Nellie Andreeva

Rob Schneider is officially returning to primetime. CBS has handed a midseason series order to Schneider’s untitled family comedy. I hear the pickup is for eight episodes. While it was tracking well, the pilot didn’t make the cut for a fall series order at the upfronts, but CBS liked it enough to order a revamped second pilot that included major casting changes as well as several backup scripts. The multi-camera comedy, which Schneider co-wrote with Lew Morton based on the actor’s real-life experiences, stars Schneider as Rob, a confirmed bachelor who has just married into a tight-knit Mexican-American family. Spanish actress Claudia Bassols plays his wife, Maggie. Diana Maria Riva plays his mother-in-law, Rosa. Both roles were recast from the pilot, as was the role of Schneider’s father-in-law, now played by Cheech Marin. Remaining from the original cast are Schneider, Eugenio Derbez as the wife’s uncle and Lupe Ontiveros as her grandmother. Schneider and Morton are executive producing with Eric and Kim Tannenbaum, while Schneider’s brother/producing partner John Schneider serves as a non-writing producer. This marks Schneider’s first TV series gig in 14 years. He last did a series in the 1996-97 season, NBC’s comedy Men Behaving Badly. Schneider has since been focused on features, often collaborating with pal Adam Sandler, most recently co-starring together in Grown Ups. With the series pickup, the Rob Schneider comedy joins cop drama The 2-2 as CBS’ backups for midseason.

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