Bill Lawrence
Bill Lawrence has joined the ranks of Chuck Lorre and Ryan Murphy.
The Cougar Town creator's TBS comedy Ground Floor has been ordered to series, the cable network announced Friday, just hours after NBC ordered his Undateable comedy and mere days after his Fox pilot was picked up.
TBS has ordered 10 episodes of the series for a 2014 premiere, where it will join comedies including the fifth season of Cougar Town, Men at Work and Sullivan & Son as the Turner-owned network looks to build its comedy brand on the back of syndicated repeats of The Big Bang Theory.
With the order, the comedy starring Pitch Perfect's Skylar Astin will give Lawrence four shows on the air including TBS' Cougar Town, which he exited as showrunner when the series moved from ABC.
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Ground Floor centers on a 29-year-old successful alpha male Brody (Astin) who crosses paths with his company's support staff -- a tight-knit group of happy, carefree people -- prompting him to realize that he's not nearly as happy as he thought he was. Ground also reunites Lawrence with his former Scrubs star John C. McGinley, who co-stars.
From Warner Horizon Television, Lawrence and Greg Malins will pen the script for the multicamera comedy; Lawrence will executive produce alongside Doozer's Jeff Ingold with Randall Winston on board as a producer. Gail Mancuso directed the pilot, which also stars Alexis Knapp (Pitch Perfect),James Earl and Rene Gube.
"Ground Floor is a smart and extremely funny comedy that blends workplace humor with relatable romantic entanglements," said Michael Wright, president, head of programming for TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies. "It's all brought together by a wonderful ensemble. With Ground Floor, we're thrilled to be extending our creative partnership with Cougar Town's Bill Lawrence."
For their part, Lorre has three shows on CBS (Big Bang Theory, Mike & Molly, Two and a Half Men) with a fourth also considered likely with Mom; and Murphy has three (Fox's Glee, FX's American Horror Story and NBC's bubble comedy The New Normal).
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