Fox Developing Comedy Starring J.B. Smoove And Produced By Shawn Levy

Fox has made a late comedy buy, a half-hour project from actor-comedian J.B. Smoove and The Office writer-producer Aaron Shure to star the Curb Your Enthusiasm standout. It hails from 20th TV and Shawn Levy and Marty Adelstein's studio-based company 21 Laps/Adelstein. The project was pitched by Shure, Smoove and Levy, with Fox brass buying it in the room with a script commitment. Co-created by Smoove and Shure, the untitled blue-collar comedy, which shares some aspects with Roseanne, centers on a husband and a father (Smoove) who has gotten divorced but, with the economy being as it is, can't afford to move out and instead moves into the family home's basement. It will revolve around the man's relationship with his family, his parents, his co-workers and a guy in a nursing home. "He’s trying to get his life back from the basement up, from the ground up," Levy said. "He is consistently trying to do the right thing but constantly trips over his feet."

The collaboration between Levy and Smoove stems from Smoove's small role in the Levy-directed feature Date Night. Following the April release of the action-comedy starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey, Levy said he received numerous comments about how hilarious Smoove sequence was. (The comedian played a cab driver whose car gets attached to Carell and Fey's when the two crash into his cab.) When Levy and Adelstein launched their TV company in June, one of Levy's first calls was to Smoove who already had the seeds of an idea for a single-camera comedy largely centered on a family. Separately, Smoove had an existing relationship with 20th TV and Fox via a talent holding deal the two recently had with him.? The producers looked at several other writers before settling on Everybody Loves Raymond veteran Shure, now a co-executive producer on The Office, whom Levy knew through The Office star Carell. "I like that Aaron brings the sharp wit of The Office with the domestic comedy backdrop of Raymond." Shure, Levy, Adelstein and Becky Clements are executive producing the project, with Smoove serving as a producer. Smoove recently wrapped The Sitter opposite Jonah Hill, booked a role in Cameron Crowe’s We Bought a Zoo and signed on to voice a character in Ice Age 4.? Smoove, repped by WME and Rain Management, will also reprise his role as the fast-talking, foul-mouthed Leon Black in 10 episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm's upcoming eighth season.

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Two Comedy Projects Land At NBC, ABC

Two players from NBC's Thursday comedy block, Parks & Recreation co-star Adam Scott and Community co-executive producer Hilary Winston, have teamed to produce My Son Gomez, a new single-camera comedy project for the network. Meanwhile, actor-turned-writer Ryan Raddatz (This Might Hurt) has sold Change of Plans, a multi-camera comedy to ABC with veteran Marsh McCall as showrunner.

My Son Gomez is in the vein of About a Boy and focuses on a slick womanizing bachelor who takes in a kid with no place to go. The project was created and is being written by Winston through her overall deal at Sony TV and set up at NBC through the blind script deal Scott and his wife Naomi Scott have there. All three will executive produce the project, to which Adam Scott is not attached to star as he is committed to Parks & Rec. The comedy's 3rd season kicks off on Jan. 20. On the feature side, Adam Scott is negotiations to join Ted, Seth MacFarlane's comedy for Universal, while Winston is writing an adaptation of her upcoming book for Lorne Michaels and Paramount. The book, My Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me: And Other Stories I Shouldn't Share with Acquaintances, Co-workers, Taxi Drivers, Assistants, Job Interviewers, Bikini ... and Ex/ Current/ Future Boyfriends But Have, comes out next spring. Adam and Naomi Scott are with CAA and Untitled; Wintson is with ICM.

Change of Plans, from ABC Studios and Mandeville, is about a Midwestern family running a small business out of their living room. Raddatz is with ICM and the Gotham Group, McCall is with CAA.

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Fox Picks Up John Hamburg Comedy

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday November 3, 2010 @ 8:00pm PDT

It will go down in the annals of TV Selling Season 2010 as the project that was pitched and sold over the phone. Fox has closed a deal for a single-camera comedy from Meet the Parents writer John Hamburg. The untitled project, which Hamburg co-created and will co-write with Ian Helfer, is about a father and son, both recently divorced, who become roommates and explore the dating world together. It?hails from 20th Century Fox TV and studio-based Chernin Entertainment. It stems from a blind script deal Hamburg signed with the 20th TV in August. Hamburg, Helfer,?Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope are all executive producing.?Hamburg, who co-wrote all 3 films in the?Meet the Parents franchise, has been so busy working on the upcoming third installment, Little Fockers, in New York that he couldn't fly in for pitch meetings with the networks. He ended up pitching the project over the phone to Fox's entertainment president Kevin Reilly, who bought it on the spot. WME-repped Hamburg also?co-wrote and directed?I Love You, Man and wrote and directed?Along Came Polly. In TV, he previously worked on Fox as a director on the cult Judd Apatow comedy Undeclared and also created, executive produced and directed the short-lived CBS comedy series?Welcome to the Captain. Hamburg and Helfer have been friends since they went to Brown together. Helfer, repped by Gersh and Principal Entertainment, co-wrote the upcoming feature The Oranges.

