Goodness look at all the new comedy on American TV 'atm'

We normally only write about British things because we're British and so it makes good British sense. But you know what? There's a lot of rather good-lookin' pilots that are coming up in America that are worth having on your radar. We've picked out the most interesting from a wide field here because hopefully it's only a matter of months before Channel 4 tries to pick them up to replace New Girl. And be sure to check out our lookover the casting of British remakes in America, because there's quite a few of them at the mo. 

 

Matthew Perry will look old next to Kevin Sorbo, Dean Cain and Kristy Swanson in The Whole Banana, about a woman who prays to a Greek god for help with her love life, leading to him coming to Earth for a bit. It was a play, apparently, so should probably hang together a lot better than that one-line summary would suggest. We Are Movie Geeks

 

Over at CBS there's a new Will & Grace from the makers of Will & Grace, except this time the premise is business partners where one's straight and one's gay. Working title: Such Small Portions (read: Partners). Michael Urie, the Gay from Ugly Betty, is in it. TV Line

 

NBC is doing a pilot with Dane Cook called Next Caller Please. Great to see NBC have climbed out that creative hole they were in with exciting new talent, isn't it? Ology

 

Lily Tomlin Lily Tomlin Lily Tomlin LILY TOMLIN is doing an ABC pilot, Malibu County, as a freshly-divorced Lily Tomlin tries to rebuild a life around a singing career in a new town. Her daughter is going to be played by Reba, which makes sense on precisely no counts. Advocate

 

Martin Lawrence is doing a pilot for CBS, which like Bad Boys, is about cops. It's by the guys behind $*#! My Dad Says and Just Shoot Me, so expect lots of shooting from the middle here. EW

 

Bill Pullman is going to play the president in NBC pilot 1600 Penn. That's right: the president in Independence Day is BACK (he's not playing the president from Independence Day). Reuters

 

Lovely Bryan Greenberg is crawling from the wreckage of criminally underloved How To Make It In America to lead a CBS pilot about a man who has a health scare and realises the love of his life was a friend from 15 years ago. Doesn't sound great, does it? 'We'll see'. Deadline

 

A couple of Oscar-nodded pilots: Missi Pyle, who played the biffy Constance in The Artist, is taking on Fox's Prodigy Bully; while Descendants' co-writer Nat Faxon (Faxon, Faxoff) is the lead in Fox's Ned Fox (Foxon, Foxoff) Is My Manny, about a layabout who moves home to help raise his sister. Lots of 'unemployed middlingly-young sorts have to move home and find a new way to get on with life in the absence of other life opportunities' comedies around these days aren't there? That's the recession for you. Reuters/Cinema Blend

 

Sarah Chalke from Scrubs is in ABC's How To Live With Your Parents, as if to prove my point. On a loosely related note, isn't it lovely having so many pictures of Zach Braff around London at the moment? There is genuinely nothing that makes me laugh as whole heartedly as a picture of Zach Braff continuing to have a quarter-life crisis. Deadline

 

Ellen is producing an ABC pilot starring her wife Portia de Rossi as one of a pair of warring sisters. Ellen was GREAT so hopefully this will be too. Perez

 

Same principle with Sarah Silverman's new NBC comedy pilot, about her life experiences. Her last show was great, so fingers crossed. Hollywood Reporter

 

Batten down the hatches and hide from Comedy Central UK's schedules in a matter of months: Brett Butler from Grace Under Fire and Charlie Sheen from Mental Instability are joining forces on FX's Anger Management. Digital Spy

 

The guyz from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia have a new pilot called Living Loaded, and omgz Donald Sutherland is on board. It's basically about a partying blogger (not a real thing) who has to change his ways when he starts working at NPR. Still, it's the IASIP guyz! Gotta be good. AV Club

 

Kari Lizer, who we should pay attention to because she did the New Adventures of Old Christine, is doing a new sitcom for ABC called The Unprofessional about a TV exec who's made unemployed. It is doubly exciting because it has Josh Hopkins, who was Raymond in Ally McBeal. (Anyone without a blank look on their face just because my Bestest Friend.) Deadline

 

And the inevitable raising of Ally McBeal marks a clear sign that it's time to stop this.

 

Read up on British pilots here. Actually we haven't updated that since the beginning of December but most of it is still relevant.