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‘1600 Penn’ To Have Media Figures As Guests, But Not Politicians: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday January 6, 2013 @ 1:05pm PSTTags: 1600 Penn, Jason Winer, Josh Gad

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

NBC’s new White House comedy 1600 Penn doesn’t plan to bring in real politicians as guest stars, producers said today during the show’s lunchtime panel at TCA. Executive producers Jason Winer and Jon Lovett (a former Obama speechwriter) said they will definitely have real-life reporters and media figures as guests. Lovett and other panelists said upcoming guests may include NBC correspondent Savannah Guthrie, Chuck Todd of NBC News and Larry King.

The creative team also said it would take a cue from the White House drama The West Wing by not bringing very recent history into the show, which stars co-creator/co-executive producer Josh Gad as the black sheep son of the White House family (Gad was also a star of Broadway’s Book of Mormon).

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The show, which also stars Bill Pullman and Jenna Elfman as the President and First Lady, also has Modern Family veteran Jason Winer as executive producer along with Mike Royce. Winer acknowledged that audience will probably recognize some “Modern Family DNA inherent in the family dynamics. You will start to see this family become a warm cohesive unit.” Lovett seconded the opinion that the show is more about family than politics.

Gad said he met Winer “on the Modern Family circuit” and Winer approached him about doing a White House comedy after seeing the actor in Book of Mormon. After first joking that he took the role for the money, Gad said that at first he didn’t want to do the role of First Son Skip Gilchrist because it was too much like his Mormon role, Cunningham. “Honestly it came down the fact that if I saw anybody else play the character of Skip, I was going to be really pissed off.” Never able to resist a joke, he added: “And also a lot of the other offers didn’t come through.”

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Royce addressed the fact that early reviews of the show have been mixed. “I’ve read all of the reviews…” he began to the room full of TV journalists and critics, only to be interrupted by Gad, who offered helpfully: “Some of you are dicks.”

Ignoring Gad, Royce continued, with understatement: “There is a great contingent of people I think who are not quite sold on the show. [The White House] is a big world, a world that everybody knows. We have a bit more of a hurdle to make this world our own.” In the promos for the show, he said, “Sometimes it seems the most promotable thing is the chair flying out the window. We’re trying to get to more of the family dynamics where the White House is more of a backdrop.”

Winer agreed, saying that Gad’s zany character and Bill Pullman’s uptight President character represent “an emotional odd couple at the heart of the show.”

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Josh Gad And Ryan Dixon On Script Duty For ‘Triplets’ With Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito and Eddie Murphy

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday November 14, 2012 @ 3:42pm PSTTags: Big Deals Film, Josh Gad, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Book Of Mormon star Josh Gad and Ryan Dixon are now set to script the treatment for Triplets, the Twins sequel that will be produced by Montecito for Universal Pictures. Dixon will write the script. … Read More »

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‘Book of Mormon’s Josh Gad Joins ‘The Internship’

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday July 31, 2012 @ 4:29pm PDTTags: 20th Century Fox, Josh Gad, The Internship

EXCLUSIVE: Josh Gad has signed up for The Internship. The Book Of Mormon star will join Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in the 20th Century Fox comedy about two middle-aged men who have to start over at the bottom of the career ladder. Shawn Levy is directing. Gad will play Headphones, an anti-social engineer at the tech firm where Vaughn and Wilson are interning. Gad starts filming in next month. JoAnna Garica, Aasif Mandvi and Jessica Szohr co-star. Read More »

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NBC To Order Josh Gad-Jason Winer Comedy Pilot With Gad Starring; Actor Also Poised To Topline MGM Feature ‘The Game’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday February 3, 2012 @ 1:53pm PSTTags: 1600 Penn, Jason Winer, Josh Gad, NBC
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: I’ve learned that NBC is about to hand out a late pilot order to 1600 Penn, a White House family comedy from Book Of Mormon star Josh Gad, Modern Family director Jason Winer and former speechwriter to President Barack Obama Jon Lovett. The order comes after Gad, originally only attached as co-writer and executive producer, also has agreed to also star in the project, produced by 20th Century Fox TV where Winer is under an overall deal. Additionally, Gad is in negotiations to play the lead opposite James Franco in Brian Koppelman and David Levien’s feature The Game at MGM produced by the Weitz Brothers. The movie is based by the book by Neil Strauss chronicling his efforts to become a pick-up artist. Gad will play Strauss, a Rolling Stone journalist who is a great writer but is not great at picking up women. He goes undercover and his life changes. Franco plays Strauss’ teacher.

1600 Penn, co-created by Gad, Winer and Lovett, is a dysfunctional family comedy where the out-of-control oldest son (Gad) returns home and becomes not only it’s biggest liability but also the glue holding everyone together. The twist is that this family resides in the White House. NBC nabbed the pitch in October with a put pilot commitment. The project was tracking well and many were surprised when it didn’t end up among the 13 half-hour pilots picked up at NBC. But conversations between the network and 20th TV continued, zeroing on the possibility for Gad to star. After several days of intense negotiations, Gad agreed to do it, clearing the way for a pilot green light. Read More »

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NBC Buys Comedy About The First Family From Josh Gad, Jason Winer & Jon Lovett

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday October 24, 2011 @ 12:00pm PDTTags: 20th Century Fox TV, Jason Winer, Josh Gad, NBC
Nellie Andreeva

From NBC, the network that brought us The West Wing, comes 1600 Penn, a family comedy set at the White House. The network bought pre-emptively the single-camera comedy — from Book Of Mormon star Josh Gad, Modern Family director Jason Winer and former speechwriter to President Barack Obama Jon Lovett — with a put pilot commitment. Gad, Winer and Lovett co-created the project, about a dysfunctional family that just happens to live at the most famous address in America, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. 20th Century Fox TV, where Winer is under an overall deal, is producing. The premise originated with Winer and longtime friend Gad bouncing around possible series ideas until they settled on the First Family comedy setup. They knew they needed a writer and turned to 20th TV. Conveniently, the studio had signed a script deal with former Obama speechwriter Lovett, who had taken meetings indicating that he wanted to get into the half-hour scripted comedy business. 20th TV got the trio together and they honed the idea for 1600 Penn. All three will executive produce, with Lovett writing the script and Winer attached to direct. Read More »

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Brillstein Entertainment Signs Josh Gad

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday July 26, 2011 @ 12:37pm PDTTags: Brillstein Entertainment Partners, Josh Gad
Nellie Andreeva

Josh Gad, the star of Broadway smash The Book of Mormon, has signed with Brillstein Entertainment Partners for management. He continues to be represented by ICM and the law firm of Ziffren Brittenham. Gad, who first rose to prominence in … Read More »

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