TV Bites: Mark-Paul Gosselaar Finds Another Cable Crime-Fighting Gig

· If the cancellation of TNT's Raising the Bar left you heartsick, find comfort in the knowledge that Mark-Paul Gosselaar will resume the role of idealistic young lawyer in Franklin & Bash for TNT's sister network TBS. The erstwhile Zack Morris will play Steven Bash, alongside Breckin Meyer's Jared Franklin. The pair of lifelong friends are street lawyers who are recruited by the firm's patriarch after taking down a white-shoe law firm in a high-profile case. The hourlong comedy is from writers Kevin Falls (West Wing) and Bill Chais (Family Law). [THR]

Kathy Bates convinces David E. Kelley to consider a sex change, an Almost Famous alum weighs Wright vs. Wrong, and more TV Bites after the jump.

· Recent Office guest-star Kathy Bates is in final negotiations for her first regular TV role in David E. Kelley's drama pilot Kindreds. The NBC project centers on a curmudgeonly former patent lawyer (Bates) and her group of misfit associates. The character was originally conceived as a man, Harry Korn, but is being reworked for the Oscar-winning actress. [THR]

· Another film star has inked a deal to star in his first regular TV role. Patrick Fugit, the teenage journalist in Almost Famous, has signed on to star alongside Debra Messing in ABC's comedy pilot Wright vs. Wrong. Fugit will play a liberal NYU graduate aiding a driven conservative pundit (Messing) who tries to maintain her public persona despite facing her own vulnerabilities. [THR]

· Tom Bergeron of Dancing with the Stars has chosen his co-host for this upcoming season in Brooke Burke, former E! personality who won the seventh season of the ABC competition. [AP]

· Worst Week star Kyle Bornheimer has been cast as the lead in the untitled multicam comedy from How I Met Your Mother writers Carter Bays, Craig Thomas, Kourtney Kang and Joe Kelly about an unmarried couple and their friends in Pittsburgh. [THR]

· Kathy Griffin took her Life on the D-List cameras to Anchorage on Friday night, where the comedienne devoted five minutes of her set to former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, revealing that she had even stopped by her Wasilla house unannounced earlier that day. [Forbes]