ABC Family Orders Pilots From ‘Heroes’ Creator, ‘Office’ Trio

April 10, 2015 10:00am PT by Lesley Goldberg

Tim Kring is behind supernatural drama 'Beyond,' while Lee Eisenberg, Gene Stupnitsky and Danny Chun are behind comedy 'Gorgeous Morons.'

ABC Family is replenishing its pilots.

The younger-skewing Disney-owned cable network has picked up to pilot supernatural drama Beyond from Heroes creator Tim Kring and multicamera comedy Gorgeous Morons from The Office trio Lee Eisenberg, Gene Stupnitsky and Danny Chun, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

See more The Faces of Pilot Season 2015

From ABC Signature Studios — ABC Studios' low-cost cable-focused arm — Gorgeous Morons focuses on two handsome, but ridiculously simple brothers — one is a model, the other a personal trainer — who find their lives rocked by their brainy new roommate, a female literature doctorate whose looks are, by their standards, in desperate need of help. The comedy hails from Emmy- nominated duo Lee Eisenberg & Gene Stupnitsky (The Office, Hello Ladies, Trophy Wife) and The Office head writer Danny Chun (Happy Endings). Chun will pen the script. All three have overall deals with ABC Studios. For his part, Chun also has ABC comedy pilot Delores & Jermaine, starring Jermaine Fowler and Whoopi Goldberg, in contention for fall.

Beyond, meanwhile, is a drama about a young man who wakes up from a coma after 12 years and discovers new supernatural abilities that propel him into the middle of a dangerous conspiracy. From Imperative Entertainment and Automatik, the drama is created, written and executive produced by Adam Nussdorf (Once Upon a Time in Wonderland). Kring (Heroes), Zak Kadison, Justin Levy and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones executive produce. For Kring, this marks his third project in the works and joins USA Network mini Dig as well as NBC's upcoming Heroes Reborn limited series.

"Quality comedies and epic adventures are key elements of our programming strategy," said Karey Burke, exec vp programming and development. "The teams behind these pilots have a history of creating amazing series in those genres, and I am thrilled to have them creating for ABC Family."

For ABC Family, Beyond and Morons join a pilot slate that also includes single-camera comedy Tough Cookie from Awkward creator Lauren Iungerich and hot development drama Famous in Love, which hails from Pretty Little Liars boss Marlene King with Bella Thorne attached to star.

The orders arrive as ABC Family continues its programming shift to focus on aging up the network as it mulls a complete rebranding that could include a name change under network topper Tom Ascheim. Under his purview, ABC Family has recently ordered single-camera comedy series Kevin From Work — its most recent pickup from its last pilot crop — as well as Mortal Instruments straight-to-series pickup Shadowhunters. They join a roster of programming that also includes new drama entries Stitchers and Recovery Road as well as The Fosters, Pretty Little Liars, Young & Hungry, Switched at Birth and Chasing Life and an increasingly populated slate of unscripted fare.

Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit