If only "The Firm" hadn't spent their entire budget on cardboard boxes...

The good news for NBC: They have the Super Bowl.

The bad news for NBC: Everything else. Last night’s episodes of “30 Rock” (which went against “The Big Bang Theory”) and “The Office” (which mostly just sucks) brought in series-low ratings. So did “The Firm,” which had a 0.8 in the key 18-49 demographic – that’s HALF of what “Community” regularly pulled in.

As consequence, “The Firm” has been moved to TV’s version of a farm upstate, Saturday nights at 9 p.m., where it can frolic with – and get trounced by – the likes of “America’s Most Wanted: Crimes of Passion Special Edition” and “Local Programming.” A new series, “Awake,” about a detective who leads a double life, will take its 10 p.m. timeslot beginning in March. (Until then, repeats of “Grimm” will fill the post-“Up All Night” dead air.)

I hope NBC trolls everyone during the game on Sunday, and cuts away from the broadcast to show an episode of, say, “Parks and Recreation,” just to improve the series’ ratings, however briefly. As someone who hates both the Patriots and Giants, I welcome and encourage such a decision. So does Andy.

Courtesy of Burnsy

In 1976, NBC unveiled a new logo to replace their ubiquitous peacock. It was fancy-looking N made up of two trapezoids, and it cost more than $600,000 to develop. Thing is, a Nebraska PBS affiliate already had a similar-looking logo — which only cost $100 to design. To avoid a lawsuit, NBC paid a $1 million package to the Nebraska station, along with another $55,000 to, according to Mental Floss, “pay for the costs related to not only the legal battle, but the development and implementation of a new logo.”

Moral of the story: NBC has been a screw-up for years; it’s only become particularly noticeable in the network’s awkward post-”Seinfeld”/”Friends”/”E.R”-era. And that sucks, because they’ve aired some of the best TV shows of all-time. That’s why they’re so easy to pick on: we tease because we love. Here are 12 reasons why NBC is in last place amongst the Big Four, with some helpful advice, too.

NBC would also like me to remind you to WATCH “SMASH,” THE MONDAY AFTER THE SUPER BOWL, in case you haven’t seen the ads for the show every three seconds for the last two months.

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I know Vince at FilmDrunk speaks of her frequently, but I’m not sure how often Matt used to write about Nikki Finke, the “TOLDJA” Lady over at Deadline.com. She’s like this old cat-lady who never leaves her house and yet somehow manages to out-scoop the rest of Internet civilization, often by berating television and movie executives or threatening to break their pacts with the devil. For this reason, I like to refer to her as Satan’s Desiccated Vagina.

Anyway, it has come to the attention of one of Finke’s underlings that NBC is planning a spin-off of “The Office” for mid-season 2013 that would revolve around Rainn Wilson’s character, Dwight Schrute.

No deals have been closed yet but I’ve learned that the proposed spinoff is a family comedy, which was the brainchild of Wilson and “The Office” executive producer/showrunner Paul Lieberstein. It will have Dwight (Wilson) living at the Schrute family beet farm and bed & breakfast, which have been featured on the show several times, including in an episode where Jim and Pam visited Dwight there. The potential spinoff will be introduced in an Office episode later this season set at Schrute Farms. “Paul and Rainn have been joking for years about Dwight’s life on the farm, his family and how ill-suited he is to run a B&B,” a source close to The Office said. “A while ago, it started to feel like a show to them. NBC agreed, it’s been further developed to include multiple generations, many cousins and neighbors.

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NBC, which placed 8th in the ratings last Thursday during “The Firm” (behind even Univision) has picked up several new pilots in an effort to dig itself out of its years’ long hole. The spectrum ranges from “decent idea for a show that won’t be seen because it’s on NBC” to “bad idea for a show that won’t be seen because it’s on NBC.” What we can promise you is that if you eventually love the show, it will most certainly be under a perpetual threat of cancellation. These are, however, only pilot pick-ups, and there’s no guarantee any of them will make it to series. Here are the highlights:

Downwardly Mobile: Roseanne Barr will be making her return to scripted television as a character that sounds very similar to her character in “My Name is Earl.” She would be the “proprietor of a mobile home park and surrogate mother to all of the unique people who live there in a challenging economy.” How timely.

Friday Night Dinner: This one has the best prospects for being an actually good show, as it comes from Greg Daniels (“The Office,” “Parks and Recreation”) and it’s another remake of a British series, this one about “a quirky family that has dinner together every Friday night.” David Koechner is the leading contender for the role of the father, although he’s not really all that “quirky.” Goofy, maybe.

Jimmy Fallon Untitled Project: This one has lame written all over it: It’s a multi-camera sitcom (and thus, most likely a laugh-track show) about “three thirtysomething guys who enjoy the adventures of parenting despite the fact they haven’t grown up themselves.” Yeesh. Just what television needs: More man-children.

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Three years ago today, we were subjected to Gilly for the first time – and we still haven’t quite recovered.

Since “SNL” premiered in 1975, the show has seen more than 800 recurring characters, according to the indispensable SNL Archives. Many have been hilarious and used sparingly (like Blue Öyster Cult cowbell player Gene Frenkle), but many more have been dreadful, overexposed, and increasingly nerve-grating through repetition. Because obviously unfunny characters become funnier the more they’re featured.

Here are 10 “SNL” recurring characters who should have stopped after an appearance or two (minimum four appearances), including the three-year-old Gilly. Finally, she actually has something to say “sorry” for.

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