The network is teaming with Cedric and Spike Feresten to develop Tony Take the Wheel, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Cedric is set to star in the comedy, which explores the relationship between two very different brothers whose family dynamic is challenged when one brother hires his teenage nephew to work at his custom car shop.
Noted car enthusiast Feresten (Talkshow With Spike Feresten, Seinfeld, Late Night With David Letterman) and Cedric co-created the comedy. Feresten will pen the script and executive produce the CBS Television Studios project alongside Eric Tannenbaum and Kim Tannenbaum via their studio-based Tannenbaum Company. A Bird and a Bear Entertainment’s Eric Rhone also will exec produce alongside Feresten and his Hangar 56 topper John Stevens.
For Cedric, Tony Take the Wheel marks his return to scripted comedy following the actor-comedian’s TV Land show The Soul Man. The series was canceled following a five-season run in 2015 as the Viacom-owned network shifted from multicamera fare to younger-skewing single-camera comedies. Should the CBS comedy move to series, it would mark Cedric’s return to broadcast following Cedric the Entertainer Presents, the Fox sketch comedy he co-created that ran for one season in 2002. His feature film credits include Barbershop, Ice Age and Madagascar.
The Cedric vehicle comes as CBS has been criticized for its lack of inclusiveness, with its fall fare fronted largely by white stars including Kevin James, Joel McHale, Matt LeBlanc and Michael Weatherly, among others. To that end, the network recently handed out an off-cycle series pickup for multicam comedy Superior Donuts, starring comedian Jermaine Fowler.
Cedric, Rhone and A Bird and a Bear Entertainment are repped by CAA and attorneys Gordon Bobb and Nina Shaw; Feresten and Hangar 56 are with CAA, Gursey Schneider and attorney Hansen Jacobson. The Tannenbaum Co. also is with CAA.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
