As the majority of the current season of television shows wind down before the summer, networks are starting to make their final decisions as to what shows they’ll try out for the 2014-2015 saeason, and TBS and NBC just picked up one each.
First up, before the network’s upfront presentation next Wednesday, Deadline has learned that TBS has landed the police comedy “Angie Tribeca” starring Rashida Jones for a premiere in 2015. We first reported on the project from Steve Carell and his wife Nancy last fall, and now TBS has ordered 10 episodes of the series described as a police procedural satire.
Jones plays the title character, a 10-year vet of LAPD’s elite RHCU (Really Heinous Crimes Unit), an eccentric but brilliant group of LAPD detectives who investigate crime while revealing way too much personal information and refusing to rest until justice has been served (more or less). Tribeca is described as a lone wolf who’s capable, committed, strong, and not thrilled when her boss (Jere Burns) tells her she has to work with a partner (guest star Hayes Macarthur).
This sounds like it has the potential to be like a “30 Rock” meets “Law & Order” type show, and Michael Wright, president and head of programming for TNT, TBS and TCM confirms as much saying, “‘Angie Tribeca’ is a hilarious spoof of police procedurals in the spirit of The Naked Gun, with a terrific cast and a wickedly funny point of view.”
The only downside is that Jones is the biggest draw in the regular cast of the series, and while she’s great, we’re not sure that’s enough to maintain the series. But then again, Andy Samberg was initially the only big draw in “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and Fox picked that show up for a second season. The rest of the co-stars include Deon Cole and Andree Vermeulen, but the pilot does include some pretty great guest stars like Alfred Molina, Lisa Kudrow, Gary Cole, and Nancy Carell herself. But since this won’t premiere until 2015, we’ve got a while to wait.
Meanwhile, back on network television, The Wrap reports NBC has ordered the new comedy series “Marry Me,” which reunites “Happy Endings” creator David Caspe with his canceled ABC series actress Casey Wilson.
We just heard about this project a couple months ago, and NBC has acted quickly to order the project to series with a pilot that comes from King of Kong and Horrible Bosses director Seth Gordon (who also directed the pilot for “The Goldbergs”).
For those just joining us, the series follows Casey Wilson and “The State” regular Ken Marino as a couple who “bonded over their mutual love of nachos.” They’ve been together for six years since falling in love over chips and cheese, and just as Jake (Marino) is ready to propose, Annie (Wilson) unleashes an emotional outburst on him for his inability to take the next step. For some reason, Jake decides to wait until he can do it perfectly.
Obviously there must be more to the story than that, so we’ll let the generic setting slide for now. After all, “Happy Endings” began when the wedding between two of the main characters fell apart, and David Caspe’s series turned out to be a real gem, even if the audience who found it wasn’t big enough to keep ABC from canceling it after a miracle third season.
Both Wilson and Marino have had their share of great projects over the past few years, and we hope that NBC has a promising new comedy series after this past season resulted in nothing but duds that have all since been canceled.
Are you interested in either of these series?
