Back at Comic-Con in San Diego last year we heard some interesting news that the raunchy animated series, Drawn Together, would be getting a direct-to-DVD movie release. We, of course, tried to get as much information on the project as we could, and came up with nothing.

For those who didn’t catch the Comedy Central series while it was on, it was about a group of classic cartoon stereotypes that get thrown into a reality show house, a la Big Brother. From there, things got pretty outrageous, from mass murder, to racism, to bisexual hot tub sex and more. It was pretty impressive that they were able to top the likes of South Park and Family Guy in a matter of 3 seasons.

Now, we’re finally getting a glimpse at what could be the most outrageous animated film of all time since Bambi Vs. Godzilla, as the first teaser trailer for the film has been released. The trailer doesn’t really give us much to go on, but it keeps hope alive that the project is still happening, and is approaching sooner than anticipated.

Check out the new trailer after the jump, and be sure to catch all of the seasons of Comedy Central’s Drawn Together on DVD and Blu-ray.

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In news that should have happened months ago, it seems that Comedy Central’s nightly, satiric look at current events is finally getting upgraded to HD starting on January 4. Not only will these be the first episodes shot in HD, but they will be the first episodes of the year, and the century.

No word on how this upgrade will effect the format of the show, if at all, but we do know that both shows will continue to keep us laughing into the new year.

Most recently, both shows have been nominated for a WGA TV award, which will put them head-to-head (and we know what happened last time).

With both shows doing well in ratings, getting nominated for awards, and getting the boost to HD, it’s no doubt that variety, or more specifically “comedy”, programming is still at it’s peak.

If you doubt that, you could always see Colbert rap with Alicia Keys in a spoof on “Empire State of MInd.”

Comedy Central seems to be pretty hungry for comedian-run sketch shows lately. They recently premiered the pilot of The Jeff Dunham Show to lukewarm reception, and another show starring Gabriel Iglesias and Bill Engvall is on the way. Earlier this week, yet another show was announced, in the form of a pilot for a show starring comedian Nick Swardson.

Swardson has made his way around the stand up circuit for years now, but most people will remember him from his supporting roles in Grandma’s Boy, Benchwarmers, and You Don’t Mess With The Zohan (he must be liked by the Sandler camp).

The network is apparently more than happy to add Swardson’s creativity to the growing camp of Comedy Central’s original programming. From The Hollywood Reporter:

“We love Nick at Comedy Central and even more importantly, our audience loves Nick,” said Comedy Central programming president Lauren Corrao.  “We’ve seen it in his movies, his stand-up, with his ‘Reno 911!’ character ‘Terry,’ and in the work he’s done developing Gay Robot.  We can’t wait to expand his creative voice into a sketch series.”

The series will include digital shorts, man-on-the-street segments and animation inspired by Swardson’s online character, “Gay Robot” (about a gay robot and his frat boy friends).

The show is set to go into production next month and premiere early next year. Until then, you can catch Swardson in the upcoming Adam Sandler comedy, Born To Be A Star, about an actor who moves to Los Angeles to pursue his destiny in porn.

It’s October already, and that means another batch of tv shows are premiering! Cortney’s TV Digest is here with everything worth tuning in for while you’re carving your pumpkins and perfecting your Halloween costumes.

South Park – Premieres October 7th, 10/9c on Comedy Central

Some shows never cease to entertain, shock, or antagonize audiences. South Park is certainly one of those shows, and has been doing so for thirteen seasons. Earlier this season, we saw Kanye West debut his newest single, “Fishsticks”, Cartman made his pirate dreams a reality, and Ike saw some dead people. After a midseason break, South Park returns on Wednesday night.

30 Rock – Premieres October 15th, 9:30/8:30c on NBC

Just after winning its third consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, 30 Rock returns for its fourth season on NBC. The antics are sure to continue behind the scenes of The Girly Show, and whether you’re a long time fan or checking the show out for the first time, 30 Rock, featuring Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski, is sure to keep you laughing until it hurts.

Ugly Betty – Premieres October 16th, 8/7c on ABC

Ugly Betty is on its fourth season, and this is sure to be a dramatic one after the climactic ending of the third season. In the premiere episode, Betty starts her new job as associate features editor and deals with resentful co-workers while she tries to run her own Mode photo shoot.

Southland – Premieres October 23rd, 9/8c on NBC

Returning for its second season, Southland centers around Los Angeles and the members of the LAPD. The OC’s Ben Mackenzie plays rookie Officer Ben Sherman, and while the first season only had a seven-episode run, the show made enough of an impression that NBC renewed it for another season.

