Alicia Silverstone raised some suspicion that she was the mother after being courted by How I Met Your Mother [1] earlier this year — but then there was that whole Britney Spears dustup [2], and Sarah Chalke stepped in instead. Now, it turns out Silverstone will be playing a mom — just not, you know, that one — in a new ABC comedy pilot.

Silverstone has been cast in the lead in Bad Mother's Handbook [3]. But that's not all: Alia Shawkat, best known to me as Maeby from Arrested Development [4], will be playing her daughter. Silverstone's character is Karen, a 32-year-old woman overwhelmed by the demands of caring for her 16-year-old daughter and her 48-year-old mother. (Um, here's hoping Shawkat's character doesn't get pregnant at 16, too?)

Could you see Silverstone and Shawkat as mother and daughter? I'm a little worried that nothing will ever match the dysfunction of the Maeby/Lindsay Bluth dynamic, but I'm just so happy to see Shawkat back on TV that I'd be happy to watch them try! Silverstone hasn't had a great run in the sitcom world lately (her last project, The Singles Table, never aired — and remember Miss Match?), but maybe this one will be better. Your thoughts?

Source [5] and Source [6]