NBC and Universal Television Team Up to Take the Reins on Freshman Multi-Camera Comedy Newlywedshiring sitcom veteran Bruce Helford (The Conners) as the new showrunner replacing Gail Lerner who was fired last Friday.
Newlyweds, co-created by Lerner and Jamie Lee Curtis, is currently on a week-long hiatus. The break will now be extended, giving Helford time to get up to speed on the series, along with Tèa Leoni, Tim Daly and Curtis, who filmed episode 8 of his 13-episode order on Friday. Production will resume in November.
Helford brings four decades of sitcom experience – the vast majority in broadcast – and a strong track record of handling big personalities on shows like Roseanne, headlined by Roseanne Barr, as well as Anger management, of which he somehow delivered 100 episodes in the span of two and a half years starring Charlie Sheen following his public meltdown and firing. Two and a half men.
His extensive showrunner resume also includes The Drew Carey Show And George Lopez, which he co-created and, more recently, The Conners.
Newlyweds is a later-in-life love story about a free-spirited woman (Leoni) and a buttoned-up professor (Leoni’s real husband, Daly) who impetuously marry after a whirlwind courtship.
Helford is best known for his male and family sitcoms (the list also includes The spectacle of standards And Kevin can wait), so making a romantic comedy might seem like a stretch for him.
One of his first writing jobs was actually on the 1989 ABC sitcom. Everything but loveabout the romance between colleagues played by Curtis and comedian Richard Lewis.
“It was my favorite job,” Curtis recalls of his experience on Everything but love during a recent panel for Newlyweds. “And I’m 68 years old, and every year all I’ve said to my agents is ‘I want to do a sitcom, all I want to do is a sitcom.’
Newlyweds stars Leoni, Daly, Curtis, Emma Meisel, Ignacio Diaz-Silverio and Bill O’Neill. Helford serves as executive producer with Lerner, Eric and Kim Tannenbaum and Jason Wang for the Tannenbaum Company, Curtis, Scott Schwartz and Lionsgate Television. Pam Fryman directed and produced the pilot.
The series, produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, will premiere on Friday, October 23 at 8:30 p.m., immediately following the season premiere of The place of happiness.
“It was really an example of creative differences, and we think this concept of a romantic comedy in a multi-camera format was very winning. And this casting is phenomenal with Téa, Tim and Jamie,” Lisa Katz, president of NBC and Peacock Scripted Content, told Deadline Friday about Lerner’s departure. “So we’re working to find the right person and move forward, and we’re still really, really invested and committed to this project, and we think it’s a great companion for Happy’s Placee too.
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