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‘GCB’ Title Star Of The Show During Panel:TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday January 10, 2012 @ 3:45pm PSTTags: ABC, GCB, Good Christian Belles, Robert Harling

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

TCA remained a Bitch-Free Zone during the GCB session today. And it became something of a Christian-Free Zone as well. Following up on entertainment chief Paul Lee’s comment earlier in the day that “bitch” “was really not a word you want to use in the title” — ABC also is promoting the sitcom Don’t Trust The B— In Apartment 23 on its midseason schedule — yet another “bitch” question opened the panel for GCB, which premieres March 4 at 10 PM. The letters in this case stand for Good Christian Belles, but it originally was short for Good Christian Bitches, the title of the book on which the series is based. And as GCB writer/executive producer Robert Harling said, he was never comfortable with the “Belles” part of the title given that his series is set in Texas. “That’s more Georgia or South Carolina, you know, the Deep South,” he said. The show title was changed to GCB after Harling saw the logo everywhere he turned while shooting the show in Dallas. “We all thought it was kind of cool in the era of LOL and FYI … GCB was this term that the women around us all seemed to refer to themselves as. … It just kind of stuck.” READ MORE »

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Victor Nelli Joins ‘GCB’ As EP/Director, Signs Pilot Directing Deal With ABC Studios

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday October 3, 2011 @ 10:10am PDTTags: ABC Studios, Good Christian Belles
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Victor Nelli has joined new ABC dramedy Good Christian Belles as executive producer/director, starting with Episode 6. He directed the reshoots on the pilot, which was helmed by Alan Poul, as well as the key second episode of the … Read More »

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TV Writers Continue To Hate Bankers: ABC Buys Drama About Disgraced Financier

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday September 29, 2011 @ 1:33pm PDTTags: 2 Broke Girls, ABC, Good Christian Belles
Nellie Andreeva

With the public’s sentiment toward Wall Street not improving much post-Madoff and the massive bailouts, it is not surprising that TV writers don’t seem to have much love for financial executives. This fall, I counted three new series that had a disgraced banker or a financial scheme as a starting-off point in the pilot: In 2 Broke Girls, co-lead Carline (Beth Behrs) is a former super-rich heiress thrown into poverty after the assets of her banker dad were frozen over a massive Ponzi scheme; in ABC’s Good Christian Belles, lead Amanda (Leslie Bibb) was left penniless by her deceased husband, who was indicted in a Ponzi scheme; and in ABC’s Revenge, the lead, Emily (Emily VanCamp), is exacting revenge on the Grayson family that destroyed her father who, in a setup, was made the fall guy in an insider-trading and money-laundering scheme. Now comes Turner Loose, a new drama just Read More »

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Darren Star No Longer On Set Of ABC’s New ‘Good Christian Belles’ (But Remains On The Show)

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday August 22, 2011 @ 6:39pm PDTTags: ABC, Darren Star, Good Christian Belles, Gretchen Berg, Robert Harling
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: There has been some behind-the-scenes drama on ABC’s upcoming dramedy Good Christian Belles. A fallout between writer/executive producer Robert Harling and executive producer/showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen Berg on one hand and executive producer Darren Star on the other has led to a decision by producing studio ABC Studios to no longer have Star talk to Harling, Harberts or Berg, go to the set of the show, or go to his GCB office. He continues to give notes on scripts and cuts but to the studio, not to the series’ writing EPs — at least not for the time being. Star also oversees marketing and publicity for the series.

Star was never expected to be full-time on GCB for the long run because he is under an exclusive deal at HBO, where he has the Goldie Hawn-starring comedy project The Viagra Diaries awaiting a pilot green light. (He will go and run that show if and when that happens.) That’s why ABC Studios hired experienced showrunners Harberts and Berg after the pilot to help feature writer Harling. (For the duo, the assignment was part of their overall deal at the studio.) Still, the events of the past couple of months hastened that process, creating behind-the-scene tension along the way. As one observer put it, on GCB “the comedy is on the show, the drama is behind the scenes.”

