Things have never been so murky 10 days before upfront week.

With most pilots yet to be delivered to the networks because of the writers strike, the horse race for slots on the broadcast schedules remains wide open.

One thing coming into focus is that after making the development of animated comedies a priority the past several seasons, Fox will be launching its first animated comedy -- or comedies -- in three years.

"Cleveland," a spinoff of "Family Guy," is expected to get on the air with a 13-episode order. The show, from "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, Rich Appel and Mike Henry, is now staffing. The writers are slated to begin work May 19, and the series' first table read is targeted for the first week of July.

Coincidentally, the last two animated series entries on Fox were "American Dad" and the resurrected "Family Guy," both from MacFarlane.

"Cleveland," expected to be ready for a spring launch, might be joined by two other new half-hour cartoons, Mike Scully and Julie Thacker-Scully's "The Pitts" and Mitch Hurwitz's "Sit Down, Shut Up."

Both projects took a nontraditional development route when Fox ordered them as table reads in lieu of presentations to speed up the process. Now, each has been given "a yellow light." The shows are expected to produce one- to two-minute presentations to be ready for Fox's upfront presentation.

"Pitts" and "Shut Up," both based on live-action comedy series, have been given money to hire a handful of writers. ("Shut Up" recently tapped "The Simpsons" veterans Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein as executive producers). "Pitts" had a second table read Monday and a third one is scheduled for May 7 to get a head start in case of a series order.

On the live-action side, early front-runners include Jerry Bruckheimer's drama "Eleventh Hour" for CBS, Joss Whedon's "Doll House," J.J. Abrams' "Fringe" and the Bruce Helford/Bernie Mac comedy "Starting Under," all for Fox. All four are looking good to land on the schedule.

Also receiving strong early buzz is CBS' Simon Baker starrer "The Mentalist." Other pilots receiving positive feedback include CBS' drama "Exit 19" and the comedies "Single White Millionaire," "My Best Friend's Girl," "Worst Week" and the Mike Birbiglia project, as well as the CW drama "Austin Golden Hour."

And then there is the CW's "Beverly Hills, 90210" spinoff, which is as close as it gets to a sure thing.

Fox upfront plan well-drawn

Animated 'Cleveland' all but a sure thing

By Nellie Andreeva

April 30, 2008, 01:00 AM