Exclusive: MTV Developing Another Animated Series with Beavis and Butt-mind Producers

Worst Pals Forever Heh-heh, you mentioned development. Hot in the effective relaunch of Beavis and Butt-mind, MTV is joining again with executive producers Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dork Krinsky on another animated series. Worst Pals Forever, which follows several teenage women simply because they navigate secondary school, remains acquired just like a pilot with the cable network. Thomas Middleditch (Splinterheads), whose animation credits include voices for Beavis and Butt-mind and Ugly Us citizens, created the show. Worst Pals Forever involves besties Sandy, Brittany and Barrier, who hover round the edges of recognition inside their secondary school. Meanwhile, their friendship is provide the exam simply because they cope with cattiness in addition to their teenage crushes. MTV remains pleased with the return of Beavis and Butt-mind, which first demonstrated within the finish of October with 3.3 million audiences. Last night's episode averaged single.4 rating among grownups 18-34, beating NBC and CBS at 10 p.m. Animation was once commonplace in MTV, as well as the network remains attempting to return into the sport, getting also launched the completely new animated series Good Vibes. Ternion, the expansion company setup by Judge, Altschuler and Krinsky (all whom also labored together on King in the Hill as well as the 2009 feature Extract), will produce. Also on Altschuler and Krinsky's busy plates, the producers were developing an Adam Carolla animated project at Fox. Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!

Exclusive Psych Sneak Look: Can Molly Ringwald Cure Crazy Shawn?

James Roday Psych's Shawn (James Roday) is actually somewhat round the awesome side, nevertheless it seems like he many have lately become themselves committed. In Wednesday's episode, titled "Shawn, Interrupted" - an homage for the 1999 women-gone-really-crazy film Girl, Interrupted - Shawn must admit themselves with a mental institution to monitor a recently billed killer who pleaded madness nonetheless they suspect being completely, well, sane. Before he and Gus catch the theif, Shawn's arrived at convince Nurse McElroy (carried out by Brat Packer Molly Ringwald) that he's really battling with something. Psych's James Roday on Shawn and Juliet, Gus' "growing pains" and breaking all the rules "They tell me I've got something referred to as narcissistic personality disorder. But, the fact remains, this lustrous hair and dimpled face are essentially Chapter 1," Shawn states before listing off such existence-threatening conditions as "crazy intelligence syndrome" and "obsessive effective disorder." "Goodness, I have not experienced somebody that is affected with many different ailments that don't exist," Nurse McElroy (Ringwald) notifies her new patient. Shawn's explanation? According to him he's later on. Apparently, it won't be tough to convince the nurse he's lost his marbles ultimately! See the exclusive clip from Wednesday's episode: Psych airs Wednesday at 10/9c on USA.

Oscar Index: Hello, Hugo! (And Goodbye, J. Edgar)

