You may have heard that Bay Village native Patricia Heaton was
supposed to have a comedy on ABC this fall. Her production company did
film a pilot episode for this series, but the network's entertainment
president, Stephen McPherson, said the show wasn't strong enough to make
the fall schedule.
"We really felt that it never got to the level that we needed,"
McPherson said when asked about Heaton's project. "You know, she can
really make the phone book funny, so that was a missed opportunity for
us. But right now, we're talking to the producers about whether there's
a redevelopment on it. But, as a show, it really did not come together
as we had hoped."
Heaton is best known for playing Debra Barone on the CBS hit "Everybody
Loves Raymond," which began its prime-time run in September 1996. The
role netted her two consecutive Emmy awards for outstanding lead actress
in a comedy.
With "Raymond" having filmed its last episode, it was announced in
February 2005 that Heaton had signed a seven-figure development deal
with Disney-owned ABC and its sister studio, Touchstone TV. The deal was
for both series and long-form projects from Four Boys Films, the
production company run by Heaton and her husband, actor-writer-director
David Hunt.
Four Boys, founded in 2001 and named for the couple's four sons,
produced "The Engagement Ring," a cable movie that aired on TNT.
"Patricia is a true television star, and we're thrilled to be in
business with her," McPherson said when the deal was announced. "While
we look forward to finding the right project for her considerable acting
skills, we are equally as excited to see what comes out of the
development part of the deal."
He got to see both in the unnamed comedy delivered to ABC earlier this
year. Heaton starred as Janet Daily, a widow balancing the demands of
starting a physical-therapy practice and being a mom to two boys. Janet
finds two unlikely friends when she joins the PTA. The first, a former
Vegas showgirl played by Jenny McCarthy, is a free spirit trying to bond
with her stepdaughter. The other is Rachel (Sherri Shepard), the offbeat
school principal being driven crazy by type-A parents.
The premise was to explore what suburban moms must handle during the
9-to-3 weekday hours when the kids are in school. Also in the cast were
Justine Bateman, Mo Collins, Lance Barber, Philip Anthony-Rodriguez and
Rebecca Wisocky.
Although ABC currently is known as the home of such hourlong hits as
"Lost," "Grey's Anatomy" and "Desperate Housewives," McPherson did order
four half-hour comedies for the fall lineup. They are: "Big Day," which
follows Alice (Marla Sokoloff) and Danny (Josh Cooke) through the highs
and lows of their wedding day; "Help Me Help You," starring Ted Danson
as a self-obsessed self-help guru; "The Knights of Prosperity" (Donal
Logue and first announced as "Let's Rob..."), about a janitor's plan
to rob Mick Jagger; and "Notes From the Underbelly," about a couple
having a baby and trying to keep it a secret.
Each of these comedies, however, is a so-called one-camera show, which
means it's filmed on location, like a movie or drama series. Think
"Scrubs," "The Office" and "My Name Is Earl."
Not one is a traditional multicamera situation comedy filmed on a
soundstage before a live audience. Think "Two and a Half Men,"
"Everybody Loves Raymond" and classic living-room comedies going all the
way back to "I Love Lucy."
"We didn't say, 'We don't want any comedies without laugh tracks, we
don't want any multicamera [shows],' " McPherson said during ABC's
portion of the television critics' semiannual press tour. "We certainly
went out there and said we want to break the mold. We feel like the
same-old same-old is not working.
"So the traditional three-camera, couch-in-the-middle sitcom didn't seem
to be breaking out at all. There weren't great voices. There weren't the
Roseanne and the Tim Allen voices behind those kind of shows. I still
feel they can absolutely work. And we did a bunch of multicamera pilots,
but they didn't turn out the way we like. We feel these are the
strongest comedies we have."
Reached by telephone, Heaton declined to comment on where things stand,
but McPherson did say the show might be overhauled and repurposed as a
midseason replacement.
