Because nothing says “CBS success” like The Big Bang Theory and getting right with God, the network has issued a pickup order to Johnny Galecki’s Living Biblically, or, as it’s now more secularly known, By The Book. The series is based on A. J. Jacobs’ book The Year Of Living Biblically, in which Jacobs forced himself to spend a year following every rule in the Good Book, finding creative ways around stuff like not coveting his neighbor’s ass, or the commandment to stone adulterers. (He used a pebble.)
Galecki will executive produce on this exercise in religious rules lawyering, but won’t star; instead, that honor will go to Mad Men’s Jay R. Ferguson, whose last show, ABC’s The Real O’Neals was canceled just one day ago. (Hopefully, that freed-up schedule will give him time to work on his pronunciations of “cubit” and “begat.”) Lindsey Kraft, Ian Gomez, David Krumholtz, Tony Rock and Camryn Manheim will also star.