2ND UPDATE: Charlie Sheen Fired Selma Blair From … 
Time Warner Cable Sued For Passing Lakers-Dodgers Costs On … 
Jonah Hill Signs For Management With LBI 
TOLDJA! ‘Dumb And Dumber To’ Proves No-Brainer … 
Salma Hayek’s Animated Passion Project ‘The … 
Relativity Moves Scott Cooper’s ‘Out Of The … 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Lego Movie’ 
Russell Crowe Sets ‘The Water Diviner’ For … 
Comedy ‘I Didn’t Do It’ Gets Series Order … 
CNN’s ‘New Day’ Debut Up In Demo But … 
Liv Tyler To Co-Star In Damon Lindelof’s HBO Pilot … 
DreamWorks Animation Launches Effort To Re-Position Itself … 
‘Pacific Rim’ Sequel In Planning Stages, … 
Legendary “Down To Handful” Of Studio Suitors: … 
UPDATE: Dan Harmon Apologizes For Comments Slamming … 
Paramount- Montecito Set Black List Scribes Eyal Podell … 
‘Bioshock’ Creator Ken Levine Takes On … 
Deadline Expands: Hires Washington Post Journalist Lisa De … 
Ratings Rat Race: ‘The Voice’ Rises, … 
Angelina Jolie Stunt Double Files First U.S. Phone-Hacking … 
MGM & BermanBraun Sign TV Production Deal, First-Look … 
NBC Picks Up Dick Wolf-Produced Drama, Jason Katims/Jason Ritter Project
2nd UPDATE: NBC brought the total number of pilots picked up today to 10 with two more comedy orders: to Greg Daniels’ adaptation of the British comedy Friday Night Dinner and an untitled half-hour produced by Jimmy Fallon. Both are from Universal TV.
Friday Night Dinner is a single-camera about a quirky family that has dinner together every Friday night. Daniels is executive producing with Howard Klein and the original series’ producer Big Talk TV. The project has already been doing preliminary casting, with David Koechner eyed for a role.
The Jimmy Fallon multi-camera project, written by Charlie Grandy, revolves around three thirtysomething guys who enjoy the adventures of parenting despite the fact they haven’t grown up themselves. Fallon, Grandy and Amy Ozols are executive producing. This marks the first pilot for Fallon’s company Holiday Road.
UPDATE: NBC has picked up three more comedy pilots: Daddy’s Girl, a spec by Dana Klein produced by Aaron Kaplan, and projects by Hilary Winston and Stephen Falk.
The multi-camera Daddy’s Girl, from 20th Century Fox TV and Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment, is about a young woman who returns home from overseas to find her father is seriously dating the “mean girl” from her high school. The spec was recently taken out, garnering strong interest by NBC and CBS, with NBC stepping up with a pilot order. Klein and Kaplan are executive producing. This marks Kaplan’s fourth broadcast pilot so far this season and his second comedy spec to get a production order at NBC, in addition to Isabel, which is in production. Additionally, Kaplan has The Manzanis starring Kirstie Alley and an untitled Dan Fogelman comedy at ABC.
Stephen Falk’s Next Caller Please, from Lionsgate TV, is a single-camera gender comedy focusing on a brash alpha male DJ and his new, plucky, feminist co-host set in the offices of a satellite radio station. Lead cable player Lionsgate TV made a big push in broadcast development this season, and this is the company’s first broadcast pilot order in years.
The Hilary Winston single-camera project, from Sony TV and Jamie Tarses’ Fanfare, centers on a shy, focused woman who, after being dumped by her fiance, leans on her co-workers to help her come out of her shell and plot her revenge. Winston is executive producing with Tarses and Julia Franz.
PREVIOUS: NBC continued its busy pilot pickup day with green lights to three comedies: Downwardly Mobile, starring Roseanne alumna Roseanne Barr in her return to scripted comedy; Go On, from Friends alum Scott Silveri; and Animal Kingdom, from producers Scot Armstrong and Ravi Nandan. Downwardly Mobile hails from 20th TV, Go On and Animal Kingdom are produced by Universal TV. Here are descriptions of the projects:
Co-created by Barr, her boyfriend John Argent and former Roseanne executive producer Eric Gilliland, who will serve as showrunner, the multi-camera Downwardly Mobile stars Barr as the proprietor of a mobile home park and surrogate mother to all of the unique people who live there in a challenging economy. Barr and Gilliland wrote the script and are executive producing with Argent.
The single-camera Go On, written and executive produced by Scott Silveri, centers on an irreverent yet charming sportscaster who tries to move on from loss and reluctantly finds surprising solace from the members of his mandatory group therapy sessions.
Animal Kingdom, also single-camera, is an office comedy centered on a House-like veterinarian who loves animals but usually hates their owners. Brian Gatewood and Alex Tanaka wrote the script and are executive producing with American Work’s Scot Armstrong and Ravi Nandan.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
Loading ...
Can’t NBC do any better than this?
Jen Salke is making more decisions than Greenblat. All scripts must be completely vetted by her first. He’s no longer thinking for himself.
