Leonard better be on his best behavior in 'The Big Bang Theory' season premiere because mama is back in town!

CBS announced 'The Good Wife' star Christine Baranski will be reprising her role for the first episode of Season 5.

Baranski, who currently stars as legal eagle Diane Lockhart on CBS's hit drama 'The Good Wife,' plays Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, Leonard's overly analytical mother on 'Big Bang Theory.'

Ready for some great news about 'The Good Wife'? Well, not only does Season 3 begin filming Fri., July 15, but supporting player Christine Baranski will have a bigger role in the CBS legal drama.

In an interview with TVLine, series co-creator Robert King let slip some details on the grand plan for Baranski, who was just nominated for a Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Emmy for her portrayal of legal eagle Diane Lockhart.

"Because Diane was on the outside of this [Will/Alicia/Peter] love triangle, we felt like she may not have been as central to the plot last year as she will be this year," King told TVLine. "But Christine Baranski is someone who is going to be the core of one of the plot threads this year."

Something strange happened after watching a recent episode of 'The Good Wife.'

Following 'Cleaning House,' the fourth episode of the show's second season, an overwhelming feeling of pride swept over me. A TV show that I have no connection to whatsoever -- besides being a viewer -- filled me with immense pride. Why? Well, 'The Good Wife' is nothing short of amazing.

When a show can easily blend the generic nature of a procedural with weekly character development and overarching plots, it deserves to be called amazing -- perhaps even the best drama on network TV. (Our own Mo Ryan named it among her top 10 best shows of 2010.)

For the next few days, I'll be listing the Emmy nominees in the major categories and giving you picks and possible dark horses. Feel free to agree, disagree, and make your own picks in the comments.

Let's start with an interesting mix of the safe and the new: the Best Supporting Actress in a Drama category.

Nominees:
Christine Baranski, 'The Good Wife'
Rose Byrne, 'Damages'
Sharon Gless, 'Burn Notice'
Christina Hendricks, 'Mad Men'
Elisabeth Moss, 'Mad Men'
Archie Panjabi, 'The Good Wife'

Who will win: The Academy just loves, loves, loves Christine Baranski. Sure, she only won once, for 'Cybil' in 1995, but she's been nominated six times since then, including twice this year (she got a guest actress nod for playing Leonard's mom on 'The Big Bang Theory'). And now that she's nominated in the drama category for the first time, they'll jump at the chance to give her the statuette. Even though she did a good job as ice queen law firm honcho Diane Lockhart in 'The Good Wife,' the Academy will likely just give her the award because she's an old friend.

While dealing with her husband's political scandal and the breakdown of her marriage, Alicia has also had to contend with competition at work. On 'The Good Wife' (Tue., 10PM ET on CBS), she and Cary have both served as junior associates at the law firm, but with the understanding that only one would be hired permanently at the end of the year.

"We don't mean to draw this out any longer than we have to," said Diane. "If we weren't in this situation, this financial situation, we would want you both."

So who got the job? Watch the video to find out.

(S03E11) Christine Baranski is back! I loved this episode, but it was way too short. It was so fast-paced, that it seemed like it was over before it even got started. They really picked up where they left off the last time she guest-starred. In that episode; they established how she and Sheldon were basically the same person and hinted at a Mrs. Robinson-type relationship. In this episode, they totally went there.

Sure, she was drunk and didn't really mean it, but when she pulled Sheldon in and kissed him, my jaw dropped. It's been a while since we've seen her, and they spent the first half of this episode establishing basically that Sheldon had replaced Leonard in his mother's life. He's sending her get-well flowers, he knows about Leonard's dog dying, he's giving Beverly notes on her papers; so when she kissed him, it was jarring -- like she was kissing her own son.

The world has fallen in love with The Big Bang Theory. That's no big shock here at TV Squad. Most of us have been swooning for the show since it began. However, now the Nielsen ratings are starting to reflect our enthusiasm. Monday night's episode of Big Bang was a series high, and surpassed Two and a Half Men, its lead-in and the anchor of CBS's sitcom stable. Until now.

For the record, in the 18-49 rating, Big Bang had a 5.7; Men had a 5.1. In total viewers, the Chuck Lorre comedy hour of Men and Bang drew approximately 15 million watchers. Now, if you're curious about the upcoming episode, read on. However, if you don't want to be spoiled or listen to some speculation, stop here.

Laurie Metcalf made a return appearance earlier this season on 'The Big Bang Theroy' as Sheldon's mother. So, it's only fitting that Leonard's mother will be returning to the show as well.

