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Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts have been tapped to serve as executive producers/showrunners on the newly picked up ABC dramedy Good Christian Belles (form. Good Christian Bitches). The gig falls under the duo’s overall deal with ABC Studios. GCB, based on Kim Gatlin’s book, centers on Amanda (Leslie Bibb), onetime “mean girl” in high school who returns home hoping to get a second chance at winning over her old classmates. Berg and Harberts will exec produce alongside the pilot’s writer Robert Harling, Darren Star and Aaron Kaplan. ICM-repped Berg and Harberts most recently worked as executive producers on ABC/ABC Studios’ medical drama Off the Map this past season.They previously served as executive producers/co-showrunners on the NBC medical drama Mercy, as co-exec producers on the ABC dramedy Pushing Daisies and created/executive produced the WB dramedy Pepper Dennis.
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Why are they choosing the people that ran Off The Map and Mercy? Both of those shows sucked. Were the networks to blame for those shows sucking or the writers?
What about calling it GOOD CHURCH BELLES? ha
Sadly that *is* a way better title.
Am I the only one that thinks the name change contrasts with what the show is actually about?Good Christian Bitches sounds like women who pretend to be good Christians, but they’re really aren’t.And that’s what the show is about.Good Christian Belles sounds like they really are good christian women.It’s kinda misleading.
Both titles mean different things.
‘Bitches’ sounds so much more fun and wicked than ‘Belles’ which seems redundant. ABC please reconsider and don’t to advocacy groups! ABC also ought to pick up David E Kelley’s “Wonder Woman” and place it on Friday nights where CBS once aired it.
Someone please give Wendy Liebman a sitcom; Funniest woman working the comedy circuit!!!
And they were chosen because of their stellar track record?
Exactly. Most of their credits lasted a season or less. Not quite ‘hitmakers’.
HaHa, that just what I was think…Keep trying, eventually you’ll have a show last more than one season!
Didn’t want to be the first to say it, but they sure have worked on a plethora of flops.
Gretchen and Aaron are THE BEST!
they’re such nice folks. I don’t have one snarky thing to say about them. Hope it does well.
OMG. The best.
How good is the pilot script? I’m dying to know. Please tell me.
“Good Christian Bitches” was a good title both in terms of content and poetry: “Bitches” and “Christian” are both consonant and assonant. Almost all good titles share consonance or assonance between the words in the title. That helps make them catchy. Especially if they are based in a hard sound, like a K or a CH. (I will not even bore you with examples, run through them in your head.) “Good Christian Belles” lacks this. The word “Belles” has no consonance or assonance with the words “Good” or “Christian.” Additionally, the word “belle” has little cultural resonance by itself; people know what a “Southern Belle” is but no one ever refers to a “belle” or a “Christian belle.” Just try saying the word “belle” out loud, does it even sound right? “She’s a belle. My friend is a belle. My friend who grew up in Dallas is such a belle.” All of that is nonsense.
The new title should have been “Good Christian Women.” Women is both consonant and assonant with Christian and is simpler and just makes more sense. Further, the two syllables in “women” completes the meter of the title much better than the single syllable in “belle” does. Unfortunately, something this simple can sink a show, so I hope it is reconsidered, as I am a fan of the script and the talent involved.
Except “Good Christian Women” has NO irreverence or irony whatsoever and seems even MORE uninspired than ‘Belles.’ At least ‘Belles’ suggests a demographic of privileged or spoiled women, which by now has a cultural association with promiscuity and is more interesting. The irony isn’t verbally incorporated, but sort of lazily assumed.
By the way, get tested for Asperger’s.
Wait, so they basically turned Hope Floats into a TV series? Fabulous…
I never worked with these two, and they may be nice people, but given their past shows, this choice makes me nervous for the series. Pepper Dennis was unwatchable, and so was Off The Map. I think their instincts are often off. I was really looking forward to this show, and now I’m tentative.
They may be nice but they ran some of the worst shows on television. Don’t get it.
changing that great name is going to change the audience .Why is ABC giving in on a great title ? Bitches I would watch , belles – not so much
Change of name is no surprise w/the lack of cojones w/in ABC. TPTB are probably too afraid of Focus on the Family and other Right Wing nutbags groups that would lose their shit at seeing “bitches” in the tee vee guide every week. Face it, there are NO (or at least few) GROWN-UPS at ABC.
I knew they’d have to change the title. Still works though.
If they’re the brains behind Pushing Daisies, Im excited. Granted that show went 1 1/2 seasons… it was phenomenal in look, tone and story. I think it was just a bit too odd for the average viewer. And it bodes well that they’ve played nicely with Kristin Chenoweth before… they will truly help elevate her career even further.
Aaron and Gretchen are awesome and talented. This is great news. Looking forward to the show – and I think people will get the sarcasm in the show’s title anyway y’all.
Berg and Harberts are excellent writers and showrunners and fantastic people. Very excited.
If only the writers could get picked up by some other than a prime network.
I liked their work but I have liked a lot of GOOD shows on the prime networks.
The Prime networks don’t allow good shows a chance.
They last a LONG time on something like Fox, CW, TNT,USA.
These chanels at least gives the shows a chanse to build an audience.
Keep at it you two good work.
Dan