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PILOT SEASON 2013: The Overachievers

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday February 20, 2013 @ 9:26am PSTTags: 3 Arts, Aaron Kaplan, Big Deals TV, Peter Tolan
Nellie Andreeva

Here is Deadline’s annual list of The Overachievers Of Pilot Season. For anyone, landing a pilot is a major accomplishment. These selected few took that achievement to the next level.

Related: PILOT SEASON: The Overachievers 2012

Aaron Kaplan. Proving that his fast start as a producer was not just beginner’s luck, the former WMA agent has become a force to be reckoned with during pilot season. This year he landed five pilot orders, one more than last year and a new personal best. All five are comedies — ABC’s Pulling, Bad Management and the untitled Cullen brothers project, CBS’ Friends With Better Lives and NBC’s The Gates — as are Kaplan’s on-air series, ABC’s The Neighbors and Nick at Nite’s Wendell & Vinnie, as well as another Nick pilot, Instant Mom. On the drama side, he has pilots Terminals, which is nearing a series pickup at ABC Family, and HR at Lifetime, which is casting. In a world of vertical integration, Kaplan operates as an independent one-man shop.

Another independent, management/production company 3 Arts, has four pilots, also all comedies: NBC’s untitled Greg Daniels/Robert Padnick, untitled Owen Ellickson & Craig Robinson and untitled John Mulaney/Lorne Michaels projects, as well as Fox’s untitled Dan Goor/Mike Schur project.

Writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky are having a banner year. The Office alums and writers of the 2011 feature Bad Teacher are behind three broadcast comedy pilots — ABC’s Pulling, which they wrote and executive produce, as well as ABC’s Trophy Wife and CBS’ Bad Teacher adaptation, which they executive produce. Additionally, their HBO comedy pilot with Stephen Merchant, Hello Ladies, was picked up to series. READ MORE »

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ABC Orders Sharon Horgan Comedy Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday January 30, 2013 @ 11:00am PSTTags: Aaron Kaplan, ABC, Bad Management, Sharon Horgan
Nellie Andreeva

ABC has picked Bad Management, a single-camera comedy pilot co-written and starring Sharon Horgan, co-creator/start of the British comedy Pulling. Co-written by Horgan and Holly Walsh and executive produced by Aaron Kaplan, Bad Management centers … Read More »

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Viral Video By Aspiring Filmmaker To Get Comedy Series Treatment At Fox

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday December 10, 2012 @ 11:59am PSTTags: Aaron Kaplan, Fox
Nellie Andreeva

Fox has put in development Upstairs, a single-camera comedy from recent Columbia University graduate Shawn Wines and producer Aaron Kaplan. The project, set up at Warner Bros TV, is based on Wines’ comedy short Upstairs (video below), which has amassed more than 2 million views online. Referred casually as New Guy, the project is described as a male New Girl and centers on a tragically average guy, living with his trust-fund roommate, across the hall from their beautiful neighbor. Keeping the tone of the short, in which a couple on a first date get very pragmatical yet brutally honest about the course of their relationship, the show will feature the set of friends taking on the brutality of daily life in New York. Read More »

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Paranormal Cop Comedy Gets Put Pilot Commitment At ABC

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday October 10, 2012 @ 8:34am PDTTags: Aaron Kaplan, ABC
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Strange Calls, a half-hour comedy from writer Donick Cary (New Girl), director Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) and producer Aaron Kaplan (The Neighbors), has landed at ABC with a put pilot commitment. Based on an Australian series — which coincidentally also airs on ABC (Australia’s ABC2) – Strange Calls centers on good-hearted, bumbling Boston cop Toby Banks, who is exiled to night duty on Nantucket island, where strange, unexplainable occurrences become the norm nine months out of the year. Working out of a creaky lighthouse on the outskirts of town, he is teamed with Gregor, the eccentric lighthouse keeper and local paranormal authority. The two make an unlikely crimefighting duo dealing with the “strange calls” that come into the station at night. Nantucketer Cary is writing the adaptation and will executive produce with Fleischer; Kapital Entertainment’s Kaplan; as well as Tracey Robertson and Nathan Mayfield, executive producers of the original series, which is produced by their company Hoodlum. 20th Century Fox TV, where Fleischer is under an overall deal, is producing. Fleischer is repped by UTA and Sloane Offer. Read More »

