The former “Friends” star will return to the network as a sportscaster in the single-camera project from Scott Silveri.

NBC has given its first pilot order for the 2012-13 season, bringing former Friends star Matthew Perry back to the network that helped make him a star.

The struggling network has ordered to series Go On, a single-camera project from Friends and Joey writer Scott Silveri and Universal Television. Todd Holland will executive produce and direct the pilot.
Go On centers on an irreverent yet charming sportscaster (Perry) who tries to move on from loss and finds solace from the members of his mandatory group-therapy sessions.

Transformers’ Julie White will play Anne, a woman stuck in the anger stage of grief; Suzy Nakamura co-stars.
In addition to portraying Chandler on Friends for 10 seasons, the actor starred last year on ABC’s Mr. Sunshine, which was canceled after one season. The actor recently booked a multiepisode turn on CBS’ The Good Wife, playing a charming attorney.

The Perry series order comes as the network is looking to stars of the ’80s and ’90s to boost its comedy fortunes. The network also is mounting a Roseanne reunion, reteaming Roseanne Barr and John Goodman for its comedy pilot Downwardly Mobile. In addition, NBC’s Jeckyll-and-Hyde drama pilot Do No Harm co-stars The Cosby Show’s Phylicia Rashad.

The “Good Wife” preview on Zap2It.

Download: Rich Eisen Podcast: Matthew Perry, Wilmer Valderrama, Joe Manganiello
 

It’s a star-studded lineup this week on The Rich Eisen Podcast, as some of Hollywood’s finest stop by the NFL Network studios to sit down with Rich.

First up is actor Matthew Perry to discuss his New England Patriots and “Go On”, his new pilot in which he plays, of all things, a sportscaster.

So no one told Matthew Perry life was going to be this way.

Clap-clap-clap-clap.

But as the former Friends star gets teed up for an eight-episode arc on The Good Wife beginning Sunday, March 25 on CBS and Global, we are tiptoeing toward this conclusion: Might Perry be better these days when he gets more serious?

All of the former Friends – Perry, Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer – have kept working, in various forms and with varying degrees of success, since that show went off the air in 2004. In some ways it seems longer ago, doesn’t it?

Nonetheless, Perry’s performance in The Good Wife makes you think dramatic TV might be in his future more reliably and consistently than comedy.

In Sunday’s episode, Alicia Florrick – played by Emmy and Golden Globe winner Julianna Margulies – is asked by her boss at the law firm to sit on a blue-ribbon panel that is examining a police shooting. Apparently the panel – an old-boys club comprised of judges, pastors and lawyers – needs a “token woman.”

Perry plays panel chairman Mike Kresteva. Alicia admittedly is a little green for this blue-ribbon bunch in terms of procedure and parameters, but when her conscience compels her to rock the boat, she clashes with Mike.

“I was just asking a question,” says a faux-naive Alicia.

“No, you’re not,” Mike counters. “Let’s not play innocent, Mrs. Florrick. You’re trying to turn this into something.”

We won’t reveal more specifics, other than to say TV drama is at its best when two smart characters go at each other, and that’s the case with Alicia and Mike.

Margulies and Perry ran into each other at a Halloween party last October, and Perry said he loved The Good Wife and would be keen on playing a role some time. Margulies told Perry that if he wasn’t just being polite, there actually was a multi-episode arc for which he’d be perfect.

This isn’t Perry’s first foray into TV drama, recalling the 2006-07 season when he was one of the lead actors in the highly publicized Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. The structure of that series – a drama about a comedy – never connected with most viewers and it was cancelled after one season.

Sticking with the “sun” theme, Perry’s next TV venture, in the spring of 2011, was the sitcom Mr. Sunshine. Perry was the star and co-creator, but it lasted only nine episodes. Mr. Sunshine wasn’t a bad idea conceptually, with Perry playing the manager of a San Diego arena. It had some good people in it, too, although Allison Janney was frightfully miscast as the crazy owner of the facility.

As for the 42-year-old Perry, he just seems more comfortable now when his unquestioned ability to deliver smart-assy lines is not over-used. Notably, he’s quite adept going toe-to-toe with Margulies in serious scenes.

So let’s sum up: Perry was pretty good on Studio 60. It wasn’t his fault that drama failed. He boomeranged back to comedy with Mr. Sunshine, which never emerged from the clouds.

Now he’s back to drama with an arc on The Good Wife, and his first episode, at least, is very entertaining.

Maybe instead of trying to channel Chandler Bing, Matthew Perry simply should chart this new dramatic direction.

Friends update:

With Matthew Perry joining The Good Wife for an eight-episode arc starting Sunday, March 25 on CBS and Global, here’s a quick look at what the former Friends have been up to on the small screen:

Matthew Perry: A couple of high-profile flops with the NBC drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006-07) and Mr. Sunshine (2011), the ABC sitcom he starred in and co-created.

Courteney Cox: Starred in the FX show Dirt (2007-08) and now is the series lead on the ABC sitcom Cougar Town (2009-present).

Jennifer Aniston: Has time for two or three rom-coms a year and is a gossip-mag staple, but does only the odd episode of TV here and there.

Matt LeBlanc: Won a Golden Globe as best actor in a TV comedy earlier this year for his role in the Showtime series Episodes, where he plays a fictionalized version of himself.

Lisa Kudrow: Her internet show Web Therapy was picked up by Showtime as a TV series (2011-present). She also is an executive producer of NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?

David Schwimmer: Only one of his TV roles matters, and it’s not Ross. Schwimmer was the hilarious Greenzo – a corporate-mandated environment-friendly mascot run amok – in a 2007 episode of NBC’s 30 Rock. “Greenzo out!”

Perry makes his debut on March 25, playing a lawyer heading up a blue ribbon panel — which also features guest stars Charles S. Dutton (Roc) and Kurt Fuller (Psych, Supernatural) — charged with investigating a suspicious police shooting. Alicia, though, suspects Perry’s panel chairman may have less than honorable motivations.