'Friends,' 'Scrubs,' 'Smash' Producers Land Comedy Pilot Orders at CBS

CBS

CBS added to its pilot coffers Thursday, picking up comedies from the producers behind Friends, Smash and Scrubs.

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Jacked Up hails from Greg Malins and Patrick Warburton, with the Rules of Engagement actor set to star as a beloved, recently retired baseball player who finds out that adjusting to retirement isn't as easy as he thought it would be. Malins will pen the multi-camera comedy script, which will be produced by Rules' Sony Pictures Television, Happy Madison and CBS Television Studios. Happy Madison's Doug Robinson, Malins and Warburton  will exec produce. While the order diminishes long-running Rules' chances for continued life, viewers know better than to count the series out.

The untitled Tad Quill project is another multi-camera order, which comes from writer/producer Quill (Scrubs, Bent). It centers on a recently widowed father as he raises his 12-year-old son while jumping back into the dating pool. Quill will write and exec produce for CBS Television Studios. 

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Finally, the untitled comedy from Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky is based on another Israeli format and centers on a married mom who struggles to balance family, life and work. The single-camera entry will be exec produced by Keshet CEO Avi Nir and head of programming Ran Telem, on whose format Showtime’s Homeland is based, as well as the original series co-creators Daniela London-Dekel and Dana  Eden.

Smash’s Rottenberg and Zuritsky will write and executive produce the pilot, which is set up at CBS Television Studios.

The three pickups bring the total number of comedy pilots ordered at the network to 12, split evenly between single-camera and multi-camera fare this season. Last season, CBS picked up eight half-hours and ultimately ordered only two to series.

Warburton, who is also a voice actor on Family Guy, is repped by ICM Partners; Malins, whose credits include Friends, is repped by WME; Quill is repped by ICM Partners and Hansen Jacobson; Rottenberg and Zuritsky, whose other credits include HBO’s Sex and the City, are repped by WME and Felker Toczek; Keshet is repped by WME.