Brian Damage
11-15-2006, 11:38 AM
Kellie Pickler, who enchanted and bemused the nation during her "American Idol" run last spring, may be ready for sitcom stardom.
FOX is attempting to build a half-hour comedy that isn't so much based on Pickler's actual life as on her bubbly "Idol" persona.
According to Variety, 20th Century Fox TV and Watson Pond would produce the hypothetical pilot along with "Idol" producers 19 Entertainment. The studio has recruited "The '70s Show" veterans Chris Peterson and Bryan Moore to write the script.
While Pickler's own story -- abandoned by her mother and raised by grandparents while her father was serving jail time -- were as central to her "Idol" bio as her malapropisms ("I'm a mink!") and confusion at various food products, the sitcom will put a new spin on her life. Pickler would play a small-town Southern girl (so far so good) who discovers that her father is the state's governor. He's initially concerned that his new-found spawn will destroy his presidential aspirations, but they eventually become a winning team. Or something like that.
Pickler ended up finishing sixth on "Idol" last season.
"I hope that I will be able to pursue music, as well as TV and film -- anything that life throws me, I want to take advantage of every opportunity that I'm given," she told reporters at the time. "So, I feel like I'm young. I have no strings attached anywhere. I'm ready to roll."
She quickly signed with the country label BNA and her first album, "Small Town Girl" was released at the end of October. In addition to picking up a few bizarrely positive reviews, "Small Town Girl" sold a respectable 80,000 copies to top the Billboard country charts.
Of course, just because a few producers think it's a good idea to make a pilot built around an "Idol" singer doesn't mean that the networks will eventually agree. Has anybody heard anything lately about Constantine Maroulis' in-development ABC sitcom? We haven't either.
FOX is attempting to build a half-hour comedy that isn't so much based on Pickler's actual life as on her bubbly "Idol" persona.
According to Variety, 20th Century Fox TV and Watson Pond would produce the hypothetical pilot along with "Idol" producers 19 Entertainment. The studio has recruited "The '70s Show" veterans Chris Peterson and Bryan Moore to write the script.
While Pickler's own story -- abandoned by her mother and raised by grandparents while her father was serving jail time -- were as central to her "Idol" bio as her malapropisms ("I'm a mink!") and confusion at various food products, the sitcom will put a new spin on her life. Pickler would play a small-town Southern girl (so far so good) who discovers that her father is the state's governor. He's initially concerned that his new-found spawn will destroy his presidential aspirations, but they eventually become a winning team. Or something like that.
Pickler ended up finishing sixth on "Idol" last season.
"I hope that I will be able to pursue music, as well as TV and film -- anything that life throws me, I want to take advantage of every opportunity that I'm given," she told reporters at the time. "So, I feel like I'm young. I have no strings attached anywhere. I'm ready to roll."
She quickly signed with the country label BNA and her first album, "Small Town Girl" was released at the end of October. In addition to picking up a few bizarrely positive reviews, "Small Town Girl" sold a respectable 80,000 copies to top the Billboard country charts.
Of course, just because a few producers think it's a good idea to make a pilot built around an "Idol" singer doesn't mean that the networks will eventually agree. Has anybody heard anything lately about Constantine Maroulis' in-development ABC sitcom? We haven't either.