On the heels of successful American remake Veep (adapted from the fantastic British series The Thick of It), HBO has now ordered a U.S. version of the British medical comedy Getting On (and will retain the name).  The project will be managed by familiar HBO collaborators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, creators of the network’s Utah-based polygamy drama Big Love.

Getting On, which premiered in 2009 on BBC Four and instantly became their highest-rated program, takes place in a women’s geriatric extended care wing of beleaguered hospital.  The series was created by and starred Jo Brand, Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine, who will serve as executive producers of the American remake.  For more on the original and upcoming series, hit the jump.

With Big Love all wrapped up at HBO, the creators are poised to start work on another series at the cable network about an even more unconventional family. Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer are working on a new series called China Doll about a mixed-race family that has a humanoid robot living with them. It almost sounds like it could be a new series from Seth MacFarlane, but Olsen says, ““It is about China, Chinese Americans, robots, the effect of technology on our lives and the China moment in American consciousness.” The latter element refers to China’s positioning as an even bigger economic power that is influencing the relationship between our two countries. More specifically the series follows a successful California construction subcontractor, his Asian American wife, a university professor, and a robot, as they are straddling both sides of the Pacific with extended families on two continents. Obviously it’s more of a family drama than a sci-fi show, but the presence of a robot just seems strange.

Details on a new series from Glee and Yes, Dear star Mike O’Malley after the jump.

In quite a surprising announcement, HBO revealed, via press release yesterday, that the forthcoming fifth season of Big Love, which premieres Sunday, January 16th, will be the final season for the hour-long drama. Series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer said, “When we created Big Love in 2002, we had a strong conception of the journey the Henrickson family would make over the course of the series, of the story we had to tell. While we were in the writers’ room this year shaping our fifth season, we discovered that we were approaching the culmination of that story. This coming January, we look forward to presenting our audience with the most vibrant and satisfying final season of a television series that we can produce.”

Surely this will be somewhat of a disappointment for long-time fans of the series, but at least the creators are ending the series on their own terms, with a completed story rather than having the series canceled or stretched over too many seasons. On the lighter side, with all the original programming HBO has on the way, at least there will be one less series to allow for a brand new story to flourish on the cable network. Any sad Big Love fans out there?