Oscar-ed out for the week? Don’t be! Movieline’s Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics is here to remind both the casual and obsessive fan alike that the Academy Awards are, first and foremost about movies. With that in mind, let’s have a look at where this season’s Oscar Index crop landed after one of the most turbulent patches in recent memory. [Click the graphs for full-size images.] The Leading 10: 1. The Descendants 2. War Horse 3. The Artist 4. The Help 5. Midnight in Paris 6. Moneyball 7. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 8. Hugo 9. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo 10. J. Edgar Outsiders: The Tree of Life; My Week With Marilyn; The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn; The Ides of March; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Margin Call; Shame What a week, with Hugo, J. Edgar and War Horse all finding their ways to audiences for the first time. Well, sort of the first time: The West Coast pundit class that opted to wait and see about Hugo for themselves before deigning to so much as raise their eyebrows for its fond East Coast first look is officially over the moon after two very well-received special screenings (including one at the Academy) last weekend. No longer a work-in-progress (“99.9%-finished,” in Pete Hammond’s words) Martin Scorsese’s 3-D tribute to movies and movie-love set off a relative mushroom cloud of praise, with the likes of Sasha Stone writing “Martin Scorsese’s Hugo is a lyrical dream, a film that pays homage to what is so transformative about cinema,” and Steve Pond calling it “the most magical moviegoing experience I’ve had in a very long time.” It couldn’t have hurt that the guild/media event on Saturday afternoon featured a Q&A attended by Scorsese and awards-magnet collaborators like editor Thelma Schoonmaker, composer Howard Shore, DP Bob Richardson and production designer Dante Ferretti. (And moderated by Paul Thomas Anderson, because why not?) Pond noted that while that night’s Academy screening that night wasn’t quite the barnburner enjoyed by Moneyball and The Help, at least 100 voting members took in the earlier show, so it might even out. Not quite, said Hammond, who nevertheless remained optimistic about Hugo’s chances: The attendance figure at the Academy screening is middling, nowhere near the packed houses for other recent Oscar contenders — Midnight In Paris, Moneyball, The Ides Of March to name three that nearly filled the place. Despite Scorsese’s name, part of the problem might be that it is currently perceived as more of a 3-D kids film by Academy members, who generally don’t lavish Oscar attention on that genre. Paramounties are positioning it as something with equal or even greater adult appeal and I would agree, if you can work them to a winter’s passion to see it the way it should be seen. It’s much more ambitious than the average studio family holiday offering. At the very least it’s definitely got HUGE film freak appeal (count me as one of those). Scorsese working at the absolute top of his game may be key to getting those older butts in seats. From my perspective it is a masterpiece of personal filmmaking along the lines of Fellini’s Amarcord, Truffaut’s Day For Night and Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso. I don’t disagree, but the bottom line for Hugo is the craft categories. Taken together, Stone’s smart breakdown of the “1 percent” Best Picture threshold and Gold Derby’s analysis of Hugo’s technical strengths — not to mention Scorsese’s A-list accomplices noted above — forecast a perfect storm of influence within the Academy’s individual branches. In other words: Round up enough consummate pros at their peaks — in the service of Scorsese’s most personal film — and you’ve got a phenomenon on your hands. And it’s this year’s prestigious Royal Film Performance, a bit of news whose timing I wouldn’t exactly attribute to serendipity. The biggest hurdle is the box office, which could in fact be a problem despite the 3-D boost; neither The Muppets nor Arthur Christmas are going to cede much ground in the five-day Thanksgiving frame. (Not to be outdone, The Artist and My Week With Marilyn — two more beautifully made homages to moviemaking — open in limited release the same weekend.) But with Paramount clearly knowing the triumph it has, as well as the movie-love motif so prevalent in this year’s race, has any other film this year accrued so much potential — so much sheer momentum — so fast? On the other hand, has any film fallen farther off the pace quicker than J. Edgar? A week ago, mere whispers of disapproval were all that separated it from the season’s established frontrunners. Today, it’s rocking a pathetic 44 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and has all the political goodwill of a thong with Brett Ratner’s likeness ironed on the front. OK, maybe it’s a little better than that: A small core of critical heavyweights are behind it, and no one should underestimate the Eastwood factor that so regularly wins Academy hearts and minds (and, more often than not, votes). But come on. Apart from the sporadic raves for Leonardo DiCaprio and Armie Hammer (which we’ll get to in a bit), this one is over. For Warner Bros., suddenly it’s on to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close — an interesting, almost shocking institutional shift that boosts the latter film’s stakes immensely. No pressure, Warners! Meanwhile, War Horse has finally peeked out of the stable for actual viewers. A smattering of far-flung previews last week yielded generally positive, even glowing reactions, though it’s up to you how much weight you choose to give an AICN review (“War Horse is what movies are all about — transporting the audience into a world that will never exist again. As for myself, I loved every moment”) and a steady trickle of Twitter approbation, or even the anonymous hater quoted by Jeffrey Wells: “I don’t know what’s happened, but the man who made Saving Private Ryan didn’t make this.” It’s thin in general, but hey! Every clue helps. The Leading 5: 1. Alexander Payne, The Descendants 2. Steven Spielberg, War Horse 3. Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist 4. David Fincher, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo 5. Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris Outsiders: Martin Scorsese, Hugo; Stephen Daldry, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close; George Clooney, The Ides of March; Bennett Miller, Moneyball; Tomas Alfredson, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Clint Eastwood, J. Edgar As usual, what goes for Picture goes, too, for Director, though I’m not quite ready to downgrade Fincher for Scorsese’s sake. At the moment, the bottom two slots are cutthroat musical chairs for them and Allen; my gut tells me Dragon Tattoo will surge post-Hugo, nudging Woody out for good with only Daldry left to battle through January. Your mileage may vary; if so, tell me about it!