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ABC Wins War For Blog-Based Comedy 'Dealbreaker'

EXCLUSIVE: American Dad executive producer Nahnatchka Khan is emerging as the comedy star of this buying season with a second half-hour project that sparked heated bidding. A month after Fox won the bidding war for her single-camera family comedy Connected, ABC just landed Khan's relationship comedy Dealbreaker in a similarly competitive situation. Both projects are produced by 20th TV where Khan is under an overall deal. Khan will co-write Dealbreaker, which landed a premium script commitment with penalty from ABC, with American Dad writer?Laura McCreary. It?is based on the blog by comics Dave Horwitz and Marisa Pinson and their recent book of the same name. The blog and the book are described as a "hilarious reference guide to the qualities that, when discovered, transform the 'date you hope to go home with' into the 'date you pray never calls again'" and as a catalogue of characteristics that serve as early warning signs of possible relationship discontent. Ted Field and Mike Weber of Radar Pictures, which had optioned the rights to the book, will serve as executive producers on the TV project. Dealbreaker is not related in any way to Dealbreakers, the fake dating-advice talk show on NBC's 30 Rock that was built around Liz Lemon’s catchphrase, “That’s a dealbreaker, ladies.” It is the latest in a string of comedy projects based on blogs/books/Twitter accounts picked up by the networks in light of the successful launch of CBS' Twitter feed-based comedy series?$#*! My Dad Says. CBS is developing 2 more Twitter feed-based?comedies for next season,?Dear Girls Above Me and?Shh … Don't Tell Steve, while ABC is working on a series based on the?Awkward family Photos blog/book. Showtime is developing Boycrazy, a half-hour comedy based on Alexi Wasser's provocative blog ImBoyCrazy.com, while ABC is developing a comedic drama project?based on the blog and the book?The Lost Girls. Khan and McCreary are with WME.

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NBC comedy with Jeff Lowell development

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday, October 29, 2010 @ 4: 30 pm PDT

After a decade of functionality, Spin City writer-producer Jeff Lowell returns to television with a single camera comedy on NBC, produced by ABC studios and Brillstein Entertainment. Untitled, project which has received an order of script, is a romantic comedy about a couple from the point of view of the man and the woman whose thoughts tacit, we can hear via the voiceover. "It is a bit like the scene from the balcony of Annie Hall," said Lowell, adding that he had the idea project, to reflect on his relationship with his wife - together since they were 15 years old. "The secret of happiness and a strong marriage is thoughts unexpressed", he said.?Lowell and his family left Hollywood after his stay short on Inside Schwartz the NBC in 2001 and moved to Charlottesville, va. He began writing film and had 3 product: John Tucker Must Die, over her dead body and hotel for dogs. ""I never thought I refer back but I started missing TV," said Lowell UTA-repped.

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CBS picks up family comedy with Rob Schneider and produced by Tannenbaums

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday, October 28, 2010 @ 8: 25 pm PDT

Exclusive: Eric and Kim Tannenbaums are fine mode on the market in their first round of development in their new home, CBS TV studios. But great sale last minute CBS comedy: half an hour featuring Rob Schneider, in his first concert of TV series in 13 years. The project title, be written by Lew Morton (Saturday Night Live, large lake) and Schneider, is based on the life and centres on a lonely guy who married to a Mexican-American family huge Schneider.Morton, Eric Kim Tannenbaum and executive production, Schneider and his John Schneider brother production through their output of nowhere prods.CBS TV studios and Co. Tannenbaum produce comedy, which received a script command.

Last major TV gig of SNL alum Schneider was like a star in the comedy men behaving badly, which ran on NBC from 1996-1997. He has since focused on films, often in collaboration with the cohort of BN Adam Sandler, including summer hit Grown Ups.It feels like a familiar territory for Eric and Kim Tannenbaum.The last time they landed a truck last minute to CBS for a comedy about a single guy who had a player with a background of Comedy TV and attached as the lead feature, it leads to long hit two and a half men.Schneider is Gersh.Morton and Co. Tannenbaum CAA.

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Carol Leifer To Showcase his Script Comedy spec live table read TV buyers

Writer and actor comedy veteran Carol Leifer adopts entrepreneurial approach with its spec script new half-hour have a great day. Instead of throwing to networks, the former Seinfeld is staged a live table read for producers and buyers of studio and network. Leifer has assembled a cast of actors, which she has worked with on other shows as well as other talents made by casting director Tracy Lilienfield (will & Grace). Have a great day, founded whole life as an actor and writer who lived in comedy Leifer comedy starring the extended family, Andy Kindler (Everybody Loves Raymond), Rachael Harris (The Hangover), Kym Whitley (Curb your enthusiasm), Emily Rutherfurd (New Adventures of Old Christine), Eric Allan Kramer (Good Luck Charlie) and Valerie Harper with his partner. If have a great day is picked up, "it is my hope to maintain this distribution, subject to availability," Leifer said.?Richie Keen is leading the project, ?which Leifer described as a scripted room for improvisation comedy. Leifer, who appeared on Celebrity Apprentice earlier this year, has received appointment to the Emmy for his work in writing on the Academy Awards ceremony this year. Reading table is owned by the collective, which manages Leifer and the Agency of Stahler Kaplan, who recently signed its. It will take place November 1st at the Acme Comedy Theatre.

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