Jack Black will guest star in ‘Office’

“The Office’s” big post-Super Bowl episode has landed its first big guest star: Jack Black.

The “Kung Fu Panda” and “Nacho Libre” star will play himself in the hourlong “Office” episode which will run after Super Bowl XLIII on Feb. 1.

No other guest stars have yet come aboard, but NBC’s announcement of Black’s involvement makes it sounds like some will.

Part of the episode will feature some of the folks from Dunder Mifflin trying to watch a bootleg copy of a movie featuring Black and “other notable Hollywood stars,” the network says.

Other reports have said the episode, called “Stress Relief,” will also involve the firm’s employees giving a comedy roast of Michael Scott (Steve Carell).

Black’s “Office” appearance will be a relatively rare TV guest spot for the comic actor/musician.

He did voice work on a 2007 episode of “The Simpsons” and made an appearance on Comedy Central’s “Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show” that same year. Prior to that, his last guest spot was on an episode of Fox’s short-lived “Cracking Up” in 2004.

Nick’s inaugural run

Nickelodeon TV, the children’s’ network, is getting ready to cover its first presidential inauguration.

Young reporters Lily Collins, daughter of rocker Phil Collins, and J.J. (the network would not release his last name) will be in Washington on Jan. 20 to show Barack Obama’s inauguration from a pint-sized perspective.

Throughout the presidential campaign, Nickelodeon found that interest among its young viewers matched that of the adults. Its own online “election” had 2.2 million children voting, with kids supporting Obama over John McCain, 51 percent to 49 percent – a closer margin than the real election.

“We decided to carry it through so that kids would have the full experience of the presidential election,” said Marva Smalls, executive vice president of public affairs at Nickelodeon.

The coverage will show up during commercial breaks and, most prominently, during the periods between regular shows in prime-time.

Nick will offer a retrospective of past presidents taking the oath of office and interviews with young people about Obama’s election and his inaugural address.

The network won’t cover the speech live, but will take excerpts shortly after it is done from coverage on a news network and package it for its viewers.

“We can’t go live in the same way the networks are going live but it will feel the same way to kids,” Smalls said.

The station’s young viewers are particularly interested in the process because Obama’s daughters, Malia and Sasha, are squarely in Nick’s demographic, she said.

Nick reporters covered the primary this year for the first time and attended the Democratic and Republican party conventions.

Republicans didn’t allow Nick TV reporters on their convention floor; the Democrats did.

In place at ‘Melrose’

The CW’s renovation of “Melrose Place” may have found its first manager.

“One Tree Hill” creator Mark Schwahn is negotiating with producer CBS Paramount TV to develop the network’s 21st-century take on the 1990s soap.

If the show makes it to air, however, Schwahn may not still be around, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

He starts a new deal with CBS Paramount TV in June, but if “One Tree Hill” is picked up for the 2009-10 season, he’s obligated to stay with the show as executive producer and showrunner.

Like The CW’s “90210,” the new “Melrose Place” is likely to be considered a spinoff rather than a remake.

‘Stargate’s’ new star

The next iteration of the Sci Fi Channel’s “Stargate” franchise has found its star in Robert Carlyle.

The “Full Monty” and “28 Weeks Later” star has taken the lead role in “Stargate Universe,” the third series in the franchise that was spun off from the 1994 movie.

The show, slated to premiere with a two-hour movie on Sci Fi this summer, will take a somewhat darker tone than its predecessors, “SG-1” and “Atlantis.”

It centers on a group of soldiers and civilians who are forced through a Stargate and wind up on an ancient ship in the far reaches of space.

Carlyle will play a character named Dr. David Rush, who is the crew’s best hope of discovering the ship’s mysteries and getting them home but who also has an agenda of his own.