The Ausiello Files is reporting that Christine Baranski has agreed to bring back her Emmy-nominated role as Leonard's uptight mother, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter. Luckily, Baranski's regular gig on 'The Good Wife' is a fellow CBS series, so it wasn't a challenge to fit her 'Big Bang' guest spot into her schedule.

The first time she appeared, there was some delightfully awkward tension between her and Sheldon. Some would argue and call it sexual tension, but we're not sure that Sheldon is even a sexual creature. With his own mother (Metcalfe) so decidedly non-intellectual, we think he was just thrilled to have a mother-figure he could mentally spar with.

(S01E01) You might think that you're watching a variation on Law & Order when the first few minutes of The Good Wife commences. It's not just that Chris Noth is in the scene, looking every bit like Mike Logan. It's more that the scene is ripped from the headlines. Disgraced politician -- Elliot Spitzer, David Vitter, Jim McGreevey -- caught in a sex scandal. His innocent, good wife, standing beside him.

As Alicia Florrick, the wife of a Chicago prosecutor who was caught sucking the toes of prostitutes and forced to resign, Julianna Margulies masters the shell-shocked, distant gaze. Her eyes, in fact, fixate on a stray thread on his suit. But the fog lifts quickly and away from the podium, reality comes in the form of a smack in the face. She delivers the smack, and from that moment, you're on her side. Maybe it was a cheap trick, but it worked.

Generally speaking, CBS had a strong 2008, developing one bona fide hit drama -- The Mentalist -- even though shows like The Ex-List never found an audience or a critical plaudit. Ironically, I liked The Ex-List based on the screener I reviewed last summer, so go figure. Sometimes a preview can inform you about a show's potential and sometimes it's just the best it'll ever be.

CBS has shared previews for the new season and we've had a chance to take a look. There are star vehicles for Jenna Elfman, Alex O'Loughlin and Julianna Margulies, which would seem logical based on the success of Simon Baker as The Mentalist. CBS is counting on familiar, popular TV stars to win over audiences. Will the strategy work? It's probably too soon to tell.

Canterbury's Law didn't last too long (be honest, you barely remember it), but Juliana Margulies is donning the power suit and getting back into the courtroom in CBS' new drama The Good Wife. This show is "ripped from the headlines" in every way. Her husband is a politician who goes to jail after a money/sex scandal, she's all over YouTube, and even her boss has her picture taken with Hilary Clinton and looks a little like Gloria Allred (it's Christine Baranski). Margulies' character could probably get a few million for writing a tell-all, but she decides to practice law again.

(S02E15) Well, it was a big episode that we almost missed due to the Presidential address tonight. This was a great episode for one simple reason: we finally find out that Leonard and Sheldon are friends because Leonard is trying to have sex with his mother. Wait -- that's not quite right. But seriously. How great is it that Leonard's mother and Sheldon are basically the exact same person?

I like the direction they took with it: They didn't go the predictable route of Leonard feeling as though Sheldon is replacing him; they hinted at a Mrs. Robinson relationship, but didn't quite go there. Instead, the writers made their reactions believable. Sheldon and Mrs. Hofstadter spent a great deal of time talking about brain scans and played Rock Band, which as we all know, is the great equalizer.

On CBS's The Big Bang Theory, we've met Sheldon's mother. Emmy-winner Laurie Metcalf appeared in season one as a super-religious Texas mama who knows better than anyone how to get to Dr. Sheldon Cooper. Now, Leonard's mother is going to be introduced, and she's equally as accomplished as Ms. Metcalf.

Tony, Emmy and SAG award winning actress Christine Baranski will be Leonard's mom, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter. That's right, she's a brainiac.

Her specialty is research on the human brain, and according to Bill Prady, Big Bang's executive producer, "There's the possibility that Leonard is the least successful in his family, that his parents always pushed him toward academic success." Sounds like a funny set up to me.

We told you a while back about the plan to have the writing staffs of CSI and Two and a Half Men swap places for one episode. Looks like that plan is going forward. Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre even has the plot for the CSI episode: he's going to kill Roseanne Barr or Cybill Shepherd.

OK, they won't be on the show, but Lorre's plot revolves around the killing of a "sitcom diva." Lorre worked for several years on both Roseanne and Cybill (he created the latter), and both shows were notorious for behind the scenes friction and firings and chaos. And who does Lorre want to have play the sitcom diva? Shepherd's costar Christine Baranski, who didn't exactly get along with the star of the show (or vice versa).

Now the only question is: who will the killer be? (Second question: what plot will the CSI writers come up with for Two and a Half Men?)