Soloway
Schwartz
With a trio of dramas set to bow in the next four months, Regency Television is focusing its 2006-07 development energies on comedies -- including a project from "Six Feet Under" scribe Jill Soloway that has just sold to ABC.
Alphabet has made a significant six figure commitment to the half-hour, which will be based on Soloway's just-published "Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants."
Regency has also set up another comedy at ABC, as well as a half-hour project at NBC.
Regency's comedy push, led by prexy Robin Schwartz, comes as two of the studio's signature skeins --"Malcolm in the Middle" and "The Bernie Mac Show" -- start their seventh and fifth seasons, respectively. That fact, as well as Regency's recent success getting hourlong dramas on the air, has led to a renewed focus on laffers this development cycle.
The Soloway project reps the scribe's first major piece of development since "Six Feet Under," which ended its run this summer.
ABC pilot won't be called "Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants," she said, but it will be based on the book's collection of essays -- including tackling issues such as "whether there has to be a 'vs.' between the words 'love' and 'sex.' "
"In my mind it's a single-camera half-hour comedy about a main character who thinks and talks just like me," she said. "I wouldn't be good writing a show about aliens."
Soloway describes the lead character as a "sexpot, but a feminist" who's a single mother and a small- business owner, and whose world includes "crazy parents and a lesbian sister." Show may be set in Soloway's native Chicago.
Chi roots
Soloway first made waves in Chicago by creating, with her sister Faith, the play "The Real Live Brady Bunch." Duo also created the plays "The Miss Vagina Pageant" and "Not Without My Nipples."
The scribe also created the popular L.A. comedy showcase "Sit 'n' Spin."
In working with Regency TV, Soloway said she's found a kindred spirit with shingle topper Schwartz.
"We're similar -- two Jewish girls questioning too much," Soloway said, "everything from who should you marry, to is it good for our Jewishness to use a hot iron to straighten our hair?"
ICM-repped Soloway is touring the country to promote her book; thesps including Lisa Edelstein, Illeana Douglas and Justina Machado were set to read passages of "Tiny Ladies" at L.A.'s Comedy Central Workspace on Monday night.
In addition to the Soloway project:
- Regency has set up "Secret Lives of the Players Wives" at NBC, which has attached a small penalty to its script commitment. Scribes-producers Chris Peterson and Bryan Moore of "That '70s Show" are writing the pilot.
Skein will explore the lives and loves of women married to fictional football players. Unlike the U.K. sudser "Footballers Wives," Peterson and Moore's laffer "will be more 'Sex and the City' in tone," according to Schwartz.
Project is timely given the debut of "Sunday Night Football" on NBC next fall.
- Jenny Konner and Alexandra Rushfield, who wrote a draft of the planned feature adaptation of "The Nanny Diaries," are working on a half-hour about group therapy. "It's a modern spin on 'The Bob Newhart Show,' " Schwartz said.
Konner and Rushfield wrote the Regency-produced Fox comedy pilot "Pool Guys" last season.
- Regency is now on board to produce Fox's upcoming Ivan Reitman-produced comedy pilot, "That Guy." Studio is producing in association with Reitman's Montecito Pictures.
As for current projects, Regency's three new dramas include "Killer Instinct" (from "CSI" exec producer Josh Berman); NBC's upcoming "Windfall"); and (with Fox TV Studios) FX's "Thief."
Regency TV is a joint venture of Arnon Milchan's New Regency and News Corp.-owned Fox Television Studios.
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