How's
this for a sitcom? Single mom who resorted to artificial insemination
seeks out her now-teenage daughter's biological father. Or how about:
precocious 11-year-old runs his life as if he were a corporate CEO?
Don't laugh. In the July 26 opener of this insightful fly-on-the-wall
reality series, both ideas were chosen as candidates for an NBC
pilot-out of 10,000 scripts submitted last fall by amateurs around
the country. Actor Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) and his
TV production partner Todd Milliner, aided by staffers, had the
dubious privilege of combing through that slush pile-as well as
the bright idea of doing for sitcom-producing what Project Greenlight
did for moviemaking. Writing partners Jason Schuster and Mark Treitel
(Sperm Donor) and Andrew Leeds and David Lampson (Stephen's
Life) now have to prepare 15-minute pilot presentations for
NEC execs, who will judge only one as ready for prime time.
The process includes endless rewrites, contentious casting sessions
and (in a later episode) some backroom squabbling after Stephen's
Life's Leeds hires his sister in a supporting role without informing
the higher-ups. Soon he may have to fire her. Hey, here's an idea:
How about a sitcom about the making of a sitcom?
How's
this for a sitcom? Single mom who resorted to artificial insemination
seeks out her now-teenage daughter's biological father. Or how about:
precocious 11-year-old runs his life as if he were a corporate CEO?