Emmy-nominated comedy series ‘Parks and Recreation’ ended its fourth season on Thursday May 10, with an episode which revealed the long-awaited result in main character Leslie Knope’s election bid for city council.

The episode, titled “Win, Lose, or Draw”, was written and directed by series co-creator Michael Schur. The episode featured Leslie, played by Amy Poehler, waiting to hear if she had beat rival Bobby Newport, played by Paul Rudd, in an election storyline which had been running all season. The initial result showed that Bobby had won by a margin of 21 votes, however, after Leslie’s campaign manager – and love interest – Ben Wyatt, played by Adam Scott, demanded a recount, it was revealed that it was in fact Leslie who had won by 21 votes.

The result of the election had been top-secret since production wrapped on ‘Parks & Recreation’ several months ago. At a Paley Center event in March, Schur revealed that multiple endings had been filmed for the episode so that he could wait until the last moment to decide which ending to air. Poehler admitted to being a fan of both endings, telling the audience:

“It was really touching and moving to do both the acceptance and the concession speeches. Concession and acceptance speeches are about the same until the end. They thank everybody and talk a lot and say congratulations to the other guy … Having to talk to the cast, which were all my friends, and say thank you for this election year. I couldn’t do it without you, cue the waterworks factory.”

Leslie’s win in the season finale means several changes for the series in its fifth season. Until this season, the series had revolved primarily around Leslie’s duties as the Deputy Director of the Pawnee City Department of Parks and Recreation, whereas now the series is expected to feature more storylines involving Leslie’s burgeoning political career.

Also undergoing some changes is Ben Wyatt, who accepted a job offer in the finale to run a congressional campaign in Washington for six months, effectively forcing Leslie and himself to attempt a long-distance relationship for at least some of next season, assuming that it does not skip entirely over those six months.

For the season, ‘Parks & Recreation’ averaged between 3-4 million viewers per week, but strong critical acclaim and consistent Emmy nominations have ensured its survival on the struggling NBC network. Earlier this month, both the series and Poehler won at The Comedy Awards for Best Comedy Series and Best Comedy Actress in TV, respectively, while the series was recently named as the recipient of the prestigious Peabody Award.

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NBC’s smash hit sitcom ‘Community’ has been announced to return from its hiatus on Thursday, March 15^th 2012 at 8:00pm. Creator Dan Harmon released the news via Twitter February 21^st to the celebration of many fans of the show. For those who are unfamiliar with it, ‘Community’ is a comedy about a collection of misfits at Greendale community college who have formed a study group and inadvertently become a dysfunctional little family.

The study group consists of the self-absorbed Jeff (Joel McHale), the continuously preachy liberal Britta (Gillian Jacobs), the television obsessed Abed (Danny Pudi), the former jock Troy (Donald Glover), the innocent straight-A student Annie (Alison Brie), steadfast Christian Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), and the perpetually offensive Pierce (Chevy Chase). The college is run by the effeminate and ever-meddling Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) who often charges the group with helping him with school activities against their will.

In season one, the group had been taking a Spanish class with the demented Señor Chang (Ken Jeong) and learning their dynamics. Jeff had been interested in Britta and claimed he was a Spanish tutor in order to get her to hang out with him so he could ask her out, but Britta invited Abed and Abed invited the other members of the group, much to Jeff’s frustration.

He tried to leave but his selfish instincts were pushed aside as he realized that they needed his help and he reluctantly became the leader of the study group. As the season progressed, they became closer and much more fond of each other and proceeded to the next Spanish course together.

In season two, it is revealed that Señor Chang lied on his application to the college and is not a certified Spanish teacher. Furthermore, he reveals that he has become obsessed with their study group and wants to join it, much to their horror. Relationships within the group begin to change over the course of the semester, such as Jeff and Britta’s romance fluctuating, Annie developing a crush on Jeff, and Pierce continually alienating himself from the group by being a sexist, racist jerk more and more often.

In the first half of season three, which will continue March 15^th, the group reluctantly accepts Pierce back into the fold, and starts taking a Biology class together. Jeff and Britta are now friends rather than lovers, Jeff tries his best to keep Annie at a distance despite their mutual attraction, Troy and Abed move in together as best buds, and Pierce is pretty much still Pierce.

