ABC buys comedies from Cedric and Mencia

By Nellie Andreeva

With the broadcast networks already in a pilot-pickup mode, twomulticamera comedy pitches fronted by familiar faces scoredlast-minute sales at ABC.

The projects, one starring Carlos Mencia and the other toplined byCedric the Entertainer, hail from Sony TV and studio-basedTantamount.

The Mencia sitcom, from veteran comedy writers Mitchel Katlin andNat Bernstein, is a family comedy based on Mencia's life andstand-up act.

Co-produced by Brillstein Entertainment, it centers on a man in themiddle of his very large multigenerational immigrant family.

The Cedric comedy, from Al Higgins (" 'Til Death") and DevonShepard ("Cedric the Entertainer Presents"), will feature thecomedian as a retired baseball player-turned-radio host forced tore-evaluate the type of father he has been when his son and6-year-old granddaughter re-enter his life.

In their initial comedy pilot orders this season, the networks haveshown preference for projects that have talent attached: ABC pickedup "Awkward Situations for Men," starring British humorist andon-air personality Danny Wallace, and NBC greenlighted a starringvehicle for Adam Carolla.

Katlin and Bernstein are repped by UTA and Rigberg Entertainment.Mencia, Cedric and Higgins are with CAA, Shepard with APA.