CBS Tuesday dramas sweep timeslots

CBS shipped a convincing primetime rankings victory on Tuesday, as veterinarians ''NCIS'' and ''NCIS: Los Angeles'' became a member of rookie ''Unforgettable'' in winning their timeslots in key demo groups. Elsewhere, Fox's ''New Girl'' again arrived less than its early-season earnings, while NBC's ''The Greatest Loser'' increased a little more now.In accordance to preliminary national estimations from Nielsen, ''NCIS'' (4.1 rating/11 be part of grown ups 18-49, 20.3 million audiences overall) was easily the night's No. 1 enter in grown ups 18-49 in addition to grown ups 25-54 (5.7/14) and total audiences, where it capped 20 million in same-evening viewing the very first time this year. It had been then ''NCIS: Los Angeles'' (3.4/8 in 18-49, 15.9 million audiences overall), which brought the 9 o'clock hour in key demos and was consistent with a week ago. And also at 10, ''Unforgettable'' (2.4/7 in 18-49, 11.six million audiences overall) flourished because the only crime drama within the hour (ABC's ''Body of Proof'' was pre-empted), edging up and ruling its timeslot. At Fox, ''Glee'' (3.1/8 in 18-49, 6.9 million audiences overall) was up a tick week to week, placing second to ''NCIS'' in 18-49 while remaining in charge from the more youthful 12-34 crowd (3.1/10). It had been then ''New Girl'' (3.5/9 in 18-49, 6.8 million audiences overall), that was consistent with a week ago called the night's No. 2 show in 18-49 despite again arriving beneath the high levels it had produced using its three early-fall airings before you take a baseball-related hiatus. And also at 9:30 p.m., second-year comedy ''Raising Hope'' (2.1/5 in 18-49, 4.six million audiences overall) hit a season low and fell to 4th devote 18-49.ABC's ''Last Guy Standing'' (2.6/7 in 18-49, 9.two million audiences overall) was on componen with a week ago, placing third in 18-49 for that 8 o'clock hour. But 8:30 p.m. half-hour ''Man Up'' is constantly on the find it difficult to keep that audience, shedding to some 1.7/5 in 18-49 and 6.two million audiences overall. The internet then rebounded at 9 p.m. using the ''Dancing Using the Stars'' results show (2.7/7 in 18-49, 14.9 million audiences overall), that was consistent with a week ago, and 10 p.m. new bands special ''In the Spotlight with Robin Roberts'' (1.7/5 in 18-49, 8.six million audiences overall) arrived a little less than usual slot occupant ''Body of Proof.''NBC's ''The Greatest Loser'' (2.4/6 in 18-49, 6.8 million audiences overall), that has been getting a sub-componen season, increased for any third straight week to complement its delivery around the comparable evening of last year. It had been then ''Parenthood'' (2./6 in 18-49, 5.two million audiences overall), which dropped week to week but was consistent with its showing of last November.At CW, ''90210'' (.8/2 in 18-49, 1.six million audiences overall) had its best performance since last September in a number of groups, rising to some 1./3 in grown ups 18-34. It had been then rookie ''Ringer'' (.7/2 in 18-49, 1.7 million audiences overall), that was lower slightly week to week.Preliminary 18-49 earnings for that evening: CBS, 3.3/9 Fox, 2.9/8 NBC, 2.3/6 ABC, 2.2/6 Univision, 1.5/4 CW, .8/2.As a whole audiences: CBS, 15.8 million ABC, 10.4 million Fox, 6.3 million NBC, 6.3 million Univision, 3.5 million CW, 1.six million. Contact Ron Kissell at ron.kissell@variety.com

On the Set of Lifeclass, Oprah Is Queen of Social Media

Oprah Winfrey It's not so hard to get in touch with Oprah Winfrey. For the past few weeks, viewers who've followed the former Queen of Daytime into prime time on her eponymous cable network have found themselves able to engage in real-time conversations with Winfrey via Skype, Facebook and Twitter during the nightly series Oprah's Lifeclass (Monday-through-Friday, 8/7c, OWN). During the live part of last Friday's show, which filmed in Los Angeles, a young man named Harel beamed in via Skype from Israel to ask Winfrey herself for some advice; simply, he'd been having a bit of an existential crisis. She shared her own thoughts on giving back and then read him a comment from a Facebook user who had written in, especially for Harel: "You are here. We are all one in a million possibilities. You matter." When a college student in Plattville, Wis., spoke to Winfrey and Friday's co-coach Iyanla Vanzant about her inability to move on from the driving accident she caused that killed her best friend a year ago, Winfrey again quoted a Facebook user. "From Marlene: Tell her to celebrate life instead of reliving the death." Oprah among honorary Oscar recipients Each night during Oprah's Lifeclass, Winfrey shares the life lessons she learned during 25 years of The Oprah Winfrey Show. The weeknight series premiered Oct. 10 to 330,000 viewers - but without the recently added Friday post-show that airs live on TV and online, putting her in touch with her fans. Last Friday, more than 46,000 Lifeclass students logged in to the show's Facebook page, in addition to those who participated on Twitter, to talk and leave comments on what was happening live. Many of those were read on-air by both Winfrey and OWN President Sheri Salata, who also live-tweeted during the session. Those in the studio audience were encouraged by producers to participate on Facebook and tweet from their seats; laptops and iPads were welcome. Oprah to become CEO of OWN "We're working out the balance between TV and the online thing," Winfrey told the audience as she bounced among Skype conversations, Facebook, polling the audience and chatting with the in-studio guest (last week, it was Nia Vardalos). And she seemed to really be enjoying the free-flowing format. "I did the fire waaaaaaalk," she sang to the audience at the top of the show, explaining that for her new January series, Oprah's Next Chapter, she had recently interviewed Tony Robbins. "Are you tweeting? Did you tell 'em I was a firewalker?" she asked during a commercial break. She fawned over recently booted Dancing with the Stars contestant David Arquette, who Skyped in to share his own moment about being kind to yourself. And at the end of the evening, she told her guests how amazed she was to have interacted with Lifeclass watchers in New Mexico, Connecticut, Toronto, Wisconsin and Israel. "I love this," she said. The first season of Lifeclass concludes Friday, and Winfrey announced that a second season would begin early next year -- with a few changes. The Chicago-based series will go on the road and switch to a weekly format as opposed to a daily one, which she said her students found to be "way too much" in terms of keeping up with the homework. Have you logged on to do some deep-thinking with Oprah? Will you enroll in a second season of in Lifeclass?

