2007 FOX PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT GUIDE - COMEDY SERIES

Action News (working title)

PRODUCTION COMPANIES
20th Century Fox Television
Levitan/Lloyd Productions

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS/WRITERS
Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd

CAST (from left to right)
Kelsey Grammer as Chuck
Patricia Heaton as Kelly
Fred Willard as Marsh
Aimee Garcia as Montana
Paul Campbell as Ryan
Ty Burrell as Gary
Laura Marano as Gracie

In the �90s, the local TV news scene in Pittsburgh was dominated by one team: CHUCK DARLING (Kelsey Grammer, "Frasier," "Cheers") and KELLY CARR (Patricia Heaton, "Everybody Loves Raymond"). They had that elusive quality all news teams need: chemistry ... at least on-screen. Off-screen, Chuck was a bit of an egomaniacal womanizer, Kelly a bit of an uptight know-it-all. So when Chuck got the call to move up to a larger market, no tears were shed.

Now, after an embarrassing newscast tirade ends up on the Internet, Chuck finds himself on the downswing career-wise. He's even questioning whether his lifestyle of chasing women and living in hotels is as exciting as it used to be. So when he gets the call to return to Pittsburgh, to reunite with Kelly and try to take the newscast back to No. 1, it's an offer he can't refuse.

Back in Pittsburgh, Chuck has a couple of new co-workers: MONTANA DIAZ HERRERA (Aimee Garcia, "A Lot Like Love"), the perky, sexy, somewhat inept weather anchor, and RYAN CHURCH (Paul Campbell, "Battlestar Galactica"), the overstressed news director. There are also familiar faces like MARSH McGINLEY (Fred Willard, "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," "Everybody Loves Raymond"), the affable, endlessly inappropriate sports anchor, and GARY CREZYZEWSKI, pronounced Kre-shoov-ski (Ty Burrell, "In Good Company," "Out of Practice"), the perennially put-upon field reporter who always seems to get left out in the snow. But, mostly, there's Kelly, now a single mom to 10-year-old GRACIE (Laura Marano, "Without a Trace"). There was magic between them once. Can they find it again?

ACTION NEWS is written and executive-produced by Steven Levitan ("Just Shoot Me!," "Frasier," "Wings") and Christopher Lloyd ("Frasier," "The Golden Girls").

The Beast

PRODUCTION COMPANIES
CBS Paramount Network Television
FremantleMedia North America, Inc.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/WRITER
Tucker Cawley

CAST
Steve Howey as Ty

Veterinarian TYLER TROOP (Steve Howey, "Reba") really doesn't like animals. But he really loves women. And women love animals. So, ipso facto, veterinary medicine is a means to an end.

Ty inherited his father's thriving veterinary practice, where he sets his own hours and can pass off any unwanted work to his partner RON LITTLE, who's a loyal friend and dedicated vet. The office is run by Ty's sweet, doting and just a little bit "off" mother, DORIS. Aside from her aversion to technology, Doris makes a great receptionist. Ty also has an assistant who worships him, the friendly and awkward FRANK HOPPER.

As a busy vet, Ty has to deal with a parade of afflicted animals and quirky pet owners who dress their dogs in cheerleader outfits and carry their cats in BabyBj�rns. But all of this is made tolerable by the ultimate job perk: the women. And Ty's got a waiting room full of them. Equipped with good looks and a lethal amount of charm, he is the ultimate "dog" who's able to talk himself into, and back out of, any woman's life � that is, until he meets his match in knockout new vet PJ WICKWIRE.

Ty hired PJ mostly because she's smokin' hot, but there's more to her than meets his eye. PJ is smart, idealistic and uncompromising. And even though everything about Ty � from his attitude toward animals to his womanizing ways � drives her crazy, she still thinks he's kind of cute. PJ hates herself for feeling this way, so she channels her frustration into making Ty's life miserable. She won't let him get away with being a cad and dumping all his work on poor Ron. When Ty recognizes that PJ threatens his very way of life, he refuses to be "neutered" by her, and the battle is on. Doris, Ron, Frank and their patients find themselves caught in a BEAST of a turf war, the likes of which they've never seen.

