Showtime picks up 'End of Steve'

Dark comedy stars Matthew Perry as TV host

By DANIEL FRANKEL

Perry

Tolan

Showtime has picked up the pilot "The End of Steve," a dark comedy written and produced by Matthew Perry and Peter Tolan, and starring the longtime "Friends" thesp.

Arriving via Sony Pictures TV, pilot stars Perry as an unhappy, egomaniacal TV talkshow host, confined to working on an afternoon gabber in Rochester, N.Y., and seeking redemption both personally and professionally.

Perry was Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated for TNT's 2006 biopic "The Ron Clark Story." Featurewise, he's starring alongside Zac Efron in Warner's "17 Again," which is due out next year.