Actor Alan Fudge dies at 67

Character actor Alan Fudge, most broadly noted for recurring roles in TV series including "Guy From Atlantis," "Eischied" "Paper Dolls" and, most recently, "seventh Paradise," died March. 10 in La of lung and liver cancer, they have been fighting for approximately yearly. He was 67.Fudge gathered almost 140 smallscreen credits throughout the time of 37 years furthermore to roles in 17 films including "Capricorn One," "Chapter Two," "The Border," "Brainstorm," "NaturalInch (he carried out Robert Redford's father but did not have lines) and "Edward Scissorhands."Author-producer Graham Yost mentioned of Fudge: "Personally, Alan was most likely probably the most generous, kind and caring males I have seen. The majority of the roles he carried out over time reflected that side of him. After which it there has been the roles where he arrived at go really dark and twisted -- people were the roles that made the majority of us who understood him smile and applaud. He will be a great actor together with an excellent guy."Fudge was produced in Wichita, Kan., and gone after Tucson, Ariz., along with his family at 5. He graduated within the U. of Arizona, where he will be a theater major. In 1962-63 he will be a part of Tucson folk group the Ash Alley Entertainers. Later he gone after NY and increased being an connect in the APA repertory troupe, turning up in lots of mostly small roles on Broadway from 1967-69, including in productions of "You Can't Accompany You,Inch "The Cherry Orchard" and "Hamlet."The actor made his smallscreen debut in the 1972 episode of "Gunsmoke" and labored continuously inside the medium for your better part of 4 decades. Fudge guest starred in the memorable 1975 episode of "MASH" just like a wounded captain who thinks he's Jesus.In NBC's 1977-78 sci-fi series "Guy From Atlantis," starring Patrick Duffy, Fudge carried out C.W. Crawford he carried out Det. Commissioner Kimbrough on NBC crime drama "Eischied" (1979), starring Joe Don Baker. In another recurring stint, he carried out Dr. Van Adams in ABC's fashion-industry sudser "Paper Dolls" (1984). Inside the 1992-93 CBS crime drama "Physiques of Evidence," which starred Lee Horsley and George Clooney, Fudge carried out Chief Frank Leland. None of individuals shown being extended-running series, however.Fudge had recurring roles on "Empire" and "L.A. Law," nevertheless the actor came out frequently on television it had not been uncommon for him to appear multiple occasions around the series in a variety of roles, while he did on "Hawaii Five-O," "Lou Grant," "The A-Team," "Columbo" and "Murder, She Written."Fudge also came out in several telepics, including "Nowhere Dark evening," "Kids of the Lac" and "I Realize I'm Steven."He gained his last bigscreen appearance inside the Coen brothers' 2001 film "The Man Who Wasn't There."Fudge ongoing to use continuously until 2009, yearly through which he guested in cases of "Large Love," "The Closer" and "WorkInch and came out inside the Hallmark Funnel telepic "Relative Stranger."He's managed to get by his wife, Kathy a boy and a pair of kids together with a great boy. Contact Carmel Dagan at carmel.dagan@variety.com

