"For a long time, we had trouble because people didn't really take us seriously. It's this joke from Chicago," quips Milliner, motioning to himself, with Hayes adding, "And this joke from TV." But they've proved their ability to do far more than attach their names, as many in Hayes' position tend to do.
Amanda FriedmanNBC added to its comedy pilot orders late Wednesday, adding a pair of family comedies and a workplace entry.
The first is an untitled entry from veteran writer-producer Suzanne Martin (Hot in Cleveland, The Soul Man, Frasier) that hails from Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner‘s Universal Television-based Hazy Mills banner. The multicamera entry explores how things backfire for recent empty nesters when their children and their parents move back home. Martin will pen the script and exec producer alongside Hayes and Milliner.
The second is titled How We Live, which hails from Universal Television and studio-based David Janollari. The comedy centers on a blogger and his wife who both move to the suburbs, where he begins writing about marriage and the family lives of his suburban friends and neighbors in the style of an anthropologist who has stumbled on an undiscovered tribe. Happy Endings alums Steven Cragg and Brian Bradley will pen the script and executive produce with Janollari.
The third pilot is titled Superstore, one of the many workplace comedies developed this past season. The comedy also hails from studio sibling Universal Television and writer Justin Spitzer (The Office). The comedy centers on a group of employees at a big-box store and explores the examination of love, friendship and the beauty of everyday moments. Spitzer will pen the script and executive produce via banner The District. Ruben Fleischer will direct and executive produce alongside Spitzer and David Bernad.
Wednesday’s comedy pickups bring NBC’s comedy pilot total to four. They join the previously announced Go Jerrod Go, a comedy based on the life of comedian Jerrod Carmichael.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
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