Christine Ebersole to Star in Lifetime Original Sitcom Pilot
Lifetime, the women's cable channel, have developed two
pilot episodes of premiere multi-camera sitcoms - one to star Tony
Award-winning actress Christine Ebersole. Reuters details the two pilots as follows:
"Libertyville," set in the titular Ohio town, centers on a divorced mother whose life is complicated by her lazy 22-year-old daughter and cantankerous father who live with her. Ebersole will star as the mother. Caryn Mandabach will executive-produce.
"Rita Rocks" centers on an overworked wife and mother in the middle of a full-blown identity crisis who starts a garage band with her postwoman and neighbor. No casting details yet announced.
Both pilots will be shot in Los Angeles in March. Lifetime hopes to draw in a new audience to the multi-camera comedy format; though some broadcast networks are moving away from the format.
"Lifetime might pick up one or both of the pilots to series. If not, MRC will produce two more pilots. One of the four is guaranteed to go to series. Under the agreement with Media Rights Capital (MRC), Lifetime will co-own the series they do together. Lifetime also will have a share of the profits if the series is sold into syndication," explains The Hollywood Reporter. Both pilots will be overseen by Mindy Schultheis and Michael Hanel.
"Once it's ordered to series, the plan for the MRC-produced Lifetime series is to begin airing weekly while going on an accelerated production schedule to amass enough episodes to start running Monday-Friday," reports Reuters
Christine Ebersole won the 2006 Best Actress in a Musical Tony Award for her performance in Grey Gardens. She recently starred as Margo Channing in the City Center Encores! production of Applause. She garnered her first Tony in the 2001 revival of 42nd Street.
Christine Ebersole (photo by Kit Kittle)
