TVSquad

Can two cable shows about the advertising world co-exist? Of course they can. With 12 Law and Orders, 9 CSIs, and 57 reality shows where sexy people live in a house, I think we can have two shows about advertising.

Trust Me is the new name of the TNT series Truth in Advertising. It stars Eric McCormack (Will and Grace) as Mason and Tom Cavanagh (Ed) as Connor, best friends who also run an ad agency. Unlike Mad Men, it's set in the present day. Also unlike Mad Men, it's set in Chicago. See? Two big differences right there.

My first thought when I heard about TNT's Truth In Advertising, which has just received the go ahead for 13 episodes, was "oh, they're just doing that because of the critical success of Mad Men." And who knows, that might be true, but this show by itself sounds awfully intriguing.

I mean, come on, look at this cast: Eric McCormack (Will and Grace), Tom Cavanagh (Ed, Eli Stone), Sarah Clarke (24), Monica Potter (Boston Legal), and Griffin Dunne (Law and Order: CI, 3 lbs.). And it's from the same people who bring us The Closer, so you know it's going to be of some quality. And it's really great to see Cavanagh and McCormack back on weekly TV again (oh, when oh when is Ed coming to DVD?).

It's always intriguing when a cable network has two or three original shows they're working on. But TNT has gone project crazy this year, with a whopping 14 shows in development.

It's an interesting mix of shows too. You have your dramas, including a mystery series set in Boston, based on the novels of Tess Gerritsen; a drama about a family in 1950s Indiana; an espionage drama titled Leverage; a drama from Robert Redford titled Generations, which focuses on several families who have lived in the same house over the decades; and Truth In Advertising, which sounds a lot like a modern-day Mad Men (not that I'm complaining) and stars Eric McCormack, Tom Cavanagh, and Monica Potter. Comedies include a show about a single, middle-aged woman, from Betty Thomas and Elaine Pope.

Truth in Advertising, a new series from Greer Shephard and Michael Robin, executive producers of TNT's popular The Closer, is close to having its pilot picked up buy the network. Robin is also set to direct.

The drama takes place in the fictional Greene, Rothman and Mohr advertising agency and focuses on the men and women who work there. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the pilot is, for all intents and purposes, already picked up by TNT, though it's not official just yet.