Clearly they have no vision or taste. It’s pathetic.
I doubt Jen Salke would ever read the pilot of SMASH if it fell on her much less hand it over to Greenblatt. He seems like he’s traumatized from his mistaken vision of this job.
He has great instincts and taste and needs to use them. SMASH is going to be just that. He’s running scared and it’s the wrong time to do it. Hence these horrendous pick ups.
ANIMAL KINGDOM must be based on the BBC series BEAST? Anyone know for sure?
Beast was completely opposite in “plot”. The country vet on Beast hated animals, but treated them just to meet their female owners.
Well Bob you must have read an early draft of BEAST, perhaps 10 years ago when it was originally developed by NBC. Simon Nye call your agent…
NBC’s bold new direction consists of a rehash of a 20 year old sitcom, a cliche group therapy comedy, and House for animals?
I haven’t read the scripts, but so far this doesn’t seem very original or groundbreaking.
Do you think NBC is wanting to make a Whitney/Chelsea/Sarah Silverman/Roseanne comedy block?
Oh yes it’s ladies night and the feelin’s right, oh what a night?
See? NBC doesn’t even need an actual marketing department. Just a PA to read and implement suggestions like yours.
OH what a night!
Sarah Silverman is awesome. As for the others, I hope all of their shows are cancelled as soon as possible. I can’t believe NBC is even considering something with Roseanne Barr. Pardon me, for liking smart humor, that isn’t about white trash.
“Downwardly Mobile”!! What a refreshing and timely concept for a series! And I can’t wait to see the ‘unique people’ who live there
Hopefully it goes at least 3 years and you can get it syndicated
Regards from a “Rosanne” fan from Ohio
Best of luck to you
More like hope it goes 2 episodes and get cancelled.
OR BETTER YET, NOT PICKED UP AT ALL.
wow these sound like they’ll really turn it around for NBC!!!
Note to NBC please stay away from single camera comedies! Get bigger stars, Roseanne is a great start
I, along with the rest of America, have been absolutely CLAMORING for a show with Rosanne Barr managing a trailer park. I can hardly wait to kick back and watch a star of yesteryear play a muumuu-clad surrogate mother to a cast of insultingly broad, misfit, hard luck, likely alcoholics.
What’s so great about this is that it proves how this network is listening to the average American. Their finger is on the pulse of an entire generation. The people rose up and with one voice cried out, “WE HAVEN’T QUITE FORGOTTEN WHO ROSEANNE USED TO BE AND SORT OF REMEMBER HER FONDLY. COULD YOU PLEASE PUT HER IN A RASCAL SCOOTER AND HAVE HER DISPENSE FOLKSY WISDOM?”
And NBC said, “Yes… Yes, we will do that.”
So easy to write snarky crap from the safety of your beige cubicle, isn’t it? Roseanne is a comedy legend and pioneer.
Canceled last year on Lifetime. Just like all the great comedy legends.
Anyone with any talent is cancelled on LIfetime. That’s a given. Don’t use Lifetime as a benchmark.
Roseanne sucks. She won’t get the hint that America doesn’t want her anymore. Show biz doesn’t help, they keep trying to put her in stuff.
NBC is trying to dust off an old name like ABC, but there’s a difference: people LIKE Tim Allen.
If they cancel Community in favor of any of these pieces of tripe, I’ll have to write a strongly-worded letter.
You can kiss Community goodbye. If they’re talking to the likes of Roseanne Barr, they’re history. As someone else suggested, NBC is probably going for an all-female comedy night on Wednesday, trying to capture the ‘Bridesmaids’ audience. So unless a couple of them fail this year (Whitney and …Chelsea are good candidates), there’s not much hope for Community.
Lets give Roseanne her own show since EVERYTHING she has touched the last decade sucks.
Lets do another show about relationships gone bad.
Maybe in Daddys Girl the mean girl wears Maria Bellos hat.
I wanted to defend this as “well, NBC is financially motivated to push for multicam comedies as syndication value is higher.” Then they greenlit the single-cams. Ugh.
Boy, the contempt shown in these replies for one-line synopses of scripts unread by anybody here is really quite vapid. Cynicism is easy, but you don’t get any points for it.
I’m not saying all of these scripts are great, or will make great shows. Most of these shows will probably be terrible (most shows are). But I think it’s a shame that Deadline has just become a repository for armchair programmers determined to feign superiority.
Don’t know you, Mike, but after reading your comment?
Hat’s off to you, sir.
Wow! This is cutting edge stuff. I can’t imagine why the major networks are suffering eroding viewership. Shocking.
I think three monkeys and a dog could run a network better.
Wow…. Bob is going to be another Tartikoff. NOT!
Honestly,the sad reality is most of these comedies nbc has ordered will most likely not be funny. Now,the state of affairs at nbc lately:that’s funny-morbidly funny. Thank you.
Embarrassing. There’s just no other word for this. I don’t know if execs aren’t doing their jobs or if writers are just pitching schlock, but this is a horrible batch of ideas.
Does no one care about doing something special anymore???
