FX's Billy Crystal comedy pilot The Comedians is filling up its ranks.
The comedy co-staring Book of Mormon Tony nominee Josh Gad has enlisted Matt Oberg (30 Rock), Stephnie Weir (MadTV) and Megan Ferguson (Mad Men) to its ranks, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The single-camera entry from Fox Television Studios revolves around a superstar veteran comedian (Crystal) who is reluctantly paired with a younger, edgier comedian (Gad) for a late-night comedy sketch show. Gad's young and hip comic resents -- and rails against -- the pairing.
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Oberg will play Mitch, the head writer of the sketch show, who is eager, even when he's being bulldozed by Billy, and will tell anyone who will listen about his past as a comedic jack-of-all trades.
Weir is set as Kristen, the anxiety-ridden producer of Billy and Josh's sketch show, who frequently finds herself caught in the middle of their arguments.
Ferguson will portray Esme, a no-nonsense PA who is mostly over it all, including Billy. The casting reunites her with Gad, whom she co-starred opposite in Ed Zwick's feature film Love & Other Drugs.
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Oberg is repped by CAA, Bleeker Street Entertainment and Stone Meyer; Weir is with UTA, Meghan Schumacher Management and Myman Abel; Ferguson is with CAA and Principato-Young.
Comedians hails from showrunners Larry Charles (Seinfeld), Matt Nix (Burn Notice) and Ben Wexler (Community, Arrested Development), who will serve as writers and executive producers on the project, along with Crystal and Gad. Joining them are Fabrik Entertainment's Mikkel Bondesen and Henrik Bastin with Kristen Campo as a co-executive producer. Charles is set to direct the pilot, which is based on a Swedish format of the same name from Stockholm-based Efti AB, whose Carl Molinder and John Nordling also exec produce the FX incarnation.
E-mail: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
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