“Bosom Buddies” debuted in 1980, and survived only two seasons on network TV — before cable made it hard for network TV shows — largely due to the charm of Tom Hanks, who is merely one of the most talented actors of his generation.

Now, more than 30 years later, ABC will air another men-in-drag comedy called “Work It.” There’s a promo embedded below, and it’s the intellectual equivalent of ABC executives collectively spitting in your face. Three decades ago, I could maybe believe that two guys would dress as women to live in a female-only residence. In 2011, the premise is that two down-on-their-luck men cross-dress in order to get jobs that go to women:

With unemployment an ongoing issue and women now outnumbering men in the workforce, the new comedy series “Work It” follows two alpha males who realize the only way to beat the current “mancession” and land a job in pharmaceutical sales is to pass themselves off as women. [ABC]

Their embarrassingly poor drag acts not only fool people with (presumably) eyes and common sense, but apparently also land them the jobs ahead of ACTUAL women. Watch the preview and marvel at how stupid ABC thinks you are.

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Danger Guerrero emailed me about the embedded video below: “This is a clip from ABC news last night featuring researchers and scientists in China putting on huge panda costumes to go interact with baby pandas. I don’t think it needs more context than that.”

He’s right, too — this is best enjoyed at face value. It was DEFINITELY worth ABC’s money to send a news crew to the other side of the planet for a two-minute story with a reporter in a panda suit. Alert the Pulitzer committee.

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Comedian Patrice O’Neal died last night, one month after suffering a massive stroke. The longtime Comedy Central presence had previously battled diabetes, which served as the butt of several jokes in his final TV appearance, the roast of Charlie Sheen. He was 41.

O’Neal’s TV credits included a stint on “The Office,” regular appearances on “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn,” and a memorable one-off as the pyromaniac T-Bone in “Arrested Development” (There’s always money in the banana stand). He was also the second-best part about In the Cut (banner image & video below), which reminds me: R.I.P. Meg Ryan’s original face.

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If you’re reading this blog, you almost certainly know about Pedobear, the cartoon meme that pokes fun at sexual predators and appears every time I think about Chloe Moretz. But the news team at KRQE, Albuquerque’s CBS affiliate, isn’t taking the joke lightly. In this unbelievably serious report, the news team investigates how ACTUAL PEDOPHILES are using Pedobear to lure children into their grasp.

Nobody offers any proof of this, of course, but there are are at least TWO cars in New Mexico that have Pedobear stickers! And while “it’s not illegal to display a Pedobear sticker” (actual quote), you should be on the lookout because this is a very clear and present danger, and most certainly not ham-fisted fear-mongering. I mean, it just makes sense that pedophiles would advertise that they’re pedophiles. It’s like how nobody expects the guy in the old hockey mask to be an ACTUAL homicidal maniac. Hidden in plain sight. Brilliant.

Bonus points to the film editor who added this:

[via ScreenJunkies]

“Parks and Recreation” already has what may be the deepest and funniest ensemble cast on TV, so hey, why not throw Louis C.K. back into the mix? He’s only the best stand-up comedian alive with an Emmy nomination for acting. NBD.

Sources confirm to TVLine exclusively that the actor/comedian — currently between seasons of his FX comedy, Louie — will reprise his role as Leslie’s former police officer beau Dave Sanderson in an early ’12 episode.

The extremely laid back, mild-mannered character was last seen in Season 2 when he took a job in San Diego.

Dave’s return is expected to create some romantic tension for Leslie (Amy Poehler) and Ben (Adam Scott), but c’mon: let’s not kid ourselves about the choice between Adam Scott and Louis C.K. as love interests. On a scale of 1 to Olyphant, Adam Scott is a solid 7, and Louis’s somewhere to the left of zero.

Man, when did this blog get so gay about looking at men? This is all “Justified’s” fault.

FX has announced the January premiere dates for “Justified” and “Archer,” AKA “Why I Watch Television.” Circle these dates on your calendar: Tuesday, January 17th for “Justified” and Thursday the 19th for “Archer,” which will be paired with the new animated comedy “Unsupervised.”