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Actress Kate Walsh & Writer Chris Case Sell Semi-Autobiographical Comedy To NBC

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday October 4, 2012 @ 2:05pm PDTTags: Aaron Kaplan, Kate Walsh, NBC
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: As she is wrapping her starring turn on ABC’s Private Practice, Kate Walsh is embarking on a producing career with a comedy project written by Retired At 35 creator Chris Case, which just sold to NBC. The untitled multi-camera half-hour, from 20th Century Fox TV, is loosely based on the personal experience of Walsh and Case, who are a couple. It centers on a recently divorced father of two pre-teen boys that quickly falls in love with a freewheeling woman cop who has little experience with children, while dealing with his ex-wife, who is now living with his best friend. Walsh and Case will executive produce with Aaron Kaplan of Kapital Entertainment.

This past summer, Walsh announced that she would be leaving Private Practice after 13 episodes of the current sixth season. Walsh, repped by CAA and Evolution, has played the character of Addison Montgomery for 7 years, starting on Grey’s Anatomy before she got her own spinoff Private Practice. She is currently seen in breakout indie Perks Of Being A Wallflower and has a cameo in the upcoming Scary Movie 5. Read More »

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HBO Adapting Novel ‘The Madonnas Of Echo Park’ Into Drama Series

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday March 27, 2012 @ 9:20am PDTTags: Aaron Kaplan, Big Deals TV, HBO
Nellie Andreeva

Madonnas Of Echo Park HBOEXCLUSIVE: HBO has put in development a drama series project based on the novel The Madonnas Of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse. The project, to be written by award-winning playwright Julia Cho, takes a look at the lives of a community in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood in Los Angeles. It explores the relationships -– romantic, professional, familial –- of the Latinos that have built the community over the years, and the hipsters who’re making their way in now, examining the complicated dynamic between the two as they struggle to build new lives for themselves in pursuit of the American dream. Kapital Entertainment’s Aaron Kaplan and British writer Kelly Marcel are executive producing, reuniting after their first collaboration on Terra Nova, which the two executive produced. Terra Nova originated with a 15-page treatment by Marcel, which Kaplan brought to the U.S. For Cho, who will serve as co-executive producer, this marks a return to HBO, where she worked on Big Love. Her TV credits also include a stint on Fringe. She is with WME, Skyhorse is with Jody Hotchkiss.

At HBO, The Madonnas of Echo Park joins another Kapital-produced project, comedy pilot Viagra Diaries, created by Sex And The City’s Darren Star and to be directed by Bridesmaids‘ Paul Feig. Additionally, Kaplan has several other cable projects in development. Read More »

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ABC Buys Drama Spec For Next Season

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday March 15, 2012 @ 8:36am PDTTags: Aaron Kaplan
Nellie Andreeva

Talk about thinking ahead. With most pilots of this development cycle still gearing up for production, ABC has already bought a project that will be in consideration for the next one. Drama Infection was written on spec by Soo Hugh … Read More »

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Primetime Pilot Season: The Overachievers

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 17, 2012 @ 8:16am PSTTags: Aaron Kaplan, Greg Berlanti, Jamie Tarses, pilots
Nellie Andreeva

If the broadcast development season were a reality competition show, we would now be in the final round where some 85 pilots are battling for spots on next season’s schedule. And while the winners won’t be known until the upfronts in May, here are the overachievers in the pilot stage of the competition.

Greg Berlanti — he killed it in his first development season at his new (old) studio home, Warner Bros. Television. Berlanti and his company Berlanti Prods. sold five projects to the broadcast networks. Four of them netted pilot orders: Guilty at Fox written by Marc Guggenheim, an Nicholas Wootton-written drama at CBS, Arrow at the CW, penned by Berlanti, Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg, and a comedy at CBS written by Berlanti and Greg Malins. And if that’s not enough, while working on his broadcast development Berlanti found time to write a cable spec, Political Animals, which just received a six-episode straight-to-series order by USA Network and is now casting alongside Berlanti’s broadcast pilots.

