Elfman
Leguizamo
"Dharma and Greg" star Jenna Elfman is plotting her return to TV, signing on to star in the CBS comedy pilot "Everything I Know About Men."
Elfman will star as Bex, a marketing firm assistant navigating the men in her life -- including a brazen father, an eccentric boss and an on-again/off again boyfriend. She'll also serve as a producer on the laffer pilot, which comes from Fred Barron ("Caroline in the City").
"Everything I Know About Men" is based on the BBC laffer "According to Bex," which Barron created and exec produced in the U.K. Touchstone TV and Paramount Network TV produce the U.S. version.
"I realized how much I missed TV," Elfman told
Daily Variety. "Specifically four-camera comedy. I enjoy bringing chuckles to the world."
Elfman said she was looking to play a character different from the free-spirited Dharma, and was drawn to Barron's script about a sophisticated single woman.
"It's where I am now," she said. "When I decided I wanted to go back to TV, I wanted to play a single girl in a big city. I didn't want a naivete that Dharma had, but rather someone more challenged by life."
Elfman said she hasn't seen the British version, and isn't planning on it.
She recently exec produced and starred in the indie film "Touched," which she's now shopping to distributors. Pic marks the first dramatic feature role for the thesp, who's appeared in the comedy pics "Keeping the Faith," "Grosse Pointe Blank" and "EDtv."
In TV, most recently Elfman guested on "Two and a Half Men" (which comes from her old "Dharma" exec producer Chuck Lorre) and starred in the Lifetime telepic "Obsessed." Before "Dharma," she starred in the short-lived laffer "Townies."
Brady Smith (as boyfriend Rob), Hugh Boneville (Bex's boss Charles), Lauren Tom (co-worker Jan) and Rhea Seehorn (co-worker Christine) also star.
In other pilot news, John Leguizamo will star in CBS' untitled Diamond/Weissman pilot (from 20th Century Fox TV and Paramount Network TV), while Tim Doyle has been added as an exec producer on Fox's sitcom pilot "Don't Ask."
Contact Michael Schneider at
mike.schneider@variety.com