[It] was created by “Sunny” writers Rob Rosell, Scott Marder and David Hornsby, and has a voice cast including Justin Long, Kristen Bell, Fred Armisen, Romany Malco, Kaitlin Olson and Alexa Vega, along with Rosell and Hornsby themselves. The show is about a pair of teenage best friends, Gary and Joel, trying to do the right thing with no parental supervision. [HitFix]

I can take or leave this new show. Right now I’m kind of mad that it’s distracting me from the point: people, we are a mere MONTH AND A HALF away from new seasons of “Justified” and “Archer”! That’s thirteen fresh episodes of Timothy Olyphant’s wry smile and H. Jon Benjamin’s deadpan delivery — UHHHH, I mean braless Natalie Zea and Lana Kane in her knockoff Fiaccis because I like girls! IS SHE A SEXY CARTOON OR WHAT?

Enlightened (HBO) — This is one of the fall season’s solid new shows that I haven’t seen because I’m only one human staying up until 2:00 a.m. every night trying to watch everything on television. Ordinarily, I’d make a guilty overture about how I should try to watch it, but I can finally say with relief that I’ll probably never see this, and I’m okay with that. Same goes for everything on Showtime. SO LONG SUCKERS!

House (Fox) — Fall finale. “Fall finale” is just the network’s way of saying “last new episode until after the holidays and bowl games.”

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (ABC) — Probably my favorite annual Christmas program, slightly ahead of the stop-motion “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” My only quibble: the way Cindy Lou Who ruins the ending.

Bored to Death (HBO) — Season finale. Jason Schwartzman’s character gets killed off, then Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis get stoned to celebrate how much better the show is without him. Not really, but that’d be sweet.

The Closer (TNT) — Winter premiere. Ahhhh, TNT police procedurals: for TV viewers who find CBS police procedurals too slickly edited.

Rizzoli & Isles (TNT) — Winter premiere. Oh, “LADYCOPS,” I shall miss you the most of all TNT shows about lady cops. (Bill O”Reilly guest stars as himself on tonight’s episode.)

LATE NIGHT GUESTS: Kirstie Alley, Damon Wayans Jr, and She & Him on Leno; Regis Philbin on Kimmel; Miranda Kerr on Chelsea; Jason Segel and Das Racist on Conan; and Aisha Tyler on Ferguson. YUUUUUUP.

When you’re a politician, you enter a dimension of reality where people criticize you for having beliefs that don’t line up with their own. That’s what happened last week to Tea Party presidential hopeful Michele Bachman, when she appeared on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” and the Roots played a Fishbone song called “Lyin’ Ass Bitch.” Bachmann seized on the opportunity to politicize the moment, demanding an apology from NBC and saying that Michelle Obama would never be treated like that. So NBC apologized, but Bachmann is unsatisfied because it wasn’t from the PRESIDENT of NBC.

Doug Vaughn, NBC’s senior vice president for special programs, wrote Bachmann a personal letter on Wednesday. He called the show’s choice to play a snippet of Fishbone’s “Lyin’ Ass B—-” as she walked on the show both “unfortunate” and “unacceptable.”

“Of course I accept the apology but my guess is that it would have been the president of the NBC that would have been apologizing not a senior vice president,” had a liberal, like Michelle Obama been the guest, she told KLIF radio in Dallas on Friday. [NY Daily News]

Jesus Everloving Christ. “Of course I accept the apology, but I kind of expected it to be printed on a GOLDEN PAPYRUS SCROLL.” How the hell is it possible that FEWER politicians are assassinated now than 50 years ago?

“Alcatraz,” which debuts on Fox in January, has the pedigree of an outstanding show. It was created by J.J. Abrams, it’s from the producers of “Lost,” and it stars Sam Neill, Jorge Garcia, and Sarah Jones, who’s a positively TERRIFIC actress (*cups hands in front of chest*). And I’m inclined to say nice things about it, because I like Bad Robot (the studio making “Alcatraz”) and I know one of the writers on the show.

That said, I can’t exactly say that this a remarkable promo. I’ve watched it three times, and I think I know LESS about the show than I did when the day started. It’s all, “Conspiracy! Handgun! Lockers! Blurry Sam Neill face!”

Come on, Fox. It’s not that hard to make a great promo for this show. I mean, there has to be at least ONE scene where Sarah Jones is in a tight shirt.

[via Vulture]