Based on the popular British series created by Simon Nye ("Men Behaving Badly"), THE BEAST is written by three-time Emmy Award winner Tucker Cawley ("Everybody Loves Raymond"), who owns no pets.

Hackett (working title)

PRODUCTION COMPANIES
Sony Pictures Television
25C Productions

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Denise Moss
Sarah Timberman
Carl Beverly

WRITER
Denise Moss

DIRECTOR
Barry Sonnenfeld

Meet Mr. THOMAS HACKETT, the new English teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High.

He's a teacher who gives a teenager his old collection of Playboys because "the problem with getting boys to read today is that you never accidentally stumble on that brilliant article by William Styron surfing adult content on the Web." A bitter, hard-living womanizer with an irrepressible charm and no small amount of sex appeal, Hackett loves to rankle The Powers That Be. He's the last person you'd want as a role model for your kids � and possibly the first one you'd want teaching them.

Hackett used to be a high-flying professor at Yale, where he acquired a reputation as "the last great defender of the Y chromosome" and his novels propelled him into the hot, bright center of the New York literati set. But eventually his very public personal life � the affairs, the drinking, the outspoken tirades � overwhelmed his professional life. And when a 26-year-old grad student with whom he was having a consensual affair sued him for harassment, Hackett's career at Yale was over � as was his marriage.

Under a legal cloud for unpaid child support and desperate to see his young kids again, Hackett finds a job teaching English in what he calls "the hallowed halls of mediocrity" � a public school in suburban Arizona. Soon, no one, not the slackers, the Goths or the wannabes, is safe from his lacerating wit. But Hackett's real sporting interest is the hyper-sensitized, super-PC world of public education, exemplified by power-hungry metrosexual Vice Principal EUGENE WOLGEMOTH (Jim Rash, "Help Me Help You," "Reno 911!"). Only AUDREY DOVER, the school's young, smart principal with a troubled personal life, barely manages to stay one step ahead of him.

It is precisely Hackett's brash honesty and strong world view to which the kids respond. The truth is, he's becoming a great teacher in spite of himself. And with the help of his new friendship with fellow teacher TAM, a lesbian with as many problems with women as Hackett, he may find some redemption. HACKETT is an uncompromisingly edgy character comedy from writer Denise Moss ("Murphy Brown," "The Wonder Years," "Frasier") about a man who has to fall all the way to the bottom to find up again.

The Hot Years (working title)

PRODUCTION COMPANIES
20th Century Fox Television
Dawn Parouse Productions

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Dawn Parouse
Jeffrey Richman

WRITER
Elizabeth Meriwether (Supervising Producer)

DIRECTOR
Jason Winer

CAST (from left to right)
Molly Stanton as Allison
Dorian Brown as Kate
Lacey Chabert as Stevie
Sarayu Rao as Rupa

Britney. Paris. Lindsay. When these are your role models, how does any girl ever learn how to grow up? Or cover up, for that matter? This is an envelope-pushing comedy about four twenty-somethings, living in the age of text messaging and Internet hookups, who have more interest in great clothes and great parties than in meaningful relationships and fulfilling careers. But when you live to party, at some point you're going to wake up with a hangover.

Harsh reality dawns on publishing assistant ALLISON MILLER (Molly Stanton, "Twins") when her boss catches her in a state of undress after a hot copy-room tryst. Allison wants to be taken seriously at work, but that means changing everything, including her home life. And it won't be easy. Allison and her two roommates and best friends, STEVIE PITTS (Lacey Chabert, "Family Guy," "Party of Five") and KATE DELLAPINA (Dorian Brown), are living in an apartment that might as well be their old sorority house. Stevie is a Park Avenue nanny who wants to end up a trophy wife with gorgeous kids, while Kate, a full-time trust-fund baby and part-time sales girl at an upscale department store, is perfectly happy stealing free samples and flirting with married guys. If Allison is serious about growing up, she's going to need outside help.

