ABC, Malins clock fame for 'Minute'

'16th' comes from 20th Century Fox TV

By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER

Malins

"Friends" alum Greg Malins has landed a pilot commitment at ABC, where he's developing a comedy about a group of pals who have all had a brief brush with fame.

"The 16th Minute" -- a reference to the moment after someone's proverbial 15 minutes of fame are up -- comes from 20th Century Fox TV. Project centers on five people who meet on the set of a newsmag's "Where Are They Now?" special.

One guy made headlines as a kid for surviving in the woods for five days; another made the news because he was once struck by lightning and declared clinically dead; a third was briefly famous for entering med school at 15; another gained notoriety by uttering a catchphrase in a popular commercial.

"The show grew out of these characters," said Malins, who's now penning the pilot. "It came from the fascination my wife and I have for these kind of people -- the 'runaway bride,' Baby Jessica. Put the name Gillooly on a magazine cover, and I'm there."

Multicamera half-hour will look at how these individuals' lives were forever changed by briefly becoming household names, and how they're constantly running from their pasts. The kid who got lost in the forest now hates being alone, for example.

"The 16th Minute" comes out of Malins' overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV. The scribe continues to serve as a consulting producer on 20th's CBS laffer "How I Met Your Mother," on which he was exec producer last year.

Malins said he was asked whether he wanted to make "The 16th Minute" a single-cam series, but the writer said he ultimately still believes in the multicam form.

"Multicam is what I've done my whole life," he said.

Scribe noted that ABC had been the only major network he'd never worked with -- until now.

"Their name is the easiest one to remember," he said.

Malins' credits also include exec producing "Will & Grace" and creating the short-lived NBC laffer "Come to Papa."