In news that will likely delight fans of Malcolm In The Middle and strike fear in the hearts of her fictitious future children, TV mom extraordinaire Jane Kaczmarek has signed on to play Jason Ritter’s mother in the pilot for Friends And Family, Fox’s adaptation of the British series Gavin & Stacey, about two young people in a long-distance relationship. Her character Pam is apparently “often wrong but never in doubt,” which hopefully means viewers will have a chance to experience her Lois-like wrath once again.
Lest Kaczmarek be the only parent adopted into the Fox family, Christopher Meloni has agreed to play a father suddenly faced with the task of full-time child-rearing when his wife goes back to law school in the pilot for the network’s acquisition I Suck At Girls. Luckily, he’s had 12 seasons of experience being a fake father as Elliot Stabler on Law & Order: SVU, in which he was wont to remind cops and perps alike of the emotional burden of such responsibility.
With any luck, network execs will be too afraid of a possible grounding to not greenlight either show.