Help arrives in the form of Allison's overachieving Indian co-worker, RUPA KUMAR (Sarayu Rao, "Leela"). While Allison thinks Rupa can teach the girls how to be smart, professional women, Rupa's more interested in learning how to get out of her turtlenecks and into some trouble. As it turns out, there's a lot they can learn from each other. And if one of them is going to grow up, they're all going to do it, because no one should have to face the real world alone.

From 20th Century Fox Television and Dawn Parouse Productions, THE HOT YEARS is created by playwright Elizabeth Meriwether and executive-produced by Dawn Parouse ("Prison Break." "Tru Calling") and Jeffrey Richman ("Wings," "Frasier").

The Life and Times of Tim

PRODUCTION COMPANIES
Warner Bros. Television
Werner-Gold-Miller

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Steve Dildarian
Tom Werner
Jimmy Miller
Mike Clements

WRITER
Steve Dildarian

VOICE CAST (from left to right)
Nick Kroll as Stu
Bob Morrow as Debbie
Steve Dildarian as Tim
MJ Otto as Amy
Cheri Oteri as Chuk
Matt Johnson as Rodney
Kurtwood Smith as The Boss

THE LIFE & TIMES OF TIM is an animated show about a guy who just can't seem to catch a break. He's a nice, normal guy with lots going for him, but for some reason the world conspires against him.

TIM (Steve Dildarian, Clio Award winner; co-creator, Budweiser "Lizards" TV campaign) is 25 years old and lives in New York City with his girlfriend AMY (MJ Otto), who's patiently putting up with Tim's antics while he gets his life in order. She has faith in him, but sometimes it's hard to remember why.

The rest of Tim's world is full of rather insane characters who are usually either getting Tim into, or out of, trouble. There's DEBBIE (Bob Morrow), the multiracial prostitute who lives next door; CHUK (Cheri Oteri, "Saturday Night Live," "Shrek the Third") the Asian bartender; THE BOSS (Kurtwood Smith, "That �70s Show"), who does not have a first name; RODNEY (Matt Johnson, "Passions"), The Boss's loud assistant from Long Island who enjoys hockey and adult films, but nothing else; and finally Tim's best friend STU (Nick Kroll), who should not be giving advice to anyone, ever.

From Warner Bros. Television and Werner-Gold-Miller, THE LIFE & TIMES OF TIM is created by Steve Dildarian ("Angry Unpaid Hooker") and executive-produced by Steve Dildarian, Tom Werner ("That �70s Show," "3rd Rock from the Sun," "The Cosby Show"), Jimmy Miller ("Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," "Borat") and Mike Clements.

Me & Lee?

PRODUCTION COMPANY
Lionsgate

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Matthew Salsberg
Jenji Kohan
Allan Loeb
Steven Pearl

WRITER
Matthew Salsberg

DIRECTOR
Paul Dinello

CAST (from left to right)
Lee Majors as himself

JOEL SALSBERG, D.D.S., is at the end of his rope. Chronic, debilitating back pain has left him jobless, penniless and worst of all, sexless. His parents are tired of lending him money and his girlfriend JESSICA is ready to bail. A despondent Salsberg is given a new lease on life when he meets the one man who has the technology to rebuild him: actor LEE MAJORS (playing himself).

Turns out that since "The Six Million Dollar Man" went off the air, Lee has been so obsessed with bionics that he constructed a fully functional, state-of-the-art laboratory in the basement of his Beverly Hills mansion. He hired genius surgeon/scientist/Cordon Bleu chef BLITT to bring his idea to fruition � not "bionics," technically, but Prosthetic Replacement & Integrated Cyberkinetics. Now Lee and Blitt need a human to experiment on, and Salsberg becomes the unwitting guinea pig in their grand scheme. He is tricked into undergoing surgery far more radical than they've discussed, and when he awakens from the operation, he is shocked to discover that his inner body has been replaced with state-of-the-art bionics technology.

Now Salsberg can bench-press 300 pounds and run 60 miles per hour. Nothing hurts anymore. But his new life of physical enhancement and freedom from pain comes at an unforeseen cost: his privacy. Along with electrically charged prosthetic limbs, Lee also installed eyeball cameras and intercranial speakers so that he sees everything Salsberg sees and can talk to him at will. To Salsberg's annoyance, this often-inebriated, old and possibly evil 1970s TV icon is now an everpresent voice in his head that won't seem to shut up about how Salsberg should live his life.

