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Renewals, new orders follow US strike US networks are continuing to firm up their post-strike scripted slates in a flurry of renewal orders and new series development green lights for the rest of this season and fall 2008. NBC will reinstate its Thursday night comedy block with original episodes of My Name is Earl, 30 Rock, The Office and Scrubs. Renewals of the first three of those were expected, although until now the future of Scrubs was murky. It was announced before the strike began that the hit show was in its last series and it was unclear whether NBC would produce more episodes to complete its final run. As C21 predicted earlier, Chuck, Life and Heroes have all been picked up for another series but won't air any more new episodes this season. And in another predicted move, the Peacock has failed to renew freshman outings Bionic Woman and Journeyman, effectively announcing their cancellation. Showtime, meanwhile, has booked Lionsgate to resume production on a further 13 episodes of Weeds, the cablenet's highest-rated comedy series, in April. Paycasters have led the way in tapping new scripts for series development. TNT, for example, has greenlit 13 episodes of original action-drama series Leverage, to be produced by Electric Entertainment (The Librarian franchise). The series stars Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People) as a disenchanted former insurance investigator who becomes part of a team of thieves, fraudsters and scammers who set about unmasking greedy, unjust corporations. "Leverage is great entertainment," said Michael Wright, senior VP of content creation for TNT, TBS and TCM. "It's fast-paced, smart and just great fun. This is a new genre for us in our series efforts, and it's great to be able to tackle it." Set to premiere later this year, Leverage is executive produced by Electric Entertainment head Dean Devlin. Devlin will also make his directorial debut on the pilot, penned by John Rogers (Transformers) and Chris Downey (The King of Queens). Pre-teen Disney block Jetix has also been handing out orders, requesting pilots for boy-skewing live-action projects Mongoose & Luther and Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! Wonder Years actor turned TV and film director Fred Savage will direct single-camera outing Mongoose, about two best friends who dream of becoming skateboarding champions. Writer-creators Matt Dearborn and Tom Burkhard (Even Stevens) will produce. Sunday!, from showrunners Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas (MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch), tells the story of two cousins who, forced to live together, fear they have nothing in common until they discover a shared love of monster trucks. Troy Miller (HBO's Flight of the Conchords) will direct and executive produce the pilot. Emily Brookes 14 Feb 2008 © C21 Media 2008 
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