Pilots: ABC Loads Up on Laughs

Network greenlights five comedies

January 24, 2007

Dysfunctional paramedics, an amnesia-stricken woman and a smug family are among the folks who will potentially try to turn around ABC's sitcom fortunes next season.

The network has ordered five comedy pilots, including one from the producers of "24" and one from former Kid in the Hall Bruce McCulloch, the showbiz trade papers report. The others come from veterans of "Grounded for Live," "Ugly Betty" and "Committed."

The paramedic show, titled "The Call," has been given a formal green light after ABC won a bidding war with FOX over the show. Created by David Hemingson ("Kitchen Confidential"), it follows a group of L.A. paramedics, with each episode taking place in real time.

The "24" team of Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow and Howard Gordon will executive produce the pilot with Hemingson.

"Sam I Am" comes from writer Don Todd ("Ugly Betty," "Brother's Keeper"), who conceived the story with novelist Cecelia Ahern. It's about a woman who wakes up from a coma with no memory of her prior life.

McCulloch, who's written for "Saturday Night Live" as well as "The Kids in the Hall," is behind "Carpoolers," about a group of guys who ride to work together. He's executive producing with David Miner and Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey of DreamWorks TV.

Former "Grounded for Life" writer Erica Rivinoja penned the script for "Family of the Year," about a New Mexico clan whose string of awards for their town's outstanding family is challenged by another family. She's executive producing with Pam Brady ("The Loop").

Finally, "The Middle" revolves around the matriarch of a middle-class Midwestern family. It comes from Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline ("Committed," "How I Met Your Mother").