David Cook Tour Diary: The 'American Idol' Winner Talks Life on the Road, TV Show Stigma (Video)

our editor recommends'American Idol's' David Cook, Gavin DeGraw Announce Fall TourKelly Clarkson on Making Peace With Her Label, New Album: 'It's About Putting All That Crap in the Back'David Archuleta Explains Break From Jive, Management Company (Video)The Ultimate 'American Idol' Alumni Twitter Directory Grabbing his guitar, David Cook launches into Def Leppard's "Hysteria" with more than a hint of irony. "I gotta know tonight, if you're alone tonight," he sings from center stage at the Fox Theater in Pomona, Calif., trying his best to find the emotional core of the 1987 hit (Cook was five when it came out, his fairytale TV story still 21 years away). It doesn't take long before the American Idol season 7 winner, who clenched his victory in large part by reimagining radio classics just like this one, breaks character and his band breaks down in quick succession. "It already sounds really cheesy," he laughs, unable to determine whether it's a good cheese or the kind you'll regret when you realize it lives forever on Youtube. Indeed, Cook would later tell us he's been cursing the video site "for years -- ever since I fell singing 'Hot for Teacher' in Biloxi, Mississippi," he grouses. It's an understandable insecurity as many dozen clips from Cook's current tour with Gavin Degraw and Carolina Liar live on the site, starting from a fateful first show at Penn State, when "Dicklaration" became the newest entry to the Cook lexicon. It refers to the moment during that show when the word nerd's brand new pants ripped from "knee to crotch" (his words) just as he getting ready to play "Declaration," the opening track to his self-titled debut album. "I had just bought these new pants -- wax denim, lace up the side, they weren't cheap and I was into them -- and I just heard and felt this rip," Cook recalls with equal part glee and horror. "I had to make a split-second decision: do I go offstage and let the band meander? I said, 'Screw it.' At this point, a couple thousand people know -- I'm a pale guy you can tell and I'm wearing dark pants -- so I had to inform everybody, then I went behind the lighting rig and gaffed the pants together. It was definitely one of the more mortifying things that have happened to me onstage, but I think I handled it correctly." ANALYSIS:'The X Factor' Vs. 'American Idol:' Who's Leading the Battle for Talent Show Supremacy It was an audacious start to a nearly two-month trek that will take Cook from coast to coast and bring him face-to-face with some of his most devoted fans via a daily meet-and-greet where, for $75, anyone can get a special VIP pass autographed and have a picture taken with the man himself. In Pomona, they lined up early in the afternoon and got to sit in for a couple songs during sound-check ("Declaration" and Nine Inch Nails' "Hand That Feeds") -- after Cook worked out the kinks with another, even more ambitious cover: Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll." Earlier, guitar-bation ensued as Cook and new band member Devon Bronson traded licks onstage and goofed off. Warned Cook: "I can come off like I'm drunk when I'm sober." It's actually an apt description for the entire Cook concert experience, which emphasized fun above all for those in the crowd, onstage, working the bar, selling T-shirts (it seems David's brother Andrew has been tasked with that responsibility at select shows) or handling the gear. The Fox Theater performance was no exception. Kicking off the set with mood-setter "Circadian," Cook gingerly ran through his catalog, mixing up songs from his debut ("Light On," "Heroes," "Bar-ba-sol") and his latest album, This Loud Morning ("Paper Heart," "The Last Goodbye," "We Believe"). The night's cover: a perennial favorite, Muse's "Stockholm Syndrome." STORY:'X Factor': What the 'American Idol' Alums Think of Simon Cowell's New Show "For the next hour and change, you're stuck with our moderately good-looking asses," Cook cracked -- not that anyone was complaining. Indeed, outside of the recording studio, where he logged plenty of overtime hours while making This Loud Morning, the road might be Cook's most natural habitat. It's one reason why he chose a combination of live footage (culled from performances in Columbus, St. Louis and Tulsa) and highway travels for his latest video, "Fade Into Me" (below). So is the it his "Faithfully?" we asked. "I don't know," says Cook. "Every live video -- 'Dead or Alive,' Faithfully,' 'Home Sweet Home,' 'Don't Speak' -- is such a lofty comparison." On the Declaration tour, Cook played a mind-boggling 152 dates in just under a year -- the longest tour by an Idol alum at the time. Is he looking to break a record with this trek? Sort of. "I live for this," says Cook, adding that additional dates with DeGraw are being sorted out along with a trip abroad next year -- to Europe and perhaps beyond. "I used to be such a studio nut and now I love nothing more than being on the road, so put me wherever. I'm into it. CAA, book those shows!" See more from our time with Cook in THR's exclusive video above and check out "Fade Into Me" below. American Idol David Cook Gavin DeGraw