Aaron Kaplan — the one-man selling machine. Since founding his company, Kapital Entertainment, two-and-a-half years ago with his own money, the former WMA agent has landed 12 pilot orders while operating independently without the backing of a studio. Four of them came from the broadcast networks this season, all comedies: The Manzanies and the untitled Dan Fogelman project at ABC and Daddy’s Girls and Isabel at NBC. (Technically, there are 5 Aaron Kaplan broadcast pilots this season. The lit manager by the same name is executive producing the Adam Sztykiel ABC comedy pilot, and the matching names have created a lot of confusion and wrongly addressed emails.) Like Berlanti, Kaplan is casting a cable project along with his 4 broadcast pilots, Darren Star’s HBO comedy pilot Viagra Diaries starring Goldie Hawn. He also has several other projects in pilot contention, two upcoming series: ABC’s GCB and MTV’s The Inbetweeners, and a third one awaiting word on Season 2, Fox’s Terra Nova.

Mark Gordon, Marty Adelstein & Shawn Levy and Jamie Tarses. The Mark Gordon Co., Adelstein & Levy’s 21 Laps/Adelstein Prods. and Tarses’ Fanfare landed 3 pilot orders each this broadcast pilot season. The ABC Studios-based Mark Gordon Co., which has 4 series on the air, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice, CBS’ Criminal Minds and Lifetime’s Army Wives, is behind 3 ABC pilots: dramas Americana and the Roland Emmerich project and comedy White Van Man. Additionally, the company has a cable pilot casting, the Showtime drama Roy Donovan starring Liev Schreiber. In its second year, 20th TV-based 21 Laps/Adelstein, whose first development season produced ABC’s solid freshman Last Man Standing, is fielding the untitled Karyn Usher drama pilot at Fox and comedies Little Brother at Fox and the Mandy Moore project at ABC. Sony TV-based Fanfare, which has 3 series on the air, ABC’s Happy Endings, TNT’s Franklin & Bash and TBS’ upcoming Men At Work, is shepherding CBS’ Baby Big Shot, NBC’s Hilary Winston and Fox’s cast-contingent Must Hire. Additionally, 3 Arts’ Howard Klein is an executive producer on 3 pilots, Greg Daniels’ Friday Night Dinner at NBC, Mindy Kaling’s Fox comedy and Melissa Rosenberg’s ABC drama Penoza. Read More »

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ABC Gives Pilot Green Light To Dan Fogelman’s Alien Family Comedy

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday December 6, 2011 @ 8:43am PSTTags: Aaron Kaplan, ABC, ABC Studios, Dan Fogelman, Kapital Entertainment
Nellie Andreeva

ABC Picks Up Dan Fogelman Alien Comedy With Pilot Production Commitment

ABC has formally ordered to pilot an untitled half-hour single-camera comedy from feature writer Dan Fogelman (Crazy, … Read More »

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NBC Orders Magical Family Comedy Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday November 3, 2011 @ 8:00pm PDTTags: Aaron Kaplan, Isabel, NBC
Nellie Andreeva

NBC has handed out a pilot order to Isabel, a single-camera family comedy with a twist from producer Aaron Kaplan. The network bought the project on spec, which was written by Howard Busgang and Tom Nursall. The two developed the … Read More »

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ABC Picks Up Dan Fogelman Alien Comedy With Pilot Production Commitment

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday October 28, 2011 @ 6:49pm PDTTags: Aaron Kaplan, ABC, Dan Fogelman
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: ABC has handed a pilot production commitment to a comedy spec by feature writer Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love; Cars) The untitled single-camera project, originally developed at Warner Bros. TV, centers on a normal family who moves into a … Read More »

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CBS Buys Dramas From Niels Mueller, Krista Vernoff; Closes Deal For Jon Favreau Pilot

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday October 21, 2011 @ 6:00pm PDTTags: Aaron Kaplan, Carl Beverly, Sarah Timberman
Nellie Andreeva

CBS has bought two drama projects with spiritual elements: a procedural from The Defenders co-creator Niels Mueller and producer Aaron Kaplan and Maybe Angels, a legal drama with a supernatural twist from former Grey’s Anatomy executive producer Krista Vernoff and producers Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly. Both projects hail from CBS TV Studios. Additionally, CBS has closed the pilot order deal for Tweaked, a half-hour, single-camera spec written by Iron Man director Favreau. Favreau is executive producing and directing the pilot, which chronicles life and dating among single parents in Santa Monica. The pilot, from CBS TV Studios, is already casting.

