ABC is developing a comedy with an LGBTQ couple at its center.
The multi-camera project comes from Disney’s 20th Television comedian and writer Sabrina Jalees (Harley Quinn, Search Party). It centers on first-time parents Sam and Bertie, whose lives take a turn when Alex, their spontaneous biological donor-daddy, pays them a visit and becomes part of their lives.
Jalees will executive produce with Sam Saifer (Broad City, Alternatino With Arturo Castro).
Jalees’ on-camera credits include Carol’s Second Act on CBS, Netflix’s stand-up showcase The Comedy Lineup and IFC’s Baroness Von Sketch Show, where she was also a contributing writer. She also wrote for NBC’s Powerless and ABC’s The Mayor. She is repped by WME, Mosaic and Felker Toczek.
The Jalees project joins a development slate at ABC that also includes comedies Happy for You, from Single Parents veterans Taylor Cox and Kim Rosenstock, a Wonder Years reboot centered on a Black family and Black-ish spinoff Old-ish. The network also has dramas from Lee Daniels, Pose creator Steven Canals and the team of Eva Longoria, Forest Whitaker and Natalie Chaidez in the works.
The network has also given series orders to Rebel, a drama based on the life of Erin Brockovich from Grey’s Anatomy showrunner Krista Vernoff; David E. Kelley’s Big Sky; and comedy Call Your Mother, starring Kyra Sedgwick. Big Sky is scheduled to premiere in November, with the other two set for 2021.