From the writers of "Weeds" and directed by Paul Dinello ("Strangers with Candy"), ME & LEE? is a buddy comedy about one man's relationship with his unlikely creator. It's an offbeat exploration of the highs and the many drawbacks that come with being half-man, half-machine. Joel's back pain is gone, but his headaches have just begun.

The Minister of Divine

PRODUCTION COMPANIES
20th Century Fox Television
Tiger Aspect

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/WRITER
Suzanne Martin

DIRECTOR
Pam Fryman

CAST (from left to right)
Kirstie Alley as Geraldine
Kevin McNally as David
Riki Lindhome as Alice
Johnathan Tchaikovsky as Hugo
Malcolm Barrett as Frank
W. Earl Brown as Owen

Who knew church could be this fun?

The small, conservative farming town of Divine gets shaken up when their ancient minister dies in the middle of Sunday service and his replacement is GERALDINE "GERRY" GRANGER (Emmy Award winner Kirstie Alley, "Fat Actress," "Veronica's Closet," "Cheers"), a chocolate-loving, joke-cracking lady pastor with a shady past. The members of the church council don't quite know what to make of their new spiritual leader, particularly council president DAVID HORTON (Kevin McNally, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"), who is instantly opposed to this very irreverent reverend. Although David and Gerry agree on very little, over time a mutual respect turns, perhaps, into something more.

THE MINISTER OF DIVINE is about the human desire to be part of something bigger than our own messed-up lives � and the lives of these council members are plenty messed up. There's HUGO HORTON (Johnathan Tchaikovsky, "Rescue Me," "Off the Black"), David's slow-witted son, who's in love with Gerry's assistant, the equally dim ALICE TINKER (Riki Lindhome, "Gilmore Girls"); OWEN NESBITT (W. Earl Brown, "Deadwood"), an earthy and blunt-talking farmer and NASCAR fan; FRANK POOLE (Malcolm Barrett, "Law & Order"), the fastidious keeper of the council minutes; LETICIA CROPLEY, the no-longer-young church organist and former beauty queen; and JIM TROTT, a paranoid conspiracy theorist who also happens to be the town mayor. Revolving around Gerry's loving but often exasperated care of this eclectic crew, THE MINISTER OF DIVINE offers a humorous snapshot of what it means to be a person of faith in America today.

THE MINISTER OF DIVINE is based on the top-rated British series "The Vicar of Dibley" created by Richard Curtis ("Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Notting Hill," "Love Actually," "Mr. Bean"). In 2004, it was ranked third-all-time-favorite British sitcom in a national poll.

From 20th Century Fox Television and Tiger Aspect, THE MINISTER OF DIVINE has been adapted by Emmy Award winner Suzanne Martin ("Frasier," "Maybe It's Me," "Ellen").

Playing Chicken

PRODUCTION COMPANIES
Warner Bros. Television
Werner-Gold-Miller Productions

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Tom Werner
Jimmy Miller
Mike Clements

WRITERS/CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Sean Anders
John Morris

DIRECTOR
John Pasquin

CAST (from left to right)
Norbert Leo Butz as Jake
Bill Burr as Tim
Marianne Muellerleile as Donna
Jake Busey as Karl

America is more politically polarized than ever. More and more of us are discovering political divisions within our own homes. These were once predominantly generational divides � the liberal, idealistic young clashing with the conservative, older Establishment. Today, all bets are off. Your ideological nemesis could be your best friend, your wife or even your very own brother. Such is the case with JAKE (Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz, "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels") and TIM (actor/comedian Bill Burr, "Late Show with David Letterman," "Chappelle's Show"). Jake is a tough, brash, obnoxious, call-it-as-I-see-it conservative. His brother Tim is a passionate, opinionated, but lazy liberal. They agree on almost nothing.