The untitled Niels Mueller project centers on an ordinary man making an extraordinary impact on people’s lives. CBS has a tradition of feel-good spiritual shows with Touched By An Angel. But, unlike Angel and another popular series about angels, NBC’s Highway To Heaven, the new project does not have religious overtones. WME-repped Mueller (The Assassination Of Richard Nixon) is executive producing with Kaplan and Laura McCorkindale.

While the lead in Mueller’s project does extraordinary things but is not an angel, the leads in Vernoff’s drama are just that. Maybe Angels is a legal show about two angels who help their former spouses. CAA-repped Vernoff, who created ABC’s drama pilot Grace last season, is writing as well as executive producing with Timberman, Beverly, Mark Waters and Jessica Tuchnisky. Read More »

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Sharon Horgan To Write And Star In Comedy Project For ABC Studios

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday October 13, 2011 @ 7:37am PDTTags: Aaron Kaplan, ABC Studios, Kapital Entertainment, Sharon Horgan
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Irish actress, writer and comedian Sharon Horgan has signed a blind deal with ABC Studios to write and star in a comedy project for the studio. She will executive produce with Aaron Kaplan of Kapital Entertainment. The pact extends … Read More »

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ABC Developing U.S. Version Of British Crime Comedy ‘Suburban Shootout’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday October 7, 2011 @ 12:14pm PDTTags: Aaron Kaplan, ABC, Kapital Entertainment
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: ABC has put in development a U.S. version of the praised British comedy Suburban Shootout. Byron Balasco will write the hourlong adaptation of the half-hour original, a dark comedy about a woman who escapes the city and … Read More »

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Jeff Rake Sets Up 2 Projects At CBS

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday August 25, 2011 @ 8:00am PDTTags: Aaron Kaplan, Fanfare, Jamie Tarses, Kapital Entertainment, Sony Pictures TV
Nellie Andreeva

The $treet and Miss Match co-creator Jeff Rake has sold two projects — a drama and a comedy — to CBS. Both are from Sony Pictures TV, where Rake is based, and both will be written by him. … Read More »

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ABC Family Developing US Version Of Mexican Drama ‘Terminales’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday August 16, 2011 @ 8:24am PDTTags: Aaron Kaplan, ABC Family, Kapital Entertainment, Lionsgate TV, Televisa
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: What if Sex and the City‘s Carrie Bradshaw was dying of cancer? That in essence is the premise of the Mexican drama series Terminales, which is being adapted by ABC Family. Lionsgate TV and Kapital Entertainment are … Read More »

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ABC To Order Family Comedy Pilot Starring Kirstie Alley

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday August 3, 2011 @ 11:32am PDTTags: Aaron Kaplan, ABC, ABC Studios, Brillstein Entertainment, comedy pilot, Dancing With The Stars, Dave Flebotte, JoAnn Alfano, Kirstie Alley, Marco Pennette, The Manzanis
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Following her memorable run on Dancing With the Stars last spring, Kirstie Alley is returning to ABC as the star of a new comedy project. I’ve learned that ABC is finalizing the deals for a pilot order to The Manzanis, a multi-camera family comedy written by sitcom veterans Marco Pennette and Dave Flebotte, with Alley attached to star. ABC Studios and studio-based Brillstein Entertainment are producing. The sitcom is described as a new take on Roseanne, and stars Alley as a very opinionated wife/mother who, along with her family, the Manzanis, moves to repressed country-club town. Pennette and Flebotte are executive producing with Brillstein’s new TV president JoAnn Alfano. Also expected to executive produce are Aaron Kaplan (Good Christian Belles) and Alley’s manager Jason Weinberg. Read More »

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HBO Developing ‘Viagra Diaries’ Comedy Series Starring Goldie Hawn And Written By Darren Star

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday June 15, 2011 @ 5:22pm PDTTags: Aaron Kaplan, Darren Star, HBO
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Sex and the City creator/executive producer Darren Star is back at HBO with a sexy female-centered comedy project, this time about the boomer generation. In what would be her … Read More »

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