Matthew Lillard, Gillian Vigman Join CMT's 'The Hard Life'

Watch out, TV Land: Your Viacom brethren CMT is ramping up its own slate of original comedies.

'Scooby-Doo' and 'Scream' star Matthew Lillard has joined the cast of the upcoming CMT series 'The Hard Life,' in which he'll play Bobby, a dad who's trying to juggle his parental duties with his duties as a husband. 'MadTV' and 'Sons and Daughters' star Gillian Vigman will star as Gina, Bobby's wife, a career woman who's now a stay-at-home mom trying to balance her roles as mom and wife.
TV Land is celebrating the massively successful launch of its first-ever original sitcom -- the Betty White comedy 'Hot in Cleveland' -- and 'The Hard Life' is one of four sitcom pilots country music TV network CMT is casting in hopes of becoming a hot spot for scripted comedies.

'The Hard Life' was created by 'Murphy Brown' producer Bill Diamond. Among the other highly-credentialed names involved with the network's new family-focused sitcoms:

-- Ed Asner, who's playing Tom Arnold's dad in 'Regular Joe.'

-- 'Reba' alum Melissa Peterman -- the current host of CMT's 'The Singing Bee' -- who stars as a struggling single mom who moves into a wealthy neighborhood in 'Working Class.'

-- 'Sons and Daughters' and 'Carpoolers' star Fred Goss in '30 Percent,' about a family that has to cut its lifestyle -- by the titular 30 percent -- when its income takes a drastic hit.

Meanwhile, Lillard, who played the son of a serial killer in 'Serial Mom' before playing a killer himself in 'Scream,' is also resuming the role of Shaggy Rogers, the slacker pal of Scooby-Doo. Lillard played Shaggy in the 2002 live-action Scooby flick and its 2004 sequel, and he'll lend his voice as Shaggy in Cartoon Network's new 'Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.'

The 'toon, which premieres on July 12, also features 'The Facts of Life' star Mindy Cohn voicing bespectacled Velma, while voiceover legend Frank Welker, who has lent his voice to everyone from Grimace (the purple blobby McDonald's mascot) and Garfield to Jabberjaw and Hefty Smurf, will voice Scooby and Mystery Inc.'s ascot-wearing leader Fred, a role he's been playing since the first 'Scooby' cartoon premiered in 1969.