Nellie Andreeva

20th Century Fox TV has locked in 2 key Modern Family writer-producers, co-executive producers Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh, with a two-year overall deal. The pact will keep them on Modern Family as well as allow them to develop new projects. The duo has written 6 episodes of the sophomore ABC comedy so far, including last week’s Earthquake episode. They also recently shared Modern Family‘s best comedy series Emmy award with the rest of the show’s producing team led by co-creators/executive producer Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd. (Levitan and Lloyd’s own new overall deals with 20th TV have been in negotiations for months, with Levitan’s pact getting close.) “Paul and Brad are incredibly funny just to sit in the room and talk to; they’re funny in the room and on the page,” 20th TV chairman Dana Walden said. Initially, Corrigan and Walsh’s focus will be on Modern Family but they are expected to develop in the second half of their deal. Corrigan and Walsh, who previously wrote the spec comedy pilot script 1321 Clover, which received a pilot production order by CBS in 2007, recalled how much they loved the Modern Family pilot and wanted to be part of the show. “So our job was fantastic even without the (overall) deal” Walsh said. UTA-repped Corrigan and Walsh met in NYU’s film school where they became a writing team. Their first produced script was a 1995 freelance episode of Married… with Children. 15 years later, they’ve come full circle, writing for the same leading man, Modern Family star Ed O’Neill.

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