Fox signals a return to multi-camera comedy with a put pilot commitment to Suspended, a school comedy from Powerless executive producers/showrunners Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker and Warner Bros. TV.
Written by Halpern & Schumacker, Suspended centers on an honors government teacher accustomed to teaching the best and brightest who winds up being put in charge of a bunch of students in in-school suspension. Halpern and Schumacker executive produce with Len Golstein, who also served as an exec producer alongside the duo on the NBC/WBTV single-camera comedy Powerless. WBTV is the studio, producing with Halpern and Schumacker’s Ehsugadee Productions.
Suspended stems from Halpern and Schumacker’s overall deal at WBTV, under which the duo are developing multiple projects.
Suspended also marks Halpern and Schumacker’s return to Fox where their single-camera comedy Surviving Jack, also from WBTV, went to series in 2o14 with Chris Meloni starring. It was based on Halpern’s bestselling book I Suck At Girls.
Halpern and Schumacker, repped by ICM Partners and attorney Allison Binder, previously co-created CBS’ S#*! My Dad Said for WBTV and CBS with Max Mutchnick and David Cohen. It was based on another Halpern bestseller, Shit My Dad Says.
Fox, which has had success in the multi-camera arena with such hits as Married… with Children and That ’70s Show, has stayed focused largely on single-camera half-hours for the past few years. It ordered only single-camera comedy pilots the last two development seasons and has not put a multi-camera on the air since the short-lived Mulaney in 2014. Multi-camera sitcom is making a comeback this coming season with the revivals of Will & Grace on NBC and Roseanne on ABC. Additionally, Netflix successfully rebooted two multi-camera comedies, Full House and One Day At a Time.
Must Read Stories
Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.