Now that they’ve gotten their mid-season shows off the ground, it’s pilot-buyin’ time for the major networks. That means that, in the past few weeks, we’ve been deluged with news about shows in development, with headlines featuring such names as Louis C.K., Mindy Kaling, J.J. Abrams, and Roseanne Barr. Thankfully, for those of us who’ve had some trouble keeping up, The Hollywood Reporter was kind enough to post a full list of what we can look forward to from ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and The CW in the 2012-13 season. Since that roundup is still pretty daunting, we’ve narrowed the list to the 11 shows we’re most looking forward to; check them out and find out why we can’t to see them after the jump.

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1. This year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will feature a new balloon designed by Tim Burton; according to the character’s crazy origin story, he was created “from the leftover balloons used in children’s parties at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London” and is “forbidden from playing with other children because of his jagged teeth and crazy-quilt stitching.” [via ArtsBeat]

2. Sarah Silverman is putting together a comedy fundraiser in Ricky Perry’s home state of Texas that will be titled, “Live From N*****head: Stripping The Paint Off Of Good Ol’ Fashioned Racism,” and plans on donating all proceeds to the NAACP. [via EW]

3. Michael Bay has signed on to executive produce Outsiders, an hour-long drama for The CW that follows a “quirky [male] sociology professor” who teams up with a young female detective to “solve crimes involving youths and subcultures in Los Angeles.” And, we’re guessing, things that go boom. [via Vulture]

4. Hot on the heels of last night’s Season 4 finale, MTV already has your first look at Season 5 of Jersey Shore, which sees the cast returning to Seaside Heights and their beloved club, Karma. [via Perez]

5. If you can’t wait for it to hit shelves, here are some details from Walter Isaacson’s highly-anticipated Steve Jobs biography, including the fact that Jobs initially refused potentially life-saving surgery on his pancreatic cancer because he felt it was too invasive. [via Huffington Post]

Bonus Buzz: Vampire Moths Discovered In Siberia

Score one for NBC. The network, home to most of our favorite (if not TV’s most popular) sitcoms, has won a bidding war and nabbed another big name in comedy: Sarah Silverman. NBC has committed to a put pilot of Silverman’s new show, for which she’ll write (along with Sarah Silverman Program collaborators Dan Sterling and Jon Schroeder), executive produce, and star as a woman who’s newly single after spending most of her adult life in a relationship. The premise sounds somewhat conventional, considering how bizarre her last show was and how controversial her stand-up tends to be, but we have faith that Silverman will find a way to spice it up. [via Variety]

1. There are some troubling rumors that Amy and Rory (played by Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill) will be leaving Doctor Who at the end of the current season. More details (along with a few spoilers) here.

2. A slightly squashed down version of famous French architect Jean Nouvel’s hotly-debated MoMA tower has been approved, and construction on the project — which is 1,050 feet, 200 feet shorter than the original design — is expected to start soon. [via The Measure]

3. The lineup for this year’s New York Comedy Festival has been announced, and it includes big names like Louis C.K., Tracy Morgan, Sarah Silverman, Ricky Gervais, Bill Maher, Wanda Sykes, Russell Peters, Kathy Griffin, and Norm Macdonald. Schedule information and locations are still TBD, but mark your calendars for November 9 to 13. [via ArtsBeat]

4. Stay classy: According to The Sun, Amy Winehouse’s former husband Blake Fielder-Civil — who is currently serving a two-year prison sentence in Leeds for armed robbery and firearm offenses — is planning to write a tell-all book about his relationship with the singer. [via NME]

5. If the original cut of Drew Barrymore’s video for Best Coast left you wanting more Donald Glover, you can check out the 10-minute extended version of “Our Deal” here.

Bonus Buzz: 25 Reasons Your Childhood Self Hates You

1. AMC and Matthew Weiner have reached a deal to make at least two more seasons of Mad Men. “I called my agents to thank them, my wife, and Jon Hamm — in that order,” he told Vulture. “Jon Hamm wasn’t there. I left two messages. Then I called the rest of the cast.”

