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LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- The latest development news, culled from recent wire reports:
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FUNNY IN FARSI (ABC) - Maz Jobrani ("Better Off Ted"), Marjan Neshat ("Rescue Me") and Hrach Titizian ("24") are the first to be cast in the comedy pilot, based on Iranian-born author Firoozeh Dumas's memoir about growing up in the 1970s in Newport Beach, California.
Jobrani will play Mohammed Sayed Kazem Jazeyeri (aka Kaz), the boy's father, "an engineer for an oil company who emigrated with his family from Iran to Newport Beach," with Neshat as his wife Nazireh (aka Nancy), "who finds it hard to assimilate in her new environment," and Titizian as Uncle Mansoor, "Kaz's jovial younger brother.
" Barry Sonnenfeld is helming the single-camera half-hour, which was adapted by Jeffrey Hodes and Nastaran Dibai.
RITA ROCKS (Lifetime) - The cable channel has passed on ordering a third season of the multi-camera comedy, about a working mom who starts a garage band. As previously reported, "Rita" drew a modest 489,000 viewers for its second season launch. Lifetime subsequently shifted the show to Monday nights where back-to-back episodes ran at 10:00/9:00c through December 7.
UNTITLED DANA CARVEY/SPIKE FERESTEN PROJECT (FOX, New!) - Dana Carvey is looking to return to television in a new sketch comedy series from Spike Feresten ("Talkshow With Spike Feresten"). The network has ordered a pilot presentation for the potential half-hour comedy, which will shoot next month. Carvey and Feresten, who worked together on both "Saturday Night Live" and the former's short-lived self-titled ABC effort, are both writing and executive producing the project, which is expected to film on location rather than on a soundstage or with a live audience. Brillstein Entertainment Partners is producing.
Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters
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