NBC is about to turn it around big-time, they finally get it why CBS is so successful at first-run comedies.
“Does no one care about doing something special anymore???”
What is something special? I’m curious. Because shows like “Happy Endings” and “New Girl” sound like every other show out there but are actually pretty good. So much is in the casting and writing that you can’t bash a show simply based on its log line.
Special can be anything from “Cheers” to “Community,” something that becomes beloved because it’s not just funny every week but because you can tell the creator cares about this world and its people, or something that makes you think about comedy differently, or just something that makes you want to be a kid again.
Like, when you used to actually look forward to watching Seinfeld week after week.
“Happy Endings” and “New Girl” are passable, two of the better comedies on the air right now. But special? No. Not even close. Happy Endings is funny but you don’t ever really care about the characters like you did on MASH Friends Fresh Prince of Air etc. And New Girl is a well-shot, well-intentioned show that just isn’t real or dimensionable or particularly funny yet (put could get there in time under the right circumstances).
Yes, I agree with you, but if you were to read a synopsis of Seinfeld before it started, it doesn’t sound like anything special either. To quote the person below me, ““A sitcom about 4 friends living in NY who are self-involved and seem to care about nothing.”
I’m just saying you can’t judge these shows until they are on the air.
You’re right! I’ve just read so many bad network comedy scripts over the last few years I’ve gotten cynical.
I totally agree.
It’s the same for ANY hit show.
It’s almost ALL character. Always. Great scripts, great characters, great actors.
The internet’s a wonderful place.
Naysayers are making snide comments based off of (to quote poster Mike above) “replies for one-line synopses.”
Who knows what the pitches were like? Who knows what they presented?
Imagine reading these synopses back in the day:
“A sitcom about 4 friends living in NY who are self-involved and seem to care about nothing.”
“6 white singles in their 20s who hang out in each others apartments and a coffee bar located downstairs.”
“A naive young woman who moves to the big city to take a job in the news world.”
“A group of teenagers living in the 70s who smoke marijuana and deal with growing up together while hanging out in one kid’s basement.”
None of these ideas sound very promising at first read, right?
Sure, 90% of them will probably suck. (Maybe more.) But before you post something snarky, consider all you weren’t in the room to see/hear.
Just sayin’.
And BEFORE it starts…
I have NO dog in this show and don’t work for any companies/actors/writers/whatever who do.
And to those of us who have read the scripts and find them lacking?
I have, and they certainly are.
Fair enough from both of you. I meant it only in the way that people seemed to be commenting without having done so.
Friday Night Dinner sounds like it could be a lot like Modern Family. Depends on which direction they go with “quirky”.
Jimmy Fallon’s thing sounds like a feel-good comfort food comedy for his generation. Could do very well.
Daddy’s Girl will be worth watching if it’s a total knives-out bitchfest. If it isn’t, *yawn*.
Next Caller Please sounds a lot like the premise for Frasier, but Frasier was never really about the radio show. It was about Frasier’s lack of success in looking for love, despite all his book knowledge about human nature, and his relationship with his family/friends/co-workers.
Downwardly Mobile is aimed squarely at the 2011 zeitgeist. 2 Broke Girls is a hit, so NBC feels it’s safe to take this tack with Roseanne. It could work if, like 2 Broke Girls, they don’t pull punches.
Oh, and I’d like to remind NBC of at least one really good reason to keep Community on the air. They’ve got some seriously popular talent locked down on that show.
Most the people on here with their snide remarks are dumb. Talking about NBC should be cutting edge. Uh yeah sure isn’t cutting edge what NBC is right now? All their comedies are crude and crass and look at what that’s doing for them in the ratings. If it wasn’t for football I’m almost certain NBC would cease to exist because their shows are cutting edge and special and consistently pull bad ratings. Listen to the posters Mike and Naysayers above me. Open up your minds and let TV have a little imagination. Still waiting for NBC to have comedies like Fresh Prince of Bel Air again. Or is that not cutting edge enough?
Oh and before I forget since you’re all so dang cynical, NO I don’t work for NBC or anything in the TV business for that matter but I wish I did because you can expect NBC would look a lot like it did in the 80′s and early 90′s
Bob Greenblattt seems like he’s picking great dramas (Beautiful People), but his comedy ideas suck big time.
Are you smoking crack? The dramas look even worse. I hear Jen Salke has him by the balls. As the head of a failing network you would think he would look at every script and he didn’t. He had Jen choose. She’s the boss over there. Did anyone like her taste before?
If, and it’s a big IF, Roseanne can capture that maternal aspect that she displayed so well in Roseanne, it’s got a shot. I never watched the show in original run (I was younger and never at home), but caught it in repeats (now that I’m old) – except for the last two or so seasons, it was really spot on. But there’s a difference between mother and grandmother. Between Kathy Bates and Roseanne, NBC may be challenging CBS for the 65+ crowd.
FOX tried to remake The Beast with Tucker Cawley. This sounds different.
Roseanne’s return to nbc on a sitcom is the best thing I’ve read all day. The woman is genius.