After a meeting between TV Land and Comedy Central that most likely ended with a dress-wearing Jim Gaffigan running out and declaring that they can both marry him, the two networks have both agreed to pick up Gaffigan’s sitcom pilot. This comes via Deadline, which reports that each episode of the show will premiere on TV Land, and then they’ll re-air a week later on Comedy Central. Interestingly, Deadline points out that this is “a purely promotional move,” since only TV Land is actually paying any money for the series. Comedy Central just has to lay back, make sure the show doesn’t interfere with any episodes of Tosh.0 or whatever, and then get paid for nothing. It’s living the TV network dream.
The pilot for The Gaffigan Show—which was inspired by the comedian’s real life—was originally made for CBS in 2013, with Mira Sorvino co-starring as Gaffigan’s wife. The pilot was re-shot in 2014, with How I Met Your Mother’s Ashley Williams as his wife, Adam Goldberg as his best friend, and Michael Ian Black as his wife’s “meddling confidante.” We’re not sure what that means, but we’re pretty sure it’s the perfect part for Michael Ian Black. The show won’t premiere until 2015, but the 2014 pilot will act as the show’s first episode on TV Land. Hopefully it won’t be full of distractingly outdated references to 2014, like Gaffigan lifting up a brick-sized cellphone and commenting on how small it is, or someone saying grunge music “will never take off.”