About two months ago, Kate Adler and Jim Donnelly, comedy executives at CBS TV Studios, which produced the musical comedy pilot for Showtime, reached out to Gaye Hirsch and Joanna Klein, co-heads of scripted development for the CW, asking them whether they would take a look at the pilot, recently passed over by the premium cable network, as a potential companion to Jane The Virgin. (CBS Studios, the CW and Showtime are all part of the CBS family.) Hirsch and Klein watched it, loved it, showed it to their boss, CW EVP development Thom Sherman who also loved it and, in turn, showed it to the CW president Mark Pedowitz, who also gave it thumbs-up. In Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, a driven young woman (Rachel Bloom) leaves abruptly her successful career as a lawyer in Manhattan to follow her ex-boyfriend to West Covina, California. In addition to having a similar sensibility to Jane The Virgin, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend features a star– actress-comedian Bloom — who is in her 20s, right in the CW’s lead actor sweet spot. She also happens to be a viral star with the music videos of her songs drawing millions of streams.
Sherman next called CBS TV Studios David Stapf and asked him whether the studio would consider doing the show for them as an hourlong comedy. I hear the first reaction in the studio’s executive suit was that of deep skepticism as the show was a premium cable half-hour, with the content and the high price tag that go with that.
Still, a meeting was set up at the CW between the CW’s Pedowitz and Sherman, Stapf, Adler, Donnelly as well as Ex-Crazy Girlfriend creators Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna and the pilot’s director Marc Webb. The network made its pitch, and the two sides discussed ways to expand the show from half-hour to one-hour and adjust it to broadcast standards.
Sherman next called CBS TV Studios David Stapf and asked him whether the studio would consider doing the show for them as an hourlong comedy. I hear the first reaction in the studio’s executive suit was that of deep skepticism as the show was a premium cable half-hour, with the content and the high price tag that go with that.
Still, a meeting was set up at the CW between the CW’s Pedowitz and Sherman, Stapf, Adler, Donnelly as well as Ex-Crazy Girlfriend creators Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna and the pilot’s director Marc Webb. The network made its pitch, and the two sides discussed ways to expand the show from half-hour to one-hour and adjust it to broadcast standards.
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