TV Land, which is currently airing the first season of The Jim Gaffigan Show, has given a straight-to-series order to another semi-autobiographical, single-camera comedy toplined by a veteran stand-up comedian. The cable network has picked up 12 episodes of Lopez, starring and executive produced by George Lopez, for a 2016 premiere. The order was given based on a short presentation and a pilot script written by Silicon Valley co-creators/executive producers John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, who will write and executive produceLopez. Also executive producing are Michael Rotenberg of 3 Arts Entertainment and Troy Miller.
In the vein of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Louie, Lopez revolves around America’s most successful Hispanic American comedian – George Lopez playing himself — and explores how he struggles between his two worlds and crises – often of his own making. Too rich to go back to his working class, Latino roots, and too “brown” to feel comfortable in his affluent celebrity life, being George Lopez comes with many problems.
“I’m excited that TV Land realizes that my personal challenges, insecurities and inability to connect are all part of my charm,” Lopez said. The conflict in Lopezechoes some of the themes in ABC’s breakout freshman comedy Blackish.
“We are excited to produce a series around iconic comedian George Lopez that reveals him in a hilarious, yet brutally honest way” says Keith Cox, EVP of Development and Original Programming. “George is constantly reinventing himself and as TV Land continues its evolution, we can’t wait to tell his story from a fresh, innovative perspective.”
Lopez became a household name with his multi-camera ABC comedy George Lopez,which has showed long syndication legs and is a consistent performer on TV Land’s sister network Nick at Nite.
Lopez also hosted a late-night talk show on TBS and recently toplined a 10-90 multi-camera sitcom for FX and Debmar-Mercury, Saint George, which had a 10-episode run.
Lopez is part of TV Land’s push into edgier, single-camera fare. The network, which started its foray into original programming with multi-camera sitcoms, completed its change of course with the recent decisions to end its only remaining multi-camera original series, The Soul Man and The Exes.
(Source: Deadline)
