Ellen DeGeneres Oscars Headshot - P 2013
A.M.P.A.SA year out from the cancellation of Ryan Murphy‘s gay-themed The New Normal after one season, NBC is teaming with Ellen DeGeneres for a lesbian-themed comedy pilot.
One Big Happy centers on a lesbian who gets pregnant just as her straight male best friend meets and marries the love of his life. Openly gay 2 Broke Girls writer Liz Feldman will pen the script and exec produce alongside DeGeneres and her Warner Bros. Television-based A Very Good Production banner president Jeff Kleeman.
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The comedy marks the latest gay-themed vehicle at NBC, including this season’s Thursday half-hour Sean Saves the World, which reunites Will & Grace star Sean Hayes with the network.
Last season’s cancellations wiped out a score of show with gay characters on broadcast television. Among them: NBC’s Smash, which featured several LGBT characters; Go On, also on NBC; and ABC’s Happy Endings, among others.
NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt, who is openly gay, has a history of LGBT-themed programming dating back to his time as the head of Showtime, where he greenlighted lesbian-themed The L Word as well as a U.S. adaptation of gay-themed Queer as Folk.
This marks NBC’s 13th comedy pilot order of the season. The network also has three straight-to-series half-hours planned for next season: an untitled entry starring Ellie Kemper from EP Tina Fey; Craig Robinson‘s comedy Mr. Robinson; and Working the Engels.
For Feldman, One Big Happy marks a reunion for the producer with DeGeneres after having served as a writer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show for more than 100 episodes from 2003 to 2007.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
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