ABC is looking for another hospital series — only this time it’s a comedy with heart.
The network is teaming with Modern Family‘s Bill Wrubel and Jim Parsons for single-camera comedy Lakeside VA, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The comedy has landed at ABC with a hefty put-pilot commitment.
Inspired by writer Shelly Gossman’s (Raising Hope, SNL) experience working at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Lakeside VA follows a C-plus team of VA hospital employees who are underfunded, understaffed and who stopped overworking themselves to make up for it years ago — until a new hotshot female chief of surgery steps in to turn them into an A team.
Gossman’s father is a Vietnam veteran, and in her early 20s, she worked at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The comedy will draw on her experience as well as first-hand accounts from veterans and VA staff across the country. Gossman will co-exec produce the Warner Bros. Television comedy alongside That’s Wonderful Productions’ head of development, Eric Norsoph, who will produce. Big Bang Theory star Parsons will exec produce the comedy via his overall deal with WBTV alongside Todd Spiewak.
Gossman is repped by CAA; Wrubel is with CAA and Hansen Jacobson; That’s Wonderful is with CAA; Parsons is with CAA, Principal Entertainment LA and Gang Tyre.
The comedy comes as ABC has found continued success with Shonda Rhimes medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, which in its 13th season ranks as the network’s No. 1 drama.