The boys grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. While Jake was off hunting, dirt-biking or drinking with his buddies in the country, Tim was reading, going to art films or hanging out at the university. Eventually, Tim moved to New York and began teaching middle-school English, while Jake remained in Wisconsin, where he worked as a roofer and partied with his rowdy friends. When one of those friends challenged Jake to a game of chicken on jet skis and neither of them turned out to be chicken, Jake wound up in a wheelchair. Tim left his job and his rent-controlled apartment to return to Madison and help with his brother's rehabilitation. A year later, the fiercely determined Jake is largely independent. Now Jake's roommate, Tim picks up subbing gigs at local schools and works on his novel. The brothers disagree, argue and go to insane lengths when trying to make a point. The only person who dominates them is their mother DONNA (Marianne Muellerleile, "Life with Bonnie"), a caustic, large-and-in-charge bulldozer of tough love. Widowed for three years, she recently opened herself up to the possibility of a love life by moving into a community for retired singles.

Along with their dim, sweetly enthusiastic childhood friend KARL (Jake Busey, "Enemy of the State") and Jake's lovely, quirky and compassionate physical therapist COLETTE, Tim and Jake continue to wrestle with the politics of the world and the family � PLAYING CHICKEN until somebody flinches first.

PLAYING CHICKEN is from Warner Bros. Television and Werner-Gold-Miller. Tom Werner ("That �70s Show," "3rd Rock from the Sun," "The Cosby Show"), Jimmy Miller ("Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," "Borat") and Mike Clements are executive producers.

The Return of Jezebel James (working title)

PRODUCTION COMPANY
Regency Television

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Amy Sherman-Palladino
Dan Palladino

DIRECTOR
Amy Sherman-Palladino

CAST (from left to right)
Parker Posey as Sarah
Lauren Ambrose as Coco
Scott Cohen as Marcus
Ron McLarty as Ronald

Can two estranged sisters, polar opposites, really raise a baby together?

SARAH THOMKINS (Parker Posey, "For Your Consideration") is a bright, optimistic, determined woman who seems to have it all � a great job as a children's book editor, an eager-to-please assistant, BUDDY, who helps keep her life together, and a no-strings-attached relationship with successful businessman MARCUS SONTI (Scott Cohen, "Kissing Jessica Stein").

Nevertheless, as her father, RONALD (Ron McLarty, "Law & Order," "Champs," "Spenser: For Hire"), is constantly pointing out, something is missing from Sarah's life. Her hard work may garner accolades, but when she goes home at night, she is very much alone. All too aware that she isn't getting any younger, Sarah decides to have a baby on her own � and gets the shock of her life when the doctor tells her she can't get pregnant. Having no concept of the term "can't," she wills herself to execute a plan.

With nowhere else to turn, Sarah sets up a meeting with her quirky younger sister, COCO (Lauren Ambrose, "Six Feet Under"), and asks her to carry her baby. They haven't seen each other in a while, and at first Coco refuses to go along with such a huge favor. But something happens when Sarah mentions that she's turned Coco's imaginary childhood friend Jezebel James into a children's book. Even though she doesn't say so out loud, Coco is clearly touched, and, realizing that her current living situation � sharing a couch with her friend's sick cat � isn't working out, Coco decides this just might be worth a try.

THE RETURN OF JEZEBEL JAMES comes from executive producer Amy Sherman-Palladino ("Gilmore Girls"). The series is produced by Regency Television.

The Rules for Starting Over (working title)

PRODUCTION COMPANIES
20th Century Fox Television
Conundrum Entertainment
Watson Pond Productions

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Bobby Farrelly
Peter Farrelly
Bradley Thomas
Brad Johnson

WRITERS/CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Chris Pappas
Michael Bernier

DIRECTORS
Bobby and Peter Farrelly

CAST (from left to right)
Craig Bierko as Gator
Rashida Jones as Kate
Johnny Sneed as Tommy
Shaun Majumder as Dr. Bill

Dating is like going to the farmers market � if you get there early, there's plenty of fruit, all ripe, juicy and yours for the taking. That's dating in your 20s. But if you get there at closing time, it's a completely different story. What little fruit is left has been sitting in the sun all day. It's been dropped, squeezed and handled by a thousand different people. That's dating in your 30s.

