Greg Garcia

Keep Hope Alive picked up to series

This just in:

Fox has picked up four pilots to series for next season and has renewed bubble shows “Lie to Me” and “Human Target.”

The network has greenlighted Shawn Ryan’s latest police drama “RideAlong” and Texas-set drama “Midland” (now likely called “Lone Star”), as well as single-camera comedies “Traffic Light” and “Keep Hope Alive.”

The decisions represent the network’s first wave of pickups for next season. (…)

Greg Garcia’s single parent half-hour “Keep Hope Alive” and the male relationship comedy “Traffic Light” have been early frontrunners for a pickup, and are expected to represent at least a one-hour comedy block for the network’s fall schedule. [Hollywood Reporter]

Fox has started making calls to producers, giving series orders to four of its most-buzzed about pilots: Dramas “Ridealong” and “Lone Star” (formerly known as “Midland”), as well as laffers “Keep Hope Alive” and “Traffic Light.” (…)

Also, insiders confirm that Fox has already put together a preliminary schedule — but there’s still the possibility of shifts up until Sunday night, when things are locked for the network’s Monday upfront presentation. [Variety]

Updates: Burn Notice, Keep Hope Alive

Burn Notice showrunner Matt Nix did a Q & A yesterday and talked about the guest stars this season. He also dropped some vague spoilers about the general direction of the show. The interview is here.

Well certainly in the finale, we have Garret Dillahunt coming and doing a pretty amazing bad guy. Let’s see, the guy who played Tony Almeida on 24. I’m completely blanking on his name. In any case, he is in the episode after this week’s episode and he is playing a bad guy who Fiona has a real connection to. Oh sorry, Carlos Bernard, yes playing a bad guy who is really sort of only removed from the characters on the show by— under other circumstances he could have been one of the team, but he is willing to do certain things that they’re not willing to do and that’s a divide that they just can’t cross. But he’s a guy who’s really committed to what he’s doing, really cares about what he’s doing. It’s a pretty devastating performance. He’s pretty awesome. I’d say Garret and Carlos Bernard are the ones that are upcoming that really jump out at me right now.

And it seems that we won’t find out if Keep Hope Alive will be picked up for another few months. From Entertainment Weekly:

Fox has loads of multi-camera comedy pilots in the works – including new projects from Greg Garcia (My Name is Earl) and the duo of David Kohan and Max Mutchnik (Will & Grace). Here are the network’s fall pilots, many are still being cast (decisions on which projects will be ordered to series won’t be made until the weeks leading up to Fox’s presentation to advertisers, which occurs this May in New York):
(…)
Keep Hope Alive (Greg Garcia). A single-camera comedy about a simple-minded 20-something man who is raising a daughter. Cast includes Martha Plimpton (Parenthood) and Cloris Leachman (The Women).

New project: Fox comedy pilot, Keep Hope Alive

Some TV news this week.

Garret has been cast in Greg Garcia‘s (My Name Is Earl) new comedy pilot for Fox, called Keep Hope Alive. He will play Burt Chance, a guy who runs a pool cleaning business and gets thrown a curve ball when his son Jimmy (Lucas Neff) gets a serial killer pregnant and winds up having to raise the baby. Martha Plimpton will play Garret’s wife Virginia and Cloris Leachman will play his grandmother-in-law.

More about the premise, from the Hollywood Reporter:

The single-camera “Hope” centers on Jimmy (Neff), a 25-year-old man raising an infant with the help of his quirky family after the mother of the baby, with whom he had a one-night stand, ends up on death row.

Plimpton will play Jimmy’s no-nonsense mother who got pregnant with him when she was 16 and has no interest in raising another baby.

[Olesya] Rulin will play a smart waitress whom Jimmy considers the perfect woman to help him raise his daughter. [THR]

The pilot starts shooting early next month, with Michael Fresco (Northern Exposure, Murder One, Providence, My Name Is Earl) directing.