Be sure to check back with The Flickcast each month for Cortney’s TV Digest, with the scoop on all the shows you know and love, plus the latest and greatest tv that you need to check out.

Those who aren’t watching The Legend of Neil, the comedy web series spoofing the Legend of Zelda videogame, are absolutely missing out on a great time. The show was created and directed by Sandeep Parikh, who played Zaboo on the critically acclaimed web series The Guild, co-starring Whedon-favorite Felicia Day.

This show is about a regular screw up who gets sucked into the Zelda game and is not often confused for the main character. Antics ensue. The series originally started a year ago, then got picked up by Atom Films, a partner of Comedy Central.

The first season is out on DVD or online here, but season two seems to be where the action is. Episode 3 just went live, and it’s….a musical! The idea of an online musical seems a bit familiar, but it’s still a pretty impressive episode nonetheless. Each episode airs on Atom.com every Sunday and soon to be released on Comedy Central once the season is over.

Check out episode 3 after the jump and keep up with the NSFW comedic antics of Neil every week!

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Futurama fans of the world have five reasons to celebrate. Variety is reporting that the show’s original stars — John DiMaggio, Billy West, Katey Sagal, Maurice LaMarche and Tress MacNeille – reached an agreement with 20th Century Fox TV late Friday to return to the show. This compromise comes on the heels of 20th putting out a casting call in July to find replacement voice actors for the show.

“We are thrilled to have our incredible cast back,” creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen said in a statement. “The call has already gone out to the animators to put the mouths back on the characters.”

The studio announced in June that it would revive the long-canceled Futurama, and Comedy Central was on board to begin airing the new episodes in mid-2010. Part of the announcement included stars West, Sagal and DiMaggio returning to the series; however the actors had not finalized a deal and salary discussions soon escalated.

It’s believed that the Futurama cast initially asked for around $75,000 per episode (a number disputed by at least one actor), but that number was reportedly brought down to $40,000. The final number wound up below that, but above what 20th was offering.

Despite 20th’s move to start recasting Futurama, it was widely assumed that both sides would eventually figure out a way to stay in business together. In what many considered a positive sign, some of the Futurama cast attended the recent San Diego Comic-Con, although they were not a part of the show’s official panel discussion.

New Futurama episodes will begin airing on Comedy Central in 2010.

Due to last week’s craziness of San Diego Comic-Con, we regretfully weren’t able to bring you a Weblink Wednesday or Fan Film Friday. Since we’re all about fairness here at The Flickcast, we have decided to give you the best of both worlds this week with The Legend of Neil.

Created by the same team who brought us The Guild, The Legend of Neil is a web series about a regular underachiever, Neil Grimsley, who gets transformed into the world of Zelda and has to fight off all kinds of things from orcs to skeletons to gay dragons, all while pissed off and confused. The series is strictly a comedy for gamers, especially those who’ve spent many hours playing Legend of Zelda. The show has a few fun cameos along the way, including legendary fangirl and star of The Guild, Felicia Day.

Originally created as an independent series by Effin Funny, the show was later picked up by Atom Films, which had a syndication deal with Comedy Central. This means that Comedy Central owns syndication rights to Neil and may decide to change the medium to TV in the future (though there are no formal plans). Season two just kicked off on Monday, and you can check out the premier right after the jump. Be warned, the series is funny, but also NSFW.

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It’s official: Comedy Central has picked up the rights to renew 20th Century Fox Television’s Futurama for 26 new episodes, six years after getting initially cancelled by the Fox network. In a recent EW interview with a 20th Century Fox spokesman, they say the DVD sales and reruns have had a “blockbuster” performance:

“When we brought back Family Guy several years ago, everyone said that it was a once in a lifetime thing — that canceled series stay canceled and cannot be revived,” 20th Century Fox TV Co-Chairman Gary Newman and Dana Walden said in a joint statement. “But Futurama was another series that fans simply demanded we bring back, and we couldn’t have been happier when Matt and David agreed that there were many more stories yet to tell.”

Both creators David X Cohen and Matt Groening were of course ecstatic about the news. Said Groening: ”We’re thrilled Futurama is coming back. We now have only 25,766 episodes to make before we catch up with Bender and Fry in the year 3000.”

Between this mistake and the mistake of canceling Family Guy, maybe this means Fox TV will think twice about axing an animated series, or even a live action series (Could we see the resurrection of Greg the Bunny?). You can currently catch reruns of Futurama on Comedy Central throughout the week and you can even pre-order the complete box set inside of a limited Bender head from Amazon today!