Jennie Garth is headed into mom-territory for her next big TV role. Word is, she’s set to play the lead in a half-hour comedy pilot for ABC Family.
Once upon a time, Jennie Garth was making a name for herself as Brenda’s new cool California best friend Kelly Taylor on Beverly Hills, 90210. Her character evolved from a sort-of bitchy former party girl to a genuinely kind and mostly reliable person (minus a brief addiction to drugs and a stint in a cult) and one of the primary focuses of the show. What’s more, she outgrew the bitchiness and turned into one of the nicest characters on the show. The latter years of Kelly Taylor is more along the lines of the Jennie Garth we’ve seen in What I Like About You, which had her playing the role of a woman set to take care of her teenage sister (Amanda Bynes).
According to Deadline, Garth has been cast to star in ABC Family’s comedy pilot Village People. She’s set to play a single career woman who adopts a baby from a teen mom and ends up taking care of the mother as well. It sounds like a cute idea for a show and something that’s well suited for ABC Family, which plays host to shows focusing on some other unorthodox family situations (Switched at Birth, The Secret Life of the American Teenager). Garth is also set to exec-produce the pilot.
I'm going to guess that the title of the pilot refers to where Garth's character lives, assuming this is a city-based comedy. It’ll be interesting to see what becomes of this and whether or not it goes to series, but given the premise and Garth’s involvement, I’m thinking we should anticipate good news.
