The Australian hit series “Kathy and Kim” has been at NBC for a year now, but has stalled because of casting concerns. Those concerns have finally been put to rest as TV Squad reports that Molly Shannon and Selma Blair have been cast in the mother and daughter roles of the series…and as long as you can let go of the fact that Shannon is 45 and Blair is 35, I’m sure this is going to work.

You know…once they have writers so they can get this thing started.

Last night the WGA further proved that the DGA agreement between the Director’s Guild and the AMPTP is moving things forward. After the resuming of “informal talks” the WGA has issued a statement which you can read below:

“We have responded favorably to the invitation from the AMPTP to enter into informal talks that will help establish a reasonable basis for returning to negotiations. During this period we have agreed to a complete news blackout. We are grateful for this opportunity to engage in meaningful discussion with industry leaders that we hope will lead to a contract. We ask that all members exercise restraint in their public statements during this critical period.

In order to make absolutely clear our commitment to bringing a speedy conclusion to negotiations we have decided to withdraw our proposals on reality and animation. Our organizing efforts to achieve Guild representation in these genres for writers will continue. You will hear more about this in the next two weeks.

On another issue, the Writers Guild, West Board of Directors has voted not to picket the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Members of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) face many of the same issues concerning compensation in new media that we do. In the interest of advancing our goal of achieving a fair contract, the WGAW Board felt that this gesture should be made on behalf our brothers and sisters in AFM and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).”

via Deadline Hollywood

Yesterday morning if you were looking to find Ringo Starr on ‘LIVE! with Regis and Kelly’ you were sorely disappointed.

Why?

Because he walked off the set. Ringo was told to cut his new single, “Liverpool 8″ down to 2 min 30 seconds - about half the songs actual run time. This is something that happens frequently on talk shows, but apparently either Ringo wasn’t give the heads up, or just forgot he was told he had to cut it down.

He attempted to get the song down to 2 min 30 sec yesterday morning, but when he couldn’t do it and have the song make any sense, he just walked off the set. Later, he performed a 3 minute version of the song on Late Night with David Letterman.

My guess is Ringo won’t be back on ‘LIVE!’ anytime soon.

If you are an HBO subscriber in the Milwaukee area, you could have a nice little surprise in store for you this week.

The premium network will be offering, at no additional charge to current subscribers, a new service that will allow the viewer to download programming to their PC. Participants will have access to over 400 hours of movies and programming each month. Users can also watch programming live through the program if they are away from home, which is pretty innovative, in my opinion. They can also set parental controls to block violent or explicit content.

At this time, the program is only available for Windows PC’s, can only be watched through the program that HBO will distribute, not on portable devices like the iPod, and will expire 4 weeks after being downloaded. (What’s the point of having the content expire after 4 weeks if it’s free? Won’t it just be inconvenient to have to download it again, albeit at no cost?)

If you live in the Milwaukee market, expect to get a CD in the mail shortly with the program enclosed.

(Source: NY Times)

No, it’s not a docu-drama about the life of Britney Spears (although the title is perfect for that kind of show), instead it’s ‘Dancing with the Stars’ meets a circus! Woo-hoo! Who needs writers when you have ideas like this pouring out of people’s heads?!?!? (that’s sarcasm, folks)

That’s right. “celebrities” will be joining avant “avant-garde professional circus troupes” (because “carnies” isn’t politically correct anymore) and attempting to be part of the show under the big top.

This show is being added to NBC’s “All-American Summer” lineup - which is supposed to add momentum to the network going into the 2008 Summer Olympics. Not really sure how, or why, this show is going to do that - but that’s what NBC is hoping anyway.

Look for it this summer on a writer’s free television set near you.

Writer’s strike be damned, The (A) Daily Show continues to trek on - and really doesn’t seem to be missing a beat. In fact, the show doesn’t seem ANY less scripted than it does when they DO have writers.

John Stewart’s identical twin was apparently in attendance (he doesn’t actually have twin - there was a guy who just happened to look exactly like him).

John’s headlines touched on the recent Bill Clinton attacks on Barak Obama. Including a bit with the “forced to work” John Oliver. (for those that don’t know - John Oliver is here in the US on a Visa, and if he refuses to work he’ll be deported) Then on McCain’s victory in the most recent Republican primary - even including a written and drawn Garfield parody comic strip (how is that NOT a violation of the WGA rules?)

The guest tonight was Editor of Newsweek John Meacham. They opened the conversation by talking about Hilary Clinton and basically taking different shots at her. Then moved on to discussing the way that the narrative of “making a president” is shaped by the media - and how voter’s don’t really care. The conversation moves into how the news media is in the storytelling business, and how the main bias in the media is “conflict” - and how the media is completely driven by it.

All in all, a very interesting interview - and an interesting perspective from the Editor of a major news magazine.

The AMPTP and the WGA will hold informal talks this week - the first in over a month. The Hollywood Reporter says that hat CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves and News Corp. President Peter Chernin held informal meetings with reps over the weekend - so we could be off to a good start here.

The recent DGA deal has had to have played a part in this to some extent - and, with any luck, things could still get rolling fast enough to give us an episode or two more of some of our favorite shows before the summer - if these things work themselves out quickly.

That may be me being too optimistic - but MAN - am I ready to get back to talking about, and reviewing, decent TV shows.

The USA Network HD feed has been available for a while on DirecTV and certain cable providers but up until tonight, nothing on the channel has actually been broadcast in high definition. That all changes tonight with the launch of WWE Monday Night Raw in HD at 9:00pm EST.

The flagship USA show will be the first to be broadcast in HD - and that trend will continue tomorrow when the Sci-Fi Channel’s first HD program will be the WWE show “ECW”.

The WWE has been covering their switch to HD extensively over the last week on their official site.

Dish Network customers are out of luck for WWE in HD at this time - and since I’m a Dish Network customer, I’m not happy about that one bit. So if you feel so inclined, head over to the Dish Network official site and tell them you want USA and Sci-Fi in HD!

Knight Rider is shaping up as it gets closer and closer to launch, but one thing seem to be sure at this point - things are happening so fast, NBC can’t keep them straight. For example, the interior of the car has looked very different each time we’ve seen it. First we saw the inside of the remote car, which had a more traditional “knight rider” looking steering wheel, and little else. Then we saw a trailer that confirmed that look - but now, the official site has a full, round steering wheel as a main focus of the sites graphics. Now, however, there is also this link - which shows us what the inside of the car should look like in “Attack” mode - and its even more different than we’ve seen before.

So I doubt we’ll know for sure what everything is going to look like until the movie is actually released - why? Because I don’t think they know either.

The official Knight Rider site has gone live, btw - and you can check it out here.

Below you’ll find another promo (and my favorite thus far):

This Monday, NBC returns with another phase of the NBC Universal Auction, and the goodies seem particularly…creepy, I guess.

If you want the shirt and sweater that Jenna Fischer wore on The Office or the waitress outfit that Hayden Panettiere wore in Heroes for whatever strange purposes you could desire, they could be yours, if the price is right.

Also included in the schwag up for sale are a Panthers state championship ring from Friday Night Lights, a Greenzo and “Me Want Food” shirt from 30 Rock, and Montecito chips and cards from Las Vegas.

Auctions open Monday, January 21 and run through Wednesday, January 30. Head to the official NBC.com Auction site for more details.