FOX ORDERS SETH MACFARLANE LIVE-ACTION SERIES, ‘SLEEPY HOLLOW’ DRAMA, COMEDIES FROM BILL LAWRENCE, MORE

Fox is betting big on Ted’s Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, offering the trio a six-episode straight to series order for their live-action comedy, Dads. The network on Tuesday handed out pilot orders to Andrew Gurland’s House Rules, Bill Lawrence’s I Suck at Girls adaptation, Jane Tranter’s Friends & Family and an assistant comedy from two former Friends producers. In addition, the network also greenlit three dramas, including a Sleepy Hollow take from Fringe duo Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci.

TV Pilots 2013: The Complete Guide
MacFarlane’s Dads live-action entry comes on the heels of summer blockbuster Ted, which was co-written by the trio. Their multicamera effort centers on two successful guys in their 30s who have their lives turned upside down when their nightmare dads unexpectedly move in with them.

STORY: TV Pilots 2013: The Complete Guide
The series is set up at 20th Television, where Oscar host MacFarlane is under a lucrative overall deal that has produced such animated efforts as Family Guy and American Dad. Sulkin and Wild have been involved with Family Guy since 2005. MacFarlane, Sulkin and Wild are all repped by WME.

House Rules hails from writers Gurland (The Last Exorcism Part II) and Justin Hurwitz (FX’s The League) and centers on a neurotic family with contempt for all things normal that tries their best to fit into their small Midwest town where everyone knows each other and politeness reigns.

The single-camera comedy is produced by 20th Television and Principato-Young. Gurland is repped by WME, Principato-Young and Stone Meyer; Hurwitz is with WME and Principato-Young.
For its part, To My Assistant is a single-camera comedy revolving around assistants who band together at a big New York law firm to help each other cope with the obnoxious, overbearing bosses who test their sanity on a daily basis.

Friends producers Sherry Bilsing (I Hate My Teenage Daughter, New Adventures of Old Christine) and Ellen Plummer (Veronica’s Closet) will pen the Warner Bros. Television and Lin Pictures pilot and executive produce alongside Dan Lin and Jen Gwartz.

Cougar Town’s Lawrence will executive produce an adaptation of S#*! My Dad Says author Justin Halpern’s book I Suck at Girls. Halpern and his Dad Says cohort Patrick Schumacker will pen the script for the single-camera comedy from Warner Bros. Television and Doozer Productions. Jeff Ingold will exec produce.

I Suck at Girls is described as a story about a boy becoming a man, and a man becoming a father in a time before coming of age was something you could look up on Google.

Friends & Family, which is based on the hit BBC series Gavin & Stacey, centers on two very different lovers who meet and try to make a long distance relationship work. Friends and family prove to be both the best support and the worst nightmare.

The half-hour, single-camera comedy counts BBC Worldwide Productions’ Tranter and Julie Gardner as executive producers alongside Baby Cow Prods.’ James Corden, Ruth Jones and Henry Normal. I Just Want My Pants Back’s David Rosen is set to write and EP the project, which is set up at Sony Pictures Television.

Sleepy Hollow hails from Fringe’s Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci and is described as a modern-day supernatural thriller based on the famed legend. Kurtzman and Orci will write and exec produce with Phil Isove writing and serving as a supervising producer. Heather Kadin and Len Wiseman will also exec produce, with the latter also directing the pilot. The drama comes mere days after cult drama Fringe ended its run on Fox and will be produced by Kurtzman Orci’s KO Paper Products and 20th Television.

Delirium is based on a best-selling trilogy about a world where love is deemed illegal and is able to be eradicated with a special procedure. With 95 days until her scheduled treatment, Lena Holoway does the unthinkable — she falls in love. Bones’ Karyn Usher will write and exec produce the 20th Television and Chernin Entertainment drama alongside Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope.
The List, meanwhile, hails from Daybreak creator Paul Zbyszewski (Lost) and centers on U.S. Marshal Dan Shaker, who leads the hunt for the person who stole the list — a file with the identities of every member in the Federal Witness Security Program — after those in the program begin popping up dead. Ruben Fleischer (Gangster Squad) will exec produce for 20th Television.

The pilot orders join the untitled Dan Goor/Mike Schur comedy at the network.