The broke and homeless Señor Chang has become a security guard on campus, and continues to menace the group at every turn after being unable to join them. The Dean has to work with a lower budget for the college, and continues coercing the group into helping him with school activities.

‘Community’ is well known for its fast-paced humor, savvy pop culture examinations, and most of all for its spread of characters. Each member of the group has a distinct personality with plenty of quirks and problems that make their interactions comedic gold. Despite all the hijinks they get themselves into, it is easy to see them as one big family, and that is the selling point of the show.

Its hiatus united the fans, who launched an online petition to get the show back on the air, and the cast members themselves continue to support it. Joel McHale, who some know as the host of E’s ‘The Soup’, promoted the show during the hiatus. The show also received surprise support from geek god Nathan Fillion, via Twitter.

Hopefully, with this fierce nation of fans, ‘Community’ will be greenlit for season four.

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TV Land announced  its line-up of small screen vets that will guest star on season two of the network’s hit original sitcom, “Happily Divorced,” which premieres on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at 10:30pm ET/PT immediately following all-new episodes of “Hot in Cleveland.”

“Happily Divorced,” which is filmed in front of a live studio audience, stars and is inspired by the real-life story of sitcom favorite Fran Drescher (“The Nanny”), and revolves around Fran, a Los Angeles florist who finds out after 18-years of marriage that her husband is gay.

Unable to sell the house with the economy tanking, she and her gay ex-husband Peter (John Michael Higgins, “Best in Show”) must continue to live together happily divorced as they both re-enter the dating world. The series also features acclaimed actors Tichina Arnold (“Everybody Hates Chris”) as her best friend Judi; Rita Moreno (“OZ”) and Robert Walden (“All The President’s Men”) as Fran’s parents Glen and Dori and Valente Rodriguez (“George Lopez”) as Cesar, her flower shop employee.

“Fran’s sense of humor, timing and creative force will keep the fans of ‘Happily Divorced’ engaged and laughing,” stated Larry W. Jones, president, TV Land.  “We can’t wait to see where she will take us in these next 12 episodes.”

This season will see Fran and Peter continuing to adjust to their new life being a straight-gay divorced couple, from Peter having to come out to his brother to Fran selling Peter’s part of their joint burial plot, much to his dismay. Drescher will also once again re-unite with her former “Nanny” co-stars, including Renee Taylor, who appeared on “Happily Divorced” last season, and Ann Guilbert, who played Yetta on “The Nanny.”

Other guest stars will include Morgan Fairchild (“General Hospital,” “Friends”), Sean Kanan(“The Young and the Restless”) and D.W. Moffett (“Switched at Birth,” “Friday Night Lights”) in his recurring role as Elliott, Fran’s on-again-off-again flame.

According to Nielsen, the first season of “Happily Divorced” earned an outstanding 1.0 A25-54 rating, up triple-digits (+179%) compared to TV Land primetime average and scored a 1.3 with W25-54, up +214% versus TV Land primetime.  The series also attracted an average audience of 2.2M total viewers, up +125% versus primetime levels (Source: Nielsen, 6/15/11-8/17/11, Wed 10:30p-11p, L+7 data).

Drescher was nominated twice for both Golden Globe and Emmy Awards for her starring role on “The Nanny.”  This past fall, she released her first children’s book entitled Being Wendy which is added to Drescher’s other writing credits that includes New York Times best-sellers Enter Whining and Cancer Schmancer.

Fran Drescher, Peter Marc Jacobson (“The Nanny”), Frank Lombardi and Franco E. Bario are executive producers, and Larry W. Jones and Keith Cox serve as executive producers for TV Land.

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ABC’s hit sitcom will return for its third season on February 14, following an unprecedented, nationwide promotional campaign. Cougar Town, a half-hour comedy starring Courteney Cox (Friends, Scream), follows Jules Cobb (Cox) and her close circle of friends as they attempt to navigate their way through parenthood, marriage, dating and work.

The series has been off the air in the U.S. since last May after ABC opted against giving the show a spot on its fall schedule, offering only vague assertions that it would return at some point at ‘midseason‘. However, the series’ cast and crew have turned to social media in an effort to maintain public interest and to engage with their fan base in a face-to-face manner.

