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TV Land and Funny or Die are joining forces.
The Viacom-owned cable network has ordered a pilot based on the Funny or Die series Throwing Shade, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The program covers women’s rights, gay rights, pop culture and politics and treats them “with much less respect than they deserve,” according to the pilot’s logline.
Hosted by Erin Gibson (Parks and Rec, Kroll Show) and Bryan Safi (Young and Hungry, A Deadly Adoption), Throwing Shade originally launched as a podcast in 2011 before moving to Funny or Die in July 2013. Eighty episodes have since been produced, and Gibson and Safi also completed a 17-city tour for Throwing Shade this past summer.
Creators Gibson and Safi will star in and executive produce the pilot presentation, which goes into production Thursday in Los Angeles. Funny or Die’s Andrew Steele, Anna Wenger and Joe Farrell will exec produce with Charlie Siskel (Review), who will also serve as showrunner.
“We are huge fans of the podcast,” said Keith Cox, executive vp development and original programming at TV Land. “Erin and Bryan’s talent and chemistry are undeniable, and with Charlie Siskel on board, we have an even more amazing team. Their unique perspectives belong on TV.”
Throwing Shade is the latest foray into younger-skewering original comedy for TV Land, which is in the midst of a major creative reinvention. As the channel has said goodbye to such long-running multicamera sitcoms as Hot in Cleveland, The Exes and The Soul Man, TV Land has added more single-camera series to its slate, including The Jim Gaffigan Show, Impastor and Darren Starr’s Younger, which returns for season two in January.
The network also has hot comedy pilot I Shudder, starring Hamish Linklater, and an untitled comedy based on the childhood of Real Housewives star Kyle Richards with John Wells (Shameless) attached.
Throwing Shade is not only the successful podcast hoping to make the leap to TV. Writers-directors-producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie) are working on a series based on the wildly popular Serial.
Gibson is repped by Principato-Young Entertainment and Jackoway Tyerman; Safi, an Emmy winner for his work on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, is repped by Innovative Artists, Luber Roklin Entertainment and Jackoway Tyerman.
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