Television News: Several Sitcoms Greenlit

Television News

Several Sitcoms Greenlit

By our guest blogger, Sanela Djokovic

It’s been a busy week in the land of television pilots, and an especially exciting one for Eric and Kim Tannenbaum of Tantamount Studios. According to Variety.com, the Tannenbaum’s “Southern Comfort,” about a father whose adult children move back into his home, has been greenlit by ABC. That makes the comedy, written by novelist Chad Kultgen ("The Average American Male," "The Lie"), the fifth pilot from the production team to get a greenlight this season. “Wright vs. Wrong,” about a female commentator serving the conservative right, was also picked up by ABC.

Although casting decisions have not been made and no actors are currently attached to the development, it sounds as if “Southern Comfort” will be comfortable among ABC’s other comedies revolving around dysfunction families, such as “Modern Family” and “The Middle” (let’s hope it’s more like "Modern Family").

Variety also reports that another Tannenbaum comedy was picked up by FOX earlier this week. As of yet the project is untitled, but Will Arnett is on board and is on the writing team, which include Mitch Hurwitz and Jim Vallely, both of whom worked with Arnett on “Arrested Development.”

Although promising, with the critical success of previous endeavors, shows like “Sit Down, Shut Up” and even the “Arrested Development,” which many believe to be a classic and the best comedy of our generation, have not found the ratings to avoid their premature demises.

The other two pilots, one untitled and the other called “Team Spitz,” were picked up by CBS, a network that has stuck primarily to the traditional, studio-audience sitcom and has benefitted from it. CBS is the most-watched network on television and sitcoms like the insanely popular “Two and a Half Men” and “The Big Bang Theory” are major contributors to those numbers.

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