Zach Woods, T.J. Miller, Thomas Middleditch, Kumail Nanjiani and Martin Starr star in “Silicon Valley”

Back to the valley: The Pied Piper startup guys are back with another season of HBO's "Silicon Valley." The Golden Globe-nominated comedy's return to television is cause for excitement among tech geeks everywhere, and for anyone else with a funny bone, too.

Sunday, April 24, is the launch date for the show's anticipated third season, which is set to pick up right where season 2 left off. 

Created by "King of the Hill" and "Beavis and Butt-Head" mastermind Mike Judge, with John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, "Silicon Valley" is a laugh-out-loud comedy that follows a group of awkward young men who founded a tech startup company, complete with all of the headaches that go along with it.

Thomas Middleditch ("The Wolf of Wall Street," 2013), T.J. Miller ("Cloverfield," 2008), Josh Brener ("The Internship," 2013), Martin Starr ("Freaks and Geeks"), Kumail Nanjiani ("Franklin & Bash") and Zach Woods ("Spy," 2015) all share screen time as the founders of Pied Piper, a data management company that's developed a revolutionary new way of compressing data.

Rounding out the cast are Amanda Crew ("The Age of Adaline," 2015), Matt Ross ("The Aviator," 2004) and Suzanne Cryer ("The Fosters") as some of the Silicon Valley folks who are involved with -- or competing with -- the Pied Piper gang.

HBO's programs are often awards show favorites, and "Silicon Valley" is no exception. Its two seasons have netted it two Golden Globe nominations, and it's won two Critics' Choice TV Awards, including the prize for best comedy series in 2015.

All of the wacky tech startup hijinks return to HBO Sunday, April 24.

Top wife: Bravo isn't just for chefs and housewives any longer. The cable network has long been the home for reality favorites such as "Top Chef" and the various Real Housewives programs, but lately it's been making a push into original scripted programming. 

"My So Called Wife" is the third such script ordered to series by Bravo, and while it's still early in development, its roster is already filling up with actors.

Inbar Lavi ("Gang Related") will star as Maddie, a con artist who uses her unequaled charm and good looks to seduce both men and women. Once she has a ring on her finger and a signature on the marriage certificate, she makes off with all of their money -- and with enough dirty information to make sure that her victims don't complain to the police.

It's a classic, cruel con, but things start to fall apart when two of her previous victims track her down just as she's moving in on her next mark.

Discussing Bravo's push into scripted fare, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment's president of lifestyle networks Frances Berwick says: “Filled with intrigue and drama along with Bravo’s trademark wink and humor, this series is the perfect addition to the network’s slate as we continue our drive in the scripted arena.”

You can expect to see "My So Called Wife" on Bravo some time during the 2016-17 television season.

Red mist: Spike is back! Back into scripted series, that is. Since the success of last year's event series "Tut" -- a scripted drama about the famous Egyptian pharaoh -- the channel has been busily snatching up scripts for some upcoming projects.

"Red Mars" has been ordered straight to series, and with a big name attached as its executive producer and some acclaimed subject matter to work off of, it's not surprising that it's skipped the traditional pilot stage entirely.

Emmy-winning director Greg Yaitanes will serve as both the show's director and executive producer. His credits include "Lost," "Grey's Anatomy," "Heroes" and "House," and now his extensive talents will be put to use adapting the award-winning Mars trilogy for the screen.

The three novels in the science fiction series by Kim Stanley Robinson -- "Red Mars," "Green Mars" and "Blue Mars" -- span centuries of time, following the human colonization and terraforming of Mars.

"Red Mars" isn't the only literary adaptation in the works at Spike -- a pilot episode of Stephen King's "The Mist" has also been ordered. If the pilot is picked up for a full series, it will be the second time that the horror novel has been adapted for the screen, the first being the 2007 film that starred Thomas Jane ("Deep Blue Sea," 1999) and Laurie Holden ("The Walking Dead"). 

"The Mist" is a monster story of sorts, set in a small New England town that is enveloped in fog after a powerful storm. It's not the fog that's dangerous, though -- it's the creatures that live inside of it.

With "Red Mars" already ordered to series and "The Mist" in the pilot stage, it's looking like Spike was just testing the waters with last year's "Tut." Look for both new series in the near future.