ausiello Files ) Why does Battlestar Galactica ...

My spider sense was tingling this morning as I perused the latest casting listings. Imagine my surprise when I had a full on geek attack upon noticing that, just days after Baby Buster landed recurring roles on both Chuck and Samantha Who , George Bluth Sr. himself was just cast in one of the few midseason pilots that I am eagerly anticipating. Apparently, it pays to be an Arrested Development vets these days. Jeffrey Tambor was cast in Rob Thomas' ABC dramedy pilot Good Behavior (based on the Kiwi series Outrageous Fortune ), where he'll guest star as Hy, Jackie West ( Catherine O'Hara )'s sleazy partner at a low-end pawn shop. I cannot wait to see Tambor and O'Hara face off against one another and hope that he'll stick around in a recurring capacity should the pilot get ordered to series. Also joining the cast of Good Behavior : Desperate Housewives' Gary Cole, who will play Jackie's no-good husband who is sentenced to five years in prison, leadin...

Ooh, do I have a hot casting scoop for you today. Remember Good Behavior , the highly anticipated drama pilot from Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas? (How could you not, as I've been talking about it incessantly since I read the pilot script a few weeks back .) No shortage of leading ladies have circled this project in recent weeks, with many naming Rene Russo as the frontrunner for the pivotal role of Jackie West, the tough-as-nails matriarch of the criminal West family who forces her family to become pillars of the community after her husband is sentenced to five years in prison. Mae Whitman ( Arrested Development ) and Patrick Adams ( Lost ) have already been cast in the drama pilot . So who has locked up the role of Jackie West, in a casting move that has my heart all aflutter? According to my source, none other than Catherine O'Hara, whose star turns in multiple Christopher Guest movies (take your pick: Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, Waiting for Guffman, For Your Considerati...

Her? In an inspired bit of casting, ABC has snagged Mae Whitman for drama pilot Good Behavior. Written and executive produced by Rob Thomas ( Veronica Mars ) and based on Kiwi series Outrageous Fortune , the plot revolves around the Wests, a Las Vegas family of thieves and low-lifes who are forced by their headstrong mother to become model members of society after their patriarch lands in prison with a five-year sentence. (For a more detailed look, here's my rundown of Thomas' hysterical pilot script .) Whitman, best known perhaps for her star turn as George-Michael's devout girlfriend Ann Veal (a.k.a. Egg, Yam, and Ann-Hog) on Arrested Development , will star in Good Behavior 's pilot as 16-year-old Roxy West, a plucky teen who creates a business out of selling the hall passes and excuse slips she has blackmailed from her high school's principal. It's a role that Thomas would have undoubtedly cast Kristin Bell in a few years ago and I think Whitman will be abso...

I am very happy to read that Rob Thomas will be taking a back seat on the upcoming drama pilot for the spin-off of Beverly Hills 90210 to focus on his other projects. Whew. I read the script for 90210 yesterday and was less than thrilled. I know that Thomas wrote it extremely quickly (a week, according to The Hollywood Reporter ) on a rather tight deadline as CBS Paramount Network Television fast-tracked the project. The Veronica Mars creator then found himself in high demand, with two other projects getting ordered to pilot at ABC: the revival of his own series Cupid and Good Behavior , the US adaptation of Kiwi series Outrageous Behavior . 90210 was an iconic series and managed to completely tap into the zeitgeist of the 1990s in a way that no other series--especially one geared towards teens--had managed to do. It also went on to influence such series as The O.C. , Gossip Girl , and, well, every other teen drama that came after it. So why was Thomas' rushed script for 90210 ...

I spent this weekend catching up on reading the growing stack of pilot scripts in my living room, a daunting challenge given how many scripts I still have to read but I was propelled forward by the fact that I did at least have a script written by Rob Thomas ( Veronica Mars ) to look forward to. The alternately hilarious and touching Good Behavior script, for Thomas' US adaptation of New Zealand series Outrageous Fortune set up at ABC, was a thing of beauty: fast-paced, quick-witted, and, well, pretty damn fun. (It's like The Riches crossed with Shameless , blended together with the bleak humor of Veronica Mars , and served straight up in a chilled martini glass.) The plot revolves around the West family who, after their father is arrested and sentenced to five years in prison, are forced to go straight by their domineering mother. There are hints of some of the familiar themes of Veronica Mars at work there: class warfare, morality struggles, and the exploration of a city...