Amy Poehler Eric Ogden
'Dumb Prince' will be written by 'Mindy Project's' Charlie Grandy.
NBC is back in business with Amy Poehler.
The network on Thursday handed out a hefty pilot production commitment to Dumb Prince, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Written by Charlie Grandy (The Mindy Project, The Office), the Universal Television comedy is a half-hour family comedy about a reluctant Crown Prince's attempt to run the family business his way, thereby throwing his highly publicized and dysfunctional family into chaos.
Grandy will exec produce alongside Poehler and her Universal TV-based Paper Kite Productions topper Brooke Posch. 3 Arts' Dave Becky will also exec produce the comedy.
The NBC deal marks a reunion for Poehler and Grandy. The duo previously collaborated on NBC's Saturday Night Live, where Grandy was a writer and produced Weekend Update with Poehler among its anchors. The NBC comedy also marks a homecoming for Poehler, who starred on Parks and Recreation for seven seasons. She also exec produced Natasha Lyonne comedy pilot Old Soul, which narrowly missed the cut at NBC in 2014.
For Paper Kite, the comedy marks the company's latest small-screen project and, should the NBC entry move to series, would join Comedy Central hit Broad City and Hulu's Universal TV-produced Billy Eichner vehicle Difficult People. (The latter has already been renewed for a second season.) On the feature side, the company next produces Balls — starring Poehler and Mindy Project's Ike Barinholtz — for Universal. The Emmy-nominated actress next stars in Universal's Sisters, opposite Tina Fey, and is shooting The House with Will Ferrell. Poehler and Paper Kite are represented by WME, 3 Arts Entertainment and Sloane Offer.
Grandy, meanwhile, is a two-time Emmy winner sharing in the writing prizes for The Daily Show. He previously created NBC comedy Guys With Kids and developed comedy pilot 48 Hours 'Til Monday for Fox last season. He's repped by UTA and Ziffren Brittenham.
Thus far this development season, NBC has been aggressive with comedy orders from established players including Parks and Rec boss Mike Schur (with a 13-episode straight-to-series order for a female driven half-hour) and an interracial family comedy from Schur and 30 Rock's Matt Hubbard (that scored a production commitment) as well as a Tina Fey-Robert Carlock half-hour (which also has a pilot-production order). The network this season will bow only one freshman comedy — Truth Be Told — and feature only one returning half-hour to its schedule: the now all-live Undateable.
TV Development
