Source : Globe & Mail

U.S. network jumped into partnership with CBC, seeking 'new ways of doing business'

You might call it Juno meets Meet the Fockers - for television.

Jessie and Tom are 18-year-old neighbours. One day, on a dare, they decide to get married. That's the post-Junoesque premise of 18 to Life, a new half-hour, prime-time sitcom pilot that has been produced after winning the simultaneous backing of CBC and ABC.

In the $1-million pilot episode (A Modest Proposal), written by Toronto's Derek Schreyer and Karen Troubetzkoy and produced by Arnie Gelbart's Montreal-based Galafilm, the young couple marry and announce the news to their respective families and friends. One set of in-laws is straitlaced, conservative and apoplectic; the other is laid-back, liberal and copacetic. Let the fun ensue.

The show stars 21-year-old Toronto natives Stacey Farber (Degrassi: The Next Generation) and Michael Seater (Life with Derek); and features Peter Keleghan, Al Goulem, Ellen David, Angela Asher, Jesse Rath, Tilo Horn, Tommie-Amber Pirie and Ariel Shiri.

"You never know in this business," Gelbart said in an interview yesterday. "There are never any bad meetings in L.A. But we're hopeful this will go forward, perhaps with an order for six to eight episodes." Each of those would be budgeted at about $750,000.

Gelbart suggested that the green light could be flashed quite soon, at least by the CBC. "It really depends on the needs of the CBC and ABC," he said. If it were given the nod, taping would begin this fall for possible air dates in the spring or summer of 2009. The producers have secured options on the actors, ensuring their prompt availability.

ABC was brought into the deal by Los Angeles-based Alchemy Television, which bought British and American rights.

It had earlier brokered the agreement that took CTV's Flashpoint to CBS.

"With rising production costs and the costs of prime-time television in general, I think everybody is eager to find new ways of doing business," said Samie Falvey, ABC's senior vice-president of comedy development. "I think the experimental nature was interesting."

Added Falvey: "The joke we always make about Canadians is that they're so much nicer than Americans, and it's true that the humour tends to be more accessible because it's not mean-spirited. A lot of great comic talent comes out of Canada so it makes a lot of sense to look north for new voices."

Alchemy chief executive officer Carrie Stein was equally enthusiastic. "We read the script and it was absolutely adorable," Stein said. "It captures the times. It has a lightness and, especially on the heels of Juno, it's spot-on."

ABC invested both in the development of 18 to Life's pilot script and in its production, along with the CBC and the Canadian Television Fund. There was interest from other American networks, Stein added, but "ABC was incredibly enthusiastic and moved quickly."

Gelbart said the project has been in development for two years - the outgrowth of a prior collaboration with Schreyer and Troubetzkoy on 15/Love, a teen series that has since been sold in 70 countries and has aired in Canada on YTV.

The writers, who met in film school and are unmarried but have been together for a decade, said they were inspired by the teenage actors they met while shooting 15/Love. "They had these relationships, but they seemed so much more mature than their ages," Schreyer said, speaking on his cellphone from a rock on Ontario's Manitoulin Island, where he and Troubetzkoy are writing new episodes. "We had the idea long before Juno came out, but it definitely helped our cause."

Unlike conventional one-set, multicamera sitcoms, 18 to Life - directed by Peter Wellington (a Gemini winner for the acclaimed Slings & Arrows) - uses five different sets and is shot cinematically, with a single camera.

Gelbart said the CBC executives involved, Fred Fuchs and Anton Leo, had been "nothing but supportive, but it's great to also have the backing of ABC. They see a lot of stuff."

With a report from Simon Houpt in New York.

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