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The former Friends standout and her producing partner, Dan
Bucatinsky, have inked a two-year development deal with the Peacock that
could ultimately see her back on the air on the network that made her
famous.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, the pair's
three-year-old production banner, Is or Isn't Entertainment,
will
exit its current home base at Warner Bros. TV and relocate to NBC
Universal Television Studio, which will have first shot at any series
Kudrow and Bucatinsky may hatch.
While the duo will
serve as producers on most projects, the erstwhile Phoebe is reportedly
willing to return to TV should the right material come along.
So far in her post-Fiends life, though, the right
material has eluded Kudrow both in front of and behind the cameras.
In her HBO meta-series, The Comeback, she played
Valerie Cherish, a neurotic has-been TV star who headlines a new reality
program called The Comeback following her attempts at reviving
her career as a bit player on a new sitcom. But the show-within-a-show
premise failed to click with viewers and HBO pulled the plug after one
season.
Kudrow and Bucatinsky's track record as
producers has been sketchy, having developed and produced a quartet of
pilots that never flew: an untitled comedy starring former Talk
Soup host Aisha Tyler; the 2005 CBS drama pilot The
Commuters starring
David Arquette; NBC's All In with Janeane
Garafalo; and Beck and Call for UPN. Is or Isn't Entertainment
also produced the 2003 ABC Family flick Picking Up and Dropping
Off.
For its part, NBC hopes that Kudrow will be
able to rekindle ratings that have been in free-fall since
Friends left the Must-See lineup. The network is also banking on
Kudrow to have better success than former cast mate
Matt LeBlanc, whose
Joey was a resounding bomb.
"Lisa and Dan have
an incredibly sophisticated and distinctive taste," Shelley McCrory, NBC
Universal TV's senior vice president for comedy series, told the
Reporter. "They are a great talent magnet, and they are very
prolific. She is a great performer and producer, and he is a terrific
writer, so the two are a great team."
Under the NBC
deal, the company is reportedly developing several new projects,
including an adaptation of the book But Enough About Me by Jancee
Dunn about a Jersey girl who winds up hanging with Hollywood stars.
Kudrow and Bucatinsky are also teaming up with the producers of
Project Runway for an unscripted show for Bravo set in the world
of sketch comedy.
No word when--or if--any of these
programs will be ready for prime time.
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