Author: Kate Stanhope

September 29, 2016 10:00am PT by Kate Stanhope

Christopher Patey

The project marks a key off-network sale for 20th TV.

ABC is teaming with prolific producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

The network has handed out a hefty put-pilot commitment to a single-camera comedy from the duo, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The Escape centers on a stressed-out urban professional who uproots himself and his troubled 19-year-old son to move to rural Idaho to live with his father, a retired surgeon with the ruggedness of Indiana Jones.

Dan Sterling (The Interview) will write and exec produce with Lord, Miller and Seth Cohen. The Escape hails from 20th Century Fox Television, where Lord and Miller have an overall deal.

The Escapemarks a key off-network sale for the duo, as well as 20th TV. Lord and Miller’s current series, Last Man on Earth, Son of Zorn and the forthcoming Making History, all call Fox home.

Three of ABC’s current half-hours, Last Man Standing, Fresh Off the Boat and freshmen entry Speechless, hail from 20th TV. Speechless is co-produced by ABC Studios.

TV Development

September 29, 2016 10:00am PT by Kate Stanhope

Christopher Patey

The project marks a key off-network sale for 20th TV.

ABC is teaming with prolific producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

The network has handed out a hefty put-pilot commitment to a single-camera comedy from the duo, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The Escape centers on a stressed-out urban professional who uproots himself and his troubled 19-year-old son to move to rural Idaho to live with his father, a retired surgeon with the ruggedness of Indiana Jones.

Dan Sterling (The Interview) will write and exec produce with Lord, Miller and Seth Cohen. The Escape hails from 20th Century Fox Television, where Lord and Miller have an overall deal.

The Escapemarks a key off-network sale for the duo, as well as 20th TV. Lord and Miller’s current series, Last Man on Earth, Son of Zorn and the forthcoming Making History, all call Fox home.

Three of ABC’s current half-hours, Last Man Standing, Fresh Off the Boat and freshmen entry Speechless, hail from 20th TV. Speechless is co-produced by ABC Studios.

TV Development

September 29, 2016 9:14am PT by Kate Stanhope

Courtesy of Netflix

Avery and his fiancee, Lynn Hartman, to appear on the Oct. 3rd and 4th episodes of the daytime talk show.

Steven Avery is speaking out.

The convicted killer at the center of the Netflix docuseries Making a Murderer is set to appear on Dr. Phil next month, it was announced Thursday.

Avery will telephone the daytime talk show from behind bars for an episode set to air on Oct. 3 and 4. In addition, Dr. Phil McGraw will have Avery’s new fiancee Lynn Hartman in studio. The two will discuss their relationship, Avery’s life in prison and his hopes for a release.

“The truth is coming out and sooner or later all the truth will come out,” Avery says in the interview.

Avery was convicted in 2007 for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach and is currently serving life in prison at the Waupun Correctional Institute in Wisconsin. His nephew, Brendan Dassey, recently saw his own conviction overturned in the same murder case. At the time, Dassey confessed to helping his uncle Steven Avery carry out the rape and murder of Halbach, but attorneys argued that his constitutional rights were violated throughout the investigation. Avery filed an appeal in the case at the beginning of the year, just weeks after Netflix released the entire first season of Making a Murderer.

Before his 2007 conviction, Avery served 18 years in prison on a sexual assault conviction. DNA evidence exonerated him of the crime in 2003, two years before the murder of Halbach. 

This will mark Avery’s first broadcast interview. He is latest get for Dr. Phil this season. The longtime talk show host had a three-part interview with Burke Ramsey, the brother of JonBenet Ramsey, ahead of the 20th anniversary of the young beauty queen’s murder. 

New episodes of Making a Murderer, which recently won four Emmy awards, are in the works at Netflix. 

Making a Murderer