andy barker

For those of you looking forward to the grand return of Andy Richter and Tony Hale to television, wait no longer. NBC has posted the first six episodes of Andy Barker, P.I. (in their entirety) on its website. You have to watch advertisements for TurboTax to see them.

The half-hour comedy series is a mid-season pick-up for NBC. Richter stars as a CPA-turned private eye when he is mistaken for the detective who used to occupy his workspace. I only watched the pilot, but the jokes are very Conan O'Brien-- which is not surprising since he created, produced and wrote the show. Tony Hale (Arrested Development) plays a movie snob who owns a video store, but is bored so he joins Andy to solve mysteries. I laughed out loud a few times- mostly at Hale's comments about Sandra Bullock and Meet the Fockers.

In case you're old school and like to watch your television the way they did when you were a kid, Andy Barker, P.I. premieres on Thursday, March 15th on NBC at 9:30 pm.

NBC has announced that they plan to stream their mid-season shows, The Black Donnellys, Andy Barker, P.I., and Raines on NBC.com. The network is also set to stream all produced episodes of Andy Barker and the pilot of Raines before their premiere dates. There will also be web exclusive content for both The Black Donnellys and Andy Barker.

In addition to all that, Medium and Identity will also begin streaming full episodes in March. That brings NBC's total of full episode streaming series to 13 when added to The Apprentice, Heroes, 30 Rock, Las Vegas, Friday Night Lights, Passions, Studio 60, and My Name Is Earl. The network also plans to make the full seasons of Heroes and Friday Night Lights available, starting with the pilots, beginning in the spring.

We'll have full coverage of all the network upfronts next week, but here's a little preview of the news we might hear.

NBC has given the green light to Tina Fey's show about a late night variety show (a lot like Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60, which has also gotten the green light) and the dramas Friday Night Lights, Heroes, and Raines (with Jeff Goldblum), as well as the comedies Community Service, 20 Good Years, and The Singles Table.

The loser in all this? Andy Richter. His Andy Barker, P.I. (produced by Conan O'Brien) has been turned down by the network.