From the creatively fruitful minds of the Farrelly Brothers, THE RULES FOR STARTING OVER is a single camera comedy, set in Boston, about a group of newly single friends learning the painful lessons of starting over in their 30s. They'd all love to get re-married, if they could just find their true loves. JACK "GATOR" GATELY (Craig Bierko, "Cinderella Man," "Boston Legal") is a charismatic, optimistic leader who never expected to be single again. But now that he is, he's determined to make the best of it. He's going to sift through all the bruised, damaged, occasionally psychotic fruit until he finds "the one." Along the way, Gator and his buddies will chronicle their dating misadventures in a cautionary list of dating don'ts, such as: "if she's still nursing, it's too soon," "learn to identify gang tattoos" and "�Pretty Woman' is not a documentary."

Joining Gator in bachelorhood redux is his thrice-divorced best friend TOMMY (Johnny Sneed, "The Guardian," "Fever Pitch"). The founder and brewmaster of an upstart microbrewery, Tommy has a voracious appetite for everything food, beer and women. He falls in love easily and always disastrously, yet truly hopes his fourth starter marriage will be "the one."

Also single again is Gator's college roommate BILL (Shaun Majumder, "24," "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle"), a successful but hopelessly na�ve surgeon. Bill is probably the least equipped of the group to handle this life change. While he can execute a triple bypass in his sleep, he's all thumbs when it comes to the opposite sex.

Rounding out the group is KATE (Rashida Jones, "The Office"), a smart, successful attorney who handled all three of the boys' divorces. Having just turned 30, Kate finds herself dumped after a seven-year engagement. She reluctantly joins the guys in negotiating the treacherous waters of dating after 29. Kate owns the brownstone next to Gator's. Over time, this pair may find that "the one" is just a brick wall away.

THE RULES FOR STARTING OVER is executive-produced and directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly ("There's Something About Mary," "Fever Pitch").

Two Dreadful Children (working title)

PRODUCTION COMPANY
20th Century Fox Television

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/WRITER
David Hemingson

VOICE CAST (from left to right)
David Hemingson as Mr. Taylor
French Stewart as Frosty
Chris Kattan as Chet
Tim Dabado as Dick
Caroline Rhea as Lori
Sam Huntington as Tapper
Meredith Roberts as Sheila

From David Hemingson, creator and executive producer of "Kitchen Confidential" and producer of "Just Shoot Me!" and "American Dad," comes an animated series centering on an average American family in an average American town� and the pair of amoral eight-year-old geniuses bent on destroying them all.

In the town of Blazing Hills, DICK DUNBAR (Tim Dabado) is known as a solid guy: a football-loving, barbecue-eating, blue-collar citizen of NASCAR nation � the kind of guy who'd help you fix your truck and buy you a beer afterwards. Dick is nothing if not proudly normal; just ask his loving wife LORI (Caroline Rhea, "The Perfect Man," "The Biggest Loser") or his super-jock son CHET (Chris Kattan, "Saturday Night Live," "Undercover Brother"). Dick's perfect life is complicated only by his mischievous eight-year-old twins TAPPER (Sam Huntington, "Superman Returns," "Veronica Mars") and SHEILA (Meredith Roberts, "The Education of Max Bickford," "Scrubs"), who are not normal. In fact, as Dick finds out in the first episode, they are the two smartest children who've ever lived.

Join Tapper and Sheila as they use their impossibly high IQs to "improve" their family's life by doing everything from increasing efficiency at the factory where Dick works (and putting half the town out of work) to "helping" their mom at her nursing job (by operating on random patients at the Blazing Hills Hospital � without the benefit of anesthesia). Together with the Dunbars' perpetually hammered redneck neighbor FROSTY (French Stewart, "3rd Rock from the Sun"), Tapper and Sheila are dedicated to dragging their folks and their hometown into a sparkling future � even if a few people happen to get hurt in the process.

