Nellie Andreeva

abc_logo1.thumbnailnbc-logo-rgb-pos2.thumbnailThis pilot development season there are two relationship comedy pilots often confused because of their similar titles — NBC’s Perfect Couples and ABC’s untitled couples pilot. Both have emerged as top contenders for a series order (Perfect Couples got a pickup today, while the untitled couples pilot is a frontrunner at ABC and is already meeting with writers). Both, as the titles suggest, revolve around couples (3 in Perfect Couples, 2 in the untitled couples project). And there is a real-life couple behind both projects: former Friends executive producers Shana Goldberg-Meehan and Scott Silveri.

22vows_6001 Goldberg-Meehan wrote the multi-camera untitled couples project, from WBTV, while Silveri co-wrote with Jon Pollack the single-camera Perfect Couples, from UMS. The parallels don’t stop there. The untitled couples comedy revolves around a professionally successful and happily unmarried couple for 9 years. Similarly, Goldberg-Meehan and Silveri, who met in 1992 while writing for the Harvard Lampoon, dated for 13 years while their careers were rising fast before finally tying the knot in 2006. (Above is a photo from their wedding.) The two worked together for 10 years — on Mad About You, Friends and its ill-fated spinoff Joey – before going their separate ways professionally. This is the second time both have landed pilots in the same pilot season.

In 2007, Silveri had the bar ensemble Up All Night at CBS while Goldberg-Meehan, daughter of Family Ties creator Gary David Goldberg, had the Washington DC ensemble The Hill at ABC. So next fall, how cute would it be for the pair together for 17 years to land 2 shows on the air at the same time both about … couples?

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.

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