I hear at heart of the problem was the fractured long-time friendship between Star and Harling. It was Star who originally optioned Kim Gatlin’s book Good Christian Bitches and brought in Harling to write the TV adaptation. Star also shepherded the pilot from development through postproduction. Some say there were signs of friction between the two as early as the pilot stage, but the cracks became very visible after the ABC upfront presentation and subsequent international screenings where GCB was heavily marketed as a Darren Star series with no mention of Harling, something that I hear upset Harling. Tension started building as Harling, Harberts and Berg convened the show’s writing staff to work on storylines and scripts, with Star chiming in from afar. (Star reportedly didn’t do much to defuse the situation). Read More »

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ABC Unveils 2011-2012 Schedule: New Comedy Block On Tuesday With Tim Allen

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday May 17, 2011 @ 5:05am PDTTags: ABC schedule 2011-12, Charlie's Angels, Good Christian Belles, Happy Endings, Last Man Standing, Pan Am, The River
Nellie Andreeva

Home Improvement star Tim Allen is returning to ABC’s primetime, and the network will use his star power to launch a new comedy block. As we predicted, the network is opening up a 8-10 PM comedy block on Tuesday, with Allen’s comedy Last Man Standing anchoring it. ABC will be launching roughly half of its 13 new scripted series in the fall, including Charlie’s Angels, which has been given the tough task to open Thursday night. The network proved it was serious about Happy Endings, giving the modestly rated midseason series its prime comedy slot after Modern Family. Also noteworthy: 1960s soap Pan Am landed the post-Desperate Housewives slot, and ABC opted to go scripted in the Sunday 8 PM slot long occupied by Extreme Makeover: Home Edition with new fantasy series Once Upon a Time. ABC’s top series, Dancing With the Stars, Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives are staying put. Held for midseason are high-profile new entries Good Christian Belles and The River as well as returning comedy Cougar Town. All fall series have received traditional 13-episode orders, while the size of the orders for most midseason shows have not been determined. Here is ABC’s release with the fall schedule:

New ABC series for the 2011-12 season are “Apartment 23,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “Good Christian Belles,” “Last Man Standing,” “Man Up,” “Missing,” “Once Upon a Time,” “Pan Am,” “Revenge,” “The River,” “Scandal,” “Suburgatory” and “Work It.”

“America’s Funniest Home Videos,” “The Bachelor,” “Body of Proof,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “Happy Endings,” “Secret Millionaire,” “Shark Tank” and “20/20” join previously announced returning series “Castle,” “Cougar Town,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “The Middle,” “Modern Family” and “Private Practice.” “Saturday Night College Football” also returns.

ABC’s fall primetime schedule is as follows; new shows are in bold:

MONDAY

 8:00 p.m.                    “Dancing with the Stars”
10:00 p.m.                  “Castle”

TUESDAY

 8:00 p.m.                    “Last Man Standing”
 8:30 p.m.                    “Man Up”
9:00 p.m.                    “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show”
10:00 p.m.                  “Body of Proof”

WEDNESDAY

 8:00 p.m.                    “The Middle”
8:30 p.m.                    “Suburgatory”
9:00 p.m.                    “Modern Family”
9:30 p.m.                    “Happy Endings”
10:00 p.m.                  “Revenge”

THURSDAY

 8:00 p.m.                    “Charlie’s Angels”
9:00 p.m.                    “Grey’s Anatomy”
10:00 p.m.                  “Private Practice”

 

FRIDAY

 8:00 p.m.                    “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”
 9:00 p.m.                    “Shark Tank”
 10:00 p.m.                  “20/20”

SATURDAY
 8:00 p.m.                    “Saturday Night College Football”

SUNDAY

 7:00 p.m.                    “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
8:00 p.m.                    “Once Upon a Time”
9:00 p.m.                    “Desperate Housewives”
10:00 p.m.                  “Pan Am”

 

 

NEW FALL AND MIDSEASON SERIES:

Read More »

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ABC Plans Mix Of Series-Order Sizes, To Open Second Comedy Block On Tuesday?

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday May 16, 2011 @ 5:30pm PDTTags: ABC, ABC Comedy Block, Good Christian Belles, Missing, Tim Allen
Nellie Andreeva

Three days after the euphoria of getting their pilots picked up by ABC, I hear the producers of the newly picked-up series are in panic mode over conflicting information about the sizes of the network’s series orders. Word is, with … Read More »

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Gretchen Berg And Aaron Harberts To Run ABC’s ‘Good Christian Belles’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday May 13, 2011 @ 10:01pm PDTTags: ABC, Good Christian Belles, Gretchen Berg, Showrunners
Nellie Andreeva

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), … Read More »

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3RD UPDATE: ABC Picks Up 7 New Dramas, 5 Comedies, ‘Smothered’ Still Alive

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday May 13, 2011 @ 1:10pm PDTTags: ABC, Apt. 23, Charlie's Angels, Good Christian Belles, Last Man Standing, Once Upon a Time, Pan Am, Pickups, pilots, Revenge, Scandal, The River
Nellie Andreeva

UPDATE 1:10 PM: The last comedy pilots to get the nod at ABC today are Suburgatory and the cross-dressing Work It. Another buzzed-about pilot, Smothered, has not been picked up but remains in contention. Among those that are not moving … Read More »

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