“This is my hometown, and the people I grew up with,” Bless the Harts creator Emily Spivey told TV critics Wednesday at TCA, after a table read of Act I of the Fox animated series’ pilot episode. “Everything I write secretly takes place in North Carolina,” she said, including the ostrich who plays a role in the pilot…

Launching a new animated series on Fox has been a top priority for the network’s entertainment president Michael Thorn ever since he joined the network last fall. After commissioning development and presentations for multiple projects in the past 12 months, the network has made its first series order in the arena in a…

Prepare to say goodbye to How I Met Your Mother and hello to How I Met Your Dad. After a pretty brief, two-week negotiation that underlined the HIMYM franchise’s importance to CBS, the network has closed a deal with 20th Century Fox TV for a pilot order to a spinoff project, which takes a female spin on the original…

With Up All Night put to sleep, creator-writer Emily Spivey is moving into the multiple households of ABC's three-time defending Emmy champ. The ex-Saturday Night Live-er joined Modern Family patriarch 20th Century Fox Television in February, inking a two-year overall deal two months after leaving NBC's wobbling…

Up All Night creator Emily Spivey has signed a two-year overall deal at 20th Century Fox Television. The pact comes two months after Spivey exited her NBC/Universal TV comedy series. Under the deal, Spivey will work on current series as well as develop new projects for the studio. Her first assignment will be serving…

EXCLUSIVE: As NBC's sophomore comedy Up All Night transitions from a single- to multi-camera format, it will do so without the series creator/executive producer Emily Spivey, who has departed the show. There has been a lot of behind-the-scenes turnover on the series starring Christina Applegate, Will Arnett and Maya…

Maya Rudolph and Emily Spivey (Up All Night), Jesse Spencer and David Shore (House), Howie Mandel and Jason Raff (America's Got Talent), and Josh Meyers (The Pee-Wee Herman Show on Broadway) have been added as presenters for the 2011 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which are set for Saturday at the Nokia Theatre…

UPDATE 5:30 PM: And we’re done. Word is that NBC won’t be making more series pickups beyond the four shows from in-house studio UMS, thus prolonging the agony of producers awaiting word on the fate of their pilots until tomorrow. Also, I hear that the UMS-produced pilots that didn’t get a nod today are not necessarily…

NBC’s untitled Emily Spivey comedy pilot is building a star-studded cast. Arrested Development alum Will Arnett has closed a deal to join Christina Applegate and Maya Rudolph in the project, executive produced by Saturday Night Live honcho Lorne Michaels. The project, written by former SNL scribe Emily Spivey, is…

Saturday Night Live alumna Maya Rudolph is reuniting with her former SNL boss Lorne Michaels, ex-SNL writer Emily Spivey and NBC on Spivey’s comedy pilot for the peacock network, which Michaels is executive producing. Word is Rudolph is set for the co-lead opposite Christina Applegate in the untitled project, an…

NBC and Lorne Michaels have won the Christina Applegate sweepstakes. The actress, who had been inundated by offers this pilot season, has closed a deal to topline NBC’s untitled Emily Spivey comedy pilot, lifting the contingency on the project. The comedy, from writer Spivey and Saturday Night Live chief Michaels, is…