Showtime renews two comedy series
'Rude,' 'Linc's' get second seasons
The two series, which premiered in the summer of 1998, have both received a 22-episode commitment, with their second season to begin in the summer of 1999.
"Rude Awakening" deals with a modern woman's daily struggle with sobriety while she copes with her eccentric friends and family. The series stars Sherilyn Fenn, Lynn Redgrave and Jonathan Penner. Claudia Lonow created the show and serves as writer.
Star power
"Linc's" is an ensemble comedy that deals with adult issues such as sex, politics and race from an African-American perspective. It stars Pam Grier, Steven Williams and Georg Stanford Brown. The series was created and is executive produced by Tim Reid and Susan Fales-Hill.
Showtime produced the first season on "Linc's" inhouse, but sister company Viacom Prods. will produce the show's second season.
"Finding a production company allows us to reduce our financial exposure and also reduce the burden on our inhouse production staff and the burden on our legal staff," said Mark Zakarin, executive VP, original programming for Showtime.
Showtime has had success in original action hours, such as "Outer Limits," but Zakarin said that trying these two half-hour comedies was quite a risk for the pay cabler.
"Thank goodness that both our audience and the critics thought the shows worked," said Zakarin. "If they didn't work, we would have re-examined being in the half-hour business."
