LOS ANGELES, CA — Showtime is packing another hit of its highest-rated comedy series "Weeds," picking up an eighth season. Thirteen new episodes will go into production in 2012.

Created by Emmy Award winner Jenji Kohan and produced by Lionsgate, "Weeds" has been honored with multiple Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations and wins over the course of its seven seasons on air. Viewers have watched and marveled as Nancy Botwin (series star Mary-Louise Parker in her Golden Globe Award-winning performance) has progressed from a suburban widow who turns to selling nickel bags to make ends meet for her family to a full-fledged marijuana queenpin.



Last season jumped ahead three years and picked up with Nancy finishing a stint in federal prison. Her brother-in-law Andy (Justin Kirk) and sons, Silas (Hunter Parrish) and Shane (Alexander Gould) — with Doug (Kevin Nealon) in tow — were camped out in Copenhagen during her incarceration. They were all reunited in New York City where Nancy re-launched her pot business, worked at a hedge fund, fought off competition, and fought for custody of her son, little Stevie, from her sister Jill (special guest star Jennifer Jason Leigh). The season finale, which aired in September, showed the family dining together, happily residing at a Connecticut estate. But when a lone gunman fired a fateful bullet, viewers were left to wonder which of our beloved Botwins was the target, setting the stage for another audacious season.