Alec Baldwin and Kelsey Grammar, two guys who never seem to not be on our TV screens finally found a series that a network didn’t love enough to air.
ABC decided over the weekend NOT to move forward with an untitled multi-cam sitcom starring the two Emmy-winning Baby Boomers as former roommates who butted heads — and bloated egos — in their 20s, yet reconnect for one last shot at pursuing their white male dreams. ABC had previously ordered the project straight to series last fall.
According to Deadline, “The high-profile comedy landed at ABC in November, a couple of weeks before the regime change at the network, with Hulu’s Craig Erwich taking over programming at ABC and the network’s Karey Burke becoming head of 20th TV. There have been multiple scripts from top auspices with big commitments bought under Burke that got a pass from ABC’s new regime this season.”
ABC finally balked after watching the pilot. The pilot episode had surrounded Baldwin and Grammer with a normally reliable supporting cast in Alec Mapa (Ugly Betty), Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls), Richard Kind and Fred Savage. James Burrows directed the pilot, written by Modern Family’s Chris Lloyd and Vali Chandrasekaran. 20th Television reportedly will attempt to pitch the pilot to any potentially willing network, or streaming platform.
Baldwin, for his part, also failed to close on the first season of his 2018-2019 talk show for ABC, The Alec Baldwin Show, although he continues to host the Match Game revival in primetime for the alphabet network. Grammer, meanwhile, still has his own Frasier revival to fall back on, with Dr. Frasier Crane back on the air and fielding calls and family spats after 264 episodes on NBC, this time over on Paramount+.