The main feature of their promotional campaign has been Cougar Town viewing parties, which have been in operation across the U.S. for several weeks now as cast and crew members travelled to various cities to interact with fans, offer special screenings of new episodes, take part in Q&A sessions, and to counteract any waning interest as a result of ABC’s delay in confirming a return date for the series, which had previously been airing alongside the network’s Emmy award-winning series Modern Family.

In a further effort to reignite the old and spark some new interest, series star Courteney Cox joined Twitter in January of this year and has since amassed over 90,000 followers. Cox has sent out over 1,000 tweets, the majority of which have sought to publicise the show and to offer Cougar Town fans exclusive behind-the-scenes footage.

As recently as Wednesday February 8, Cox was overseeing a competition to reward 50 fans with bottles of wine – in partnership with THECULTWINE.COM - provided that fans show proof of their age and make a pledge to watch Cougar Town on Tuesday February 14 at 8:30pm.

This is not the first time that cast-members involved with the series have reached out as a way of rewarding and strengthening their audience’s support. In an April 2011 episode, one character read out a telephone number which viewers could in turn call. If they got through, they could speak to actors, writers, and various others involved with the series.

These tactics have all been designed to keep Cougar Town on the public radar in spite of its middling ratings, with several fans going so far as to display billboards in support of the show during television coverage of this year’s Super Bowl, in the hopes of winning a walk-on role from the producers.

Show-runner Bill Lawrence recently expressed his frustration over the ‘flawed system‘ which monitors television ratings and which will ultimately determine the future of his series beyond this season, explaining that the primary hope of his self-funded campaigning is for:

a Nielsen family [to] … want to keep show alive. Ruining it for the masses or encouraging them to watch on their computer doesn’t matter until the system changes.

While there have been instances in the past of grass-roots campaigns being organised to combat network decisions – for example when Jericho fans persuaded CBS to reverse the series’ cancellation in 2007 – the involvement of the Cougar Town cast in this campaign has been particularly note-worthy, as has the fact the majority of their events have been planned entirely through the use of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

The true impact of Lawrence’s, Cox’s, the audience’s and others’ efforts to promote Cougar Town will be made apparent in the coming weeks when the series returns to ABC’s schedule and everyone involved attempts to lure, and hopefully increase, their 7.3 million weekly viewers from last season.

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TV Land has picked up its fifth original sitcom, “Have Faith,” starring Cedric “The Entertainer,” it was announced at the TCA Winter Press Tour by Larry W. Jones, president of TV Land. The network has ordered 12 episodes for the first season, which is set to premiere in June of this year.

The sitcom, which was created by Cedric and “Hot in Cleveland” creator Suzanne Martin, revolves around Cedric’s character, Reverend Boyce “The Voice” Ballentine, an R&B superstar-turned-minister who takes over as preacher of his father’s church. Niecy Nash (“Reno 911″) also stars as the reverend’s wife, Lolli.

The pilot features John Beasley (“Everwood”) as his father, Wesley Jonathan (“What I Like About You”) as his younger brother, and Jazz Raycole (“My Wife and Kids”) as his daughter. The character of Reverend Boyce originated on a second season episode of “Hot in Cleveland” in which Cedric guest-starred.

“The show that Cedric and Suzanne have created is a fantastic family sitcom that you just don’t see as much on TV today,” said Jones. “That’s just one of the reasons we’re so thrilled to welcome him to the TV Land family. From the moment he appeared on ‘Hot in Cleveland,’ we knew we wanted to work with him in a greater capacity.”

“Hot in Cleveland,” TV Land’s first original sitcom starring Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick, and Betty White has also been greenlit by the network for a 24-episode fourth season.  A syndication deal was recently reached for “Hot in Cleveland,” giving CBS Television Distribution the domestic distribution rights for the series. This season pickup would bring “Hot in Cleveland” to 80 total episodes. The series, which is currently in its third season, averages 2.5 million total viewers per episode.

“With the show’s recent win at The People’s Choice Awards and Betty’s recent SAG Award nomination, it’s clear that the fans love and want more of ‘Hot in Cleveland,’” said Jones. “TV Land is growing in a major way, and these pickups are just the tip of the iceberg.”

Featureflash / Shutterstock.com

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