yet another new promising-sounding nbc project!
They’ve already got J.J. Abrams and David Tennant on the docket for Fall 2010–of course, hinging on their series getting picked up in May–and now the Peacock’s got another big TV name in their pilot machine. Larry Charles, a bearded writer who won two Emmys for his work on Seinfeld back in the day, is helming a new semi-scripted project.
The series is set in a small town and revolves around an ensemble who makes episodes of their favorite show after it goes off the air. (It is tentatively titled Allie After Lost and will star me and my dog, Freckles.)
In all seriousness, I love the idea of shows about fanboys and girls–it’s one of the reasons why I think a lot of us love The Big Bang Theory so much. A series like this promises in theory to explore what I think is a particularly hilarious subculture. Semi-scripted means they’re going to be improv-ing a little, which means they need to find funny funny people for this job. Good luck, folks.
If you’re not familiar with Larry Charles–I knew his name but wasn’t up on his creds–he was big at NBC in the mid-90′s, serving as showrunner for Mad About You during its heyday. I flailed a little bit when I realized he wrote probably the best episode of that show ever–”The Finale.”
In a way, it’s like NBC is putting together its 2010 Dream Team. It could either be totally awesome (like when Torchwood and the Tyler Family and Sarah Jane Smith and Harriet Jones and The Doctor all fight the Daleks in “The Stolen Earth”/”Journey’s End” or when every Bristow ever, even an in-utero Isabelle, takes down the Mueller Device in Alias‘s “Before The Flood”) or a hot mess (like when the entire cast of Bones showed up for that dumb-ass coma dream).
P.S. You know who the ideal leader of this Dream Team ’10 sitch would be? Aaron Sorkin, who was rumored a few months ago to be developing a series set backstage at a Keith Olbermann-type cable news show. Just putting that out there.