2. Sarah Silverman will make a guest appearance on The Good Wife in what sounds like a serious role; she’ll be playing Stephanie, a woman who owns a controversial website that sets up affairs for married users. [via Perez]

3. Stephen King and John Mellencamp are collaborating on “a riveting Southern gothic musical” called Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, which make its debut in Atlanta next April. [via AP]

4. MTV is working on a pilot for a new series based on the controversial documentary Catfish with the same creative team who made the film; while nothing is official yet, the show will “likely focus on social network users who purposely misidentify themselves and the repercussions that occur.” [via Variety]

5. Struggling company American Apparel has released its latest financial report which reveals that it lost $86 million in 2010; meanwhile Dov Charney says the chances of bankruptcy are “not even a 1-in-1,000 chance.” Our advice: stock up on those deep v-neck t-shirts while you still can. [via Gawker]

Bonus link: British Celebs (and Some American Ones!) Who Look Like Houses

A David Cross-as-Tobias Fünke figurine. A pyramid constructed in honor of Roseanne. A spooky, Cyclops Brian Posehn. A shrine to Pee-wee Herman that would fit right in at a ’50s diner. No, these aren’t images from our pop culture-obsessed dreams — they’re real-life works of art featured in Gallery 1988: Melrose‘s new show. Is This Thing On?, which runs through January 29th, compiles the comedy-inspired work of 100 artists. You can check out most of the artwork here, but we’ve picked out our ten favorite portraits, of ten comedians we love, after the jump.

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Christopher Hitchens. Richard Dawkins. And, of course, Charles Darwin. These are the names we usually hear associated with the Great God Debate. But this holiday season, Ricky Gervais has let loose a missive reminding us that atheism isn’t just dour lectures and attempts to discredit Mother Teresa — it can actually be funny. “Next time someone tells me they believe in God,” Gervais writes, “I’ll say ‘Oh which one? Zeus? Hades? Jupiter? Mars? Odin? Thor? Krishna? Vishnu? Ra?…’ If they say ‘Just God. I only believe in the one God,’ I’ll point out that they are nearly as atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869.”

In fact, poking holes in religion has long been one of comedy’s greatest pastimes. After the jump, we round up our favorite irreligious quotes from our funniest atheists, from Woody Allen and Cloris Leachman to David Cross and Sarah Silverman.

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Today at Flavorpill, we watched Craig Ferguson hit on one of our favorite authors, Sloane Crosley. We were reminded, by this list of the 30 most influential independently financed films of the past 30 years, that The Terminator was an indie. We wondered whether the age of the decadent novel has passed. We listened to a gorgeous, new Brian Eno track. We were surprised to hear that The New York Times Magazine has named as its new editor former New York editorial director Hugo Lindgren. We hoped the upcoming Myst movie wouldn’t be as confusing as the ’90s video game it’s based on. We spotted Lady Gaga wearing, quite literally, a hairshirt. We laughed along as Sarah Silverman, Weird Al, and John Cho spoofed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell supporters. We enjoyed this colorful upgrade of a Cincinnati neighborhood’s streets. And last, but certainly not least, we mourned the untimely death of influential Detroit house producer Aaron-Carl.

1. The New York Times has issued a correction for Lynn Hirschberg’s M.I.A. profile, admitting that certain quotes were presented out of order. [via The Daily Swarm]
2. The New Yorker‘s “20 under 40″ list of fiction writers is out; it’s chock full of thirtysomethings, and the youngest person included is Téa Obreht, 24. [via The Awl]
3. The Smashing Pumpkins will go on a tour of smaller venues this summer, playing what Billy Corgan calls, “a balance of classics, a few obscure ones, and new material.” [via Spin]
4. Apple has applied for a patent for a solar-powered iPhone. (Side note: Have you downloaded Flavorpill’s free iPhone app yet?) [via Inhabitat]
5. Listen to Dirty Projectors cover Bob Dylan’s “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine.” [via Vulture]

Bonus link: Sarah Silverman Loses Her Virginity

The world of Twitter can be hard to navigate. We know that you’re already following us @flavorpill, but we decided it would be fun (and possibly helpful) if we rounded up some of our other Twitter favorites in a series we call “The Followables.” This sixth installment of Twitter all-stars spotlights the tweeting comedians who we love. Do us a favor and leave a comment with anyone who you enjoy who didn’t make our list.

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