ABC
Pickup — “Carpoolers,” a half-hour ensembler that explores modern manhood by following four guys who carpool to work. Bruce McCulloch wrote and will exec produce, along with DreamWorks TV’s Justin Falvey Darryl Frank and 3 Arts Entertainment’s David Miner. Touchstone is producing.
Pickup — “Family of the Year,” a half-hour about a New Mexico clan voted “family of the year” for the past decade. Things go awry when another local family starts challenging them for the title. Erica Rivinoja wrote and will exec produce with Pam Brady via 20th Century Fox TV.
Pickup — “Sam I Am,” a half-hour about a woman who awakens from a coma with amnesia and ends up having to reacquaint herself with her past. She soon realizes she was a bad person, making starting over more difficult. Script was penned by Don Todd based on a story by Todd and Cecelia Ahern. Todd and Brillstein-Grey’s Peter Traugott will exec produce the project, which is from Touchstone Television.
Pickup — “The Middle,” a half-hour mashup of “Roseanne” and “Little Miss Sunshine” about a lower-middle-class family in the Midwest. Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heiline wrote and are exec producing via Warner Bros. TV.
Pickup — “The Call,” a single-camera laffer from scribe Dave Hemingson (“Kitchen Confidential”) that’s a cross between “Emergency!” and “MASH,” with a dash of “Seinfeld.” Skein will focus on two offbeat L.A. paramedics who save people’s lives even as they’re messing up each other’s. Hemingson will exec produce with “24” gurus Joel Surnow, Bob Cochran and Howard Gordon of Real Time Prods. 20th Century Fox TV is producing the project, which was snapped up by ABC after a bidding war with Fox last fall (Daily Variety, Nov. 13).
FOX
Casting — Cheri Oteri (“Saturday Night Live”), Kurtwood Smith (“That ’70s Show”) and Matt Johnson have come on board the vocal cast of the animated pilot presentation “The Life and Times of Tim.” Steve Dildarian (“Angry Unpaid Hooker”) wrote the script and is exec producing via Warner Bros. TV and Werner-Gold-Miller. Tom Werner, Eric Gold and Jimmy Miller are also exec producers.
Pickup — “Deeply Irresponsible” (working title), a multicamera laffer from scribe-exec producer Victor Fresco. Script centers on an uptight family whose life is changed when their free-spirited grandfather moves in. Fox made a put pilot commitment to the 20th Century Fox TV project late last summer (Daily Variety, Sept. 15).
