Tina Fey and Ellie Kemper Sitcom Coming to NBC
NBC has ordered 13 episodes of a new sitcom produced by Tina Fey and her longtime 30 Rock cohort Robert Carlock and starring The Office‘s Ellie Kemper. In the single-camera show, set to debut next fall, Kemper will play a woman who escapes a doomsday cult and begins to rebuild her life in the big city.
The series is currently untitled, but both Fey and Carlock will executive produce along with David Miner, another 30 Rock veteran, Variety reports. Fey and Carlock will also serve as writers on the show. The show side-steps the traditional pilot approach with its straight-to-series order, which is unusual in the industry; NBC has a history of fast purchases, though, having immediately picked up 22 episodes of The Michael J. Fox Show last year.
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“Tina and Robert, who cemented their partnership on 30 Rock, have created a new signature comedy for us that is audacious, emotional and clever,” Bob Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, told Variety. “While tapping into very relatable themes, there isn’t anything like this anywhere else on television. NBC has been their home for many years and we’re so happy that they’ve found another way to push the comedy envelope for us.”
NBC also picked up the rights to another Fey and Carlock executive-produced show, a workplace comedy penned by former 30 Rock scribe Colleen McGuiness about a woman who tries to reconnect with her father and finds herself with a new home and family on Fire Island.
Since wrapping 30 Rock in January after seven seasons, Fey has stayed heavily involved in television while branching out into movies. She recently hosted the season premiere of Saturday Night Live and signed on to co-host the Golden Globes with former SNL pal Amy Poehler.