CBS has given the greenlight to its first new comedy project of the season, ordering a pilot for a single-camera comedy from Nick Stoller, writer and director of Get Him to the Greek and recently writer for The Muppets movie. Stoller’s has some TV writing credits – he worked on Undeclared and a single episode of Strangers With Candy, but this is a pretty big transition for him away from feature films.
According to Deadline the half hour comedy will center on a guy in his mid-twenties who has to face working every day only one cubicle down from the girl who just broke his heart. The story is apparently loosely based on Stoller’s real life, and takes place in an ad agency. So far, there is no title for the project. In addition to writing and directing, Stoller will executive produce along with Katherine Pope and Peter Chernin. The two work together plenty and are both executive producers on New Girl, which is oddly enough the recent series this new one most brings to mind.
CBS rarely forays into single camera comedies, and hadn’t had much luck with them in the past, so they must have high hopes for this project. While the storyline doesn’t sound very original on the surface, I’ll reserve judgment until we get more plot details and some casting information. With the two dramas CBS ordered to pilot yesterday this brings the total new pilot order to three for the network in the new season.
