Brian Ach/Invision/AP
The project hails from writers Andrew Lenchewski ('Royal Pains') and Aaron Tracy ('Law & Order: SVU').
Rob Reiner is poised to return to the small screen.
The writer and director's period drama The Tap has been picked up to pilot at USA Network, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The Tap is set atYale University circa 1969, during the height of America's cultural and political revolution -- a time when the campus is being upended by antiwar protests, race riots and the arrival of the first female students. Three students struggle to find their true identities, including the ambitious and self-consciously conservative Jay, who desperately aspires to join the powerful secret society of Skull and Bones; Michelle, a strong minded feminist who has difficulty finding her community at the predominantly male institution; and Gloria, a student who’d prefer to focus on her education rather than involve herself in racial politics.
The pilot hails from writers Andrew Lenchewski (Royal Pains) and Aaron Tracy (Law & Order: SVU). Lenchewski will exec produce with Reiner and Alan Greisman of Reiner/Greisman and Charlie Ebersol (The Profit). Tracy will serve as a co-executive producer on the drama, which hails from Universal Cable Productions.
The Tap marks the second pilot order for USA Network as part of its 2016-17 development season. Damnation is also a period drama, but instead focuses on the American heartland during the 1930s.
The pickup comes a year and a half after the project was first put into development at USA Network and a month after the end of Lenchewski's long-running USA series Royal Pains. Royal Pains was one of the network's last remaining "blue skies" show. In recent years, the NBCUniversal cabler has moved to darker and edgier fare most notably with Golden Globe winner Mr. Robot, which just grabbed six Emmy nominations. Lenchewski is represented by CAA and Jackoway Tyerman.
For Reiner, the project marks his first TV project in more than a decade. The Emmy winner and former TV star (All in the Family) last exec-produced the 2004 NBC comedy pilot Everyday Life. Best known for directing A Few Good Men, When Harry Met Sally, The Princess Bride and This Is Spinal Tap, Reiner's most recently directed the upcoming biopic LBJ, in which Woody Harrelson plays the famed president. Reiner is represented by CAA and Bloom Hergott.
Tracy's credits also include USA's Fairly Legal, and he is represented by CAA and Del Shaw.
Ebersol, best known for unscripted series such as USA Network's The Moment and TNT's The Great Escape, is represented by WME.
Pilot Season USA Network
