Even with the simply sublime “Mad Men” back on the air and clearly still in top style and a slew of pretty great shows (”Pushing Daisies” would have to be the one I’m most jazzed about) finally set to return for hopefully full seasons, the end of HBO’s “The Wire” has just left a huge void.

Luckily for us viewers, “Wire” mastermind David Simon is a man who likes to work and HBO is smart decent to hold on to its best talents. “Six Feet Under” creator Alan Ball will be back Sept. 7 with what should be a satisfying vampire series in “True Blood” with Anna Paquin, and in even better news, Simon is getting back into the game too in a big way - and with a lot of familiar faces.

For what is so far only a pilot (though it surely won’t end up that way), Simon has moved his sights from Charm City to another American city in distress, New Orleans, where there’s at least as much crime and corruption to work with as there was (and still is) in Baltimore.

“Treme,” which takes its name from a historic African-American neighborhood in the Crescent City, will take a look at the lives of musicians and others struggling to get by in what Hurricane Katrina left them to deal with. “Wire” creative folks Eric Overmyer and Nina Noble are on board as executive producers and, in even better news (I know I’m burying the lead here), “Wire” cops Bunk and Lester and “The Corner” resident Fran Boyd are all set to star! (And though I try to use them sparingly, that’s certainly worthy of an exclamation point.)

Wendell Pierce will play Antoine Batiste, an accomplished jazz trombonist who is now scratching for gigs, trying to support a live-in girlfriend and a new baby. Khandi Alexander, who after playing Fran on “The Corner” went on to star on “CSI: Miami” for seven years (though I can’t say I’ve ever tuned in for an episode), will play Ladonna Batiste, the mother of Antoine’s other two children, who is single-handedly keeping her bar afloat.

Clarke Peters, a k a superdetective Lester Freamon, will play Albert Lambreaux, a big chief of the White Feather Nation trying to bring the (Mardi Gras Indian, I assume)

tribe’s members home.

As you can probably tell from those few details alone, Simon’s ready for that and should deliver something great. As he did with Baltimore on “The Wire,” Simon told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that “Treme” would reach beyond the music scene to explore political corruption, the public housing controversy, the crippled criminal-justice system, clashes within police and Mardi Gras Indians, and the struggle to regain the tourism industry after the storm.

“It’s basically a post-Katrina history of the city. It will be rooted in events that everybody knows,” Simon told the paper. “What it’s not going to be is a happy stroll through David Simon’s record collection. It should not be a tourism slide show. whether we do it right, it (will be) about why New Orleans matters.”

All I can say is a resounding bring it on, ASAP!

AMC moving from ’60s to ’70s

Among the many charms of AMC’s “Mad Men” (and man was that second episode of season two great) is the attention to detail it pays in reconstructing the world of early ’60s New York City and its ad men.

Now, in its search for more original programming, the cable channel is looking to the ’70s to turn Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation” into a serial series.

Writers Christopher McQuarrie (”The Usual Suspects” and upcoming “Valkyrie”) and Erik Jendresen (”Band of Brothers”) have been hired to develop the project, which like the flick will be set in the early ’70s. No word yet on who will attempt to fill the shoes of Gene Hackman as electronic surveillance expert Harry Caul, but given the dangers to privacy we deal with now the show could turn out be both timely and very entertaining.

Just as HBO passed on “Mad Men” (and soon after fired all the folks who made that rather astoundingly poor decision), ABC passed on that concept from the same team a few years ago. Even more interestingly, before that - way back in 1995 - producer Tony Krantz plus tried to pitch it to NBC with Kyle MacLachlan in the lead. Talk about persistence!

Great TV news all around, but now I have to go to my actual paying job. Peace out.

Original post by Reel Fanatic