TVSquad

CBS has picked up a new comedy based on the ramblings of someone's father from a Twitter account called Shit My Dad Says. The title will likely change when it gets to the small screen. Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick are behind it so it has some legs.

The creator of the Twitter account, Justin Halpern, has become an Internet star. Actually, this is the second Twitter account to get a sitcom, the first being TextsFromLastNight (which is being produced by Sony TV and Adam Sandler's people).

Based on the sample tweets, I can see this actually working as a sitcom where a twenty-something or early thirty-something is forced to live back with his parents. His father would be a pessimistic Larry David or Ricky Gervais character, saying awkward things all the time to humorous effect. I think the only trick would be to tone down the profanity, or perhaps just use bleeping.

This is why I have to start a Twitter account.

So, now that the strike is over -- can I get a 'yippee' to that, people? -- there's a "post strike rush" in Hollywood. It's not gold they're after, it's pilots. According to TV Guide, ABC has just given the thumbs up to the creators of Will & Grace, David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, for a new sitcom. The still untitled comedy, done as a spec script prior to the WGA strike, sounds like something right in the Kohan-Mutchnick wheelhouse.

The former 90210 and Freddie star will play the gay half of a writing team in a new sitcom from David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, the writing team that brought us Will & Grace. The show will be sorta based on their lives together, a writing team where one guy is straight and one guy is gay. Also cast are Jessica Capshaw and Vanessa Lengies. No word yet on who will play the straight half of the team.

I never watched 90210, so I have no idea what Greene was like on that show (though I do remember him as a kid on Knot's Landing). I do know that he was the best thing about Freddie, playing the horny, always scheming best friend of the Freddie Prinze, Jr. character, so this could be interesting.

The Hollywood Reporter (via Reuters) is reporting that Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick are creating a pilot for CBS based on their friendship and writing partnership. Here's the twist: since Kohan is straight and Mutchnick is gay, the show's main characters will be about two writers who are best friends, one of which is gay and one of which is straight. According to the article, the main quartet will be rounded out by the writers' "hot young assistants."

The formula's starting to sound familiar, isn't it? It's not exactly W&G, but it's not far off. Considering how tired W&G got near the end of its run, I'm hoping that this new comedy, which doesn't yet have a name, isn't an extension of that show's comic sensibility. Don't get me wrong, it was fun at its peak, but the nasty jokes just got old after a few years. Maybe this show will be less catty and more witty. Of course, it's just a pilot; it may never make it to air at all.