WINTER WONDERLANDS: Actor Alec Baldwin's new best friends are the polar bear and its assorted snowy neighbors.

The "30 Rock" star is lending his pipes to the next great cinematic feat from Discovery and BBC. The makers of "Planet Earth" will premiere the new seven-part series "Frozen Planet" on Sunday, March 18, with a two-hour special.

As the series' narrator, Baldwin will guide viewers through exquisite footage of the poles, exploring the land and sea of the extreme northern and southern regions of the planet and introducing them to the daring creatures who call these areas home.

Filmmakers shot the stunning natural-history series in high definition, spending a record 2,356 days in the field in the most remote regions of the Arctic and Antarctic circles. But footage isn't limited to the frozen land masses; they also spent six months of that time at sea and even filmed 134 hours beneath the icy surface to tell the stories of the polar oceans.

The footage is so rare that viewers may first hesitate to believe their eyes. These cameramen captured the birth of a gigantic iceberg, reveal the growth of a salt-water icicle, introduce a caterpillar with antifreeze in its veins and expose the hunting strategies of orca whales as they use teamwork to produce waves that push seals off the ice.

"Frozen Planet" will also include a special "making of" feature, documenting the team's efforts to collect such unique images. As in the past, each episode will also address certain themes, such as the power of the weather and the adaptive abilities of the poles' animal and human inhabitants.

Finally, British naturalist David Attenborough will host the last episode and discuss the impact of rising temperatures on the polar regions and the planet as a whole. Viewers can log on to discovery.com/frozenplanet for additional content.

TO CAST A 'COMA': Classic Hollywood stars have lined up to get knocked out.

A&E recently released the list of actors who have signed on for roles in the upcoming miniseries "Coma," which is currently in production and scheduled to premiere on the network on Memorial Day.

The medical thriller, from executive producers Ridley and Tony Scott, will feature Richard Dreyfuss, Ellen Burstyn, Geena Davis, James Woods, Lauren Ambrose and Steven Pasquale.

The Scott brothers are living legends in the industry. Under their banner of Scott Free Productions, they've been behind such small-screen success stories as "The Good Wife," "Numb3rs," the 2010 miniseries "The Pillars of the Earth" and the 2008 miniseries "The Andromeda Strain."

The on-screen stars have seen equal amounts of success through the years. Dreyfuss's career took off more than four decades ago when he starred in "American Graffiti" (1973). Since then, he's appeared in "Jaws" (1975), "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), "Stand By Me" (1986) and "Mr. Holland's Opus" (1995).

Burstyn's acting career stretches back to the late '50s, but her relevance certainly hasn't dwindled with time. Recently, she's had roles in "W." (2008), "The Fountain" (2006) and the hit HBO series "Big Love." She received an Oscar nomination for her role as the mother in "The Exorcist" (1973).

Davis was an '80s and '90s screen queen, with starring roles in "The Fly" (1986), "Beetlejuice" (1988), "Thelma & Louise" (1991) and "A League of Their Own" (1992).

Woods is often the butt of jokes while playing the cartoon version of himself on "Family Guy," but he has done well on TV and in film, but he's probably best known for his leading role in CBS's "Shark."

Ambrose is often remembered as the girl who got locked in the bathroom in "Can't Hardly Wait" (1998), but she's also starred in "Torchwood" and "Six Feet Under."

Pasquale may have the least experience, but he's done well so far with roles in "Rescue Me" and "Six Feet Under."

CBS LIKES IT 'HOT': It's not very often that a series that started on a small cable network makes the jump to network television. Then again, only one series can claim it's got an original Golden Girl in the cast to help reel in viewers.

TV Land's "Hot in Cleveland" has been so hot since its debut in 2010 that CBS has now bought the rights to distribute the show domestically on its network.

The sitcom stars Valerie Bertinelli ("Touched by an Angel"), Janes Leeves ("Frasier") and Wendie Malick ("Just Shoot Me!") as three L.A. women who are diverted to Cleveland and decide to move in with an oddball Polish caretaker (played by Betty White).

"When 'Hot in Cleveland' debuted it was immediately hailed as an instant classic by TV critics, in the same vein as traditional four-camera sitcoms such as 'Everybody Loves Raymond,' 'Friends,' 'Seinfeld' and 'Frasier,'" said Scott Koondel of CBS Television Distribution. "In a marketplace where the sitcom pipeline is dry, there is a pent-up demand by stations for a big, broad-skewing sitcom like this. It will seamlessly slip into any TV station's lineup."

TV Land executives knew they had a hit from the beginning, and its president, Larry W. Jones, is glad to see a major network get on board.

"'Hot in Cleveland' placed TV Land at the forefront of the recent sitcom resurgence and boosted our position as a destination for original programming," Jones said. "Our audience has fallen in love all over again with these four sitcom veterans and we're sure the viewers who discover the show in syndication will fall in love with them too."

The show has drawn so much attention that other big-name stars have leapt at the chance to land a role. Guests have included Wayne Knight, Susan Lucci, Carl Reiner and Jennifer Love Hewitt.