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Tuned In: Reality show goes inside funny business
Bravo's "Situation: Comedy" (8 p.m. next Tuesday) begins with a contest as everyday people pitch sitcom concepts to NBC executives. (Bravo is an NBC cable cousin). One of the contestants is Matt Caruso of Canonsburg. His sitcom, "On Your Mark," is about a young man living with unconventional roommates. Caruso had a champion in "Situation: Comedy" show runner Maxine Lapiduss, a Squirrel Hill native who's written for "Ellen," "Dharma & Greg" and "Roseanne." "I loved Matt; he was such a doll," Lapiduss said. "He was a little tongue-tied at the beginning [of his pitch], and he really rose to the occasion. I thought his show had great potential." She said the other "Situation: Comedy" executive producers, including Sean Hayes, who plays Jack on "Will & Grace," also liked Caruso's script. "Of the crop, it was definitely in the Top 5," she said, noting that no one knew anything about the writers -- gender, race, hometown, etc. -- until after they picked the final nine from the more than 10,000 entries. In the end, Lapiduss' affection for a contestant doesn't matter because in next week's premiere NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly will choose the two winning scripts that will be produced as 15-minute presentations. "It's 'Who's the Boss' meets funny," pitches one writing team, jokingly describing their concept. "It's 'Sex and the City' meets 'The Golden Girls' but with men ... and strippers," Caruso said in his pitch. In another proposed series, a single mom searches for the sperm-donor father of her teen daughter, which turns out to be an identical plot to a midseason comedy already ordered by The WB. After the two chosen pilots air on Bravo at the end of "Situation: Comedy," viewers can vote online to give one a green light. The winner will receive $25,000 and representation for one year with a Hollywood talent agency and the possibility -- no guarantee -- of getting the show picked up for NBC's prime-time schedule. Given the recent dearth of quality comedies -- this fall, there are relatively few sitcoms in prime time, period -- the goal of the series is to find new writing talent in hopes of giving the genre a shot in the arm. But viewers will see just how difficult that can be with network executives, multiple producers and the winning writers all weighing in. It's a series that will appeal to people interested in how Hollywood works. A future episode about casting the two pilots is especially revealing, showing how capricious some decisions can be. It also depicts what Lapiduss calls the "managed chaos" of the pilot-making process. Lapiduss recognizes the irony that with so many sitcom writers currently out of work, it takes a reality series to get her back in the sitcom producing game. "I have lived through these swings, and it's gonna swing back," she said. "It just takes time, and somebody's gonna hit, and when it does, it will open the pipeline again." "Situation: Comedy" resembles "Project Greenlight," which aired its third season on Bravo this spring, but few viewers tuned in. Lapiduss, who's hoping to shepherd a second edition of "Situation: Comedy" if this one proves successful, isn't worried. " 'Greenlight' is its own animal," she said. "This is different because you're going to see the product. You don't have to go to a movie theater and pay 10 bucks; this is coming into your home and you get to vote. I loved 'American Idol' for that reason. I love to be able to see the kids [perform] and participate [in voting]." Whatever the future of "Situation: Comedy," Lapiduss, a 1983 graduate of Allderdice High School and a 1987 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, said she's continuing to work with her "Situation: Comedy" co-show runner, Stan Zimmerman, pitching pilots to networks for fall 2006. She's also re-staging a variety show she first did in 1997 -- a jaundiced look at the TV business -- hoping to garner cable network interest.
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