Two Families

PRODUCTION COMPANIES
20th Century Fox Television
HBO Independent Productions

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS/WRITERS
Barbara Wallace
Tom Wolfe

DIRECTOR
Michael Engler

CAST (from left to right)
Beau Bridges as David Sr.
Samantha Bee as Susan
Carlos Jacott as David 1
Sean O'Bryan as David 2
Geneva Carr as Judith
Lucy Punch as Irene
Christopher Denham as Greg

Imagine you get a call from the hospital, informing you that your father has had an accident. You rush to the emergency room, you wait, you worry. Turns out he's fine, thank goodness. But as he's wheeled out, another family rushes up to him, calling him "Pop" and "Dad," and you realize � "Oh my God, my father is one of those creepy guys with two secret families. My dad's a bigamist!"

DAVID CAMPBELL SR. (Beau Bridges, "Stargate SG-1," "Into the West," "The Fabulous Baker Boys"), a widower (twice over), is the father of two motley crews of adult siblings. His offspring in Appleton, Wisconsin, are type A real estate agent JUDITH (Geneva Carr, "Law & Order"); her younger sister SUSAN (Samantha Bee, "The Daily Show"), a bitter divorcee whose first husband turned out to be gay; and Susan's twin brother DAVID 1 (Carlos Jacott, "She Spies," "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"), who's a college professor and bike enthusiast.

Sixty miles away in (less desirable) Rhinelander, there are three more Campbell offspring: antisocial animal lover IRENE (Lucy Punch, "The Class," "Stingray"), who dotes on the neediest, but not necessarily most deserving, creatures; DAVID 2 (Sean O'Bryan, "The Princess Diaries," "Six Feet Under"), athletic and spiritual; and youngest brother GREG (Christopher Denham, "Headspace"), a comic book aficionado who's known as "the Anemic Baby" because of his many phantom ailments.

For years, the Appleton Campbells knew nothing about David Sr.'s family in Rhinelander. And the Campbells in Rhinelander knew nothing about the Appleton clan. Now that they all know, no one is happy about it � except David Sr., who feels that a huge weight has been lifted. Make that two huge weights � he no longer has to keep his big secret, and he no longer has to cover two mortgages. But how is he going to bring everyone together?

Dysfunctional family dynamics just got more dysfunctional. This is a show about getting to know your family � all of them � in a whole new context. From 20th Century Fox Television and HBO Independent Productions, TWO FAMILIES was written by Barbara Wallace and Tom Wolfe ("Welcome to New York").

Untitled Victor Fresco Project

PRODUCTION COMPANY
20th Century Fox Television

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Victor Fresco
Marc Buckland

WRITER
Victor Fresco

DIRECTOR
Marc Buckland

CAST (from left to right)
Andrea Parker as Susan

It's your typical, modern, overscheduled American family.

DON and SUSAN (Andrea Parker, "Less Than Perfect," "The Pretender") ATLIN work hard, set goals and achieve them. Don's a pathologist. Susan's a drug rep for a pharmaceutical company. Both are driven, successful and seemingly happy. Except for one tiny thing. Lately, Susan's been crying in her sleep. And Don? He collects things � like stamps and coins, but recently he's been collecting other things, too. Lots of other things. Like food and shoes and rare mittens. And now he and Susan are wondering, when does collecting become hoarding? And are he and Susan showing signs of stress?

Don and Susan have two kids. ALISON, age 16, is as driven as her parents. In her model U.N. class, she was disappointed to be assigned the tiny country of Gambia. But through sheer force of will, she turned that small nation into a feared world power. Meanwhile, her brother BRIAN, age 10, is at a crossroads. All his life he's been the perfect son, working hard and focusing on goals. But now something's changed in his life. It's the same thing that's changed in all their lives. Alison and Brian's eccentric, irresponsible grandfather, NATE, has come to live with them, and he's decided that Brian is the one person in the family he can save from a life of drudgery. Nate is determined to take Brian on adventures and show him how to have some fun. And Brian is equally determined � to show Nate how to be responsible enough to at least return home alive.

From 20th Century Fox Television, the UNTITLED VICTOR FRESCO PROJECT is written and executive-produced by Victor Fresco ("My Name is Earl"), and directed and executive-produced by Marc Buckland ("My Name is Earl").