Ryan Murphy has sold yet another project to a network this week, landing himself a pilot script deal at NBC for a single-camera half-hour comedy based on Brian Frazer's memoir "Hyper-chondriac: One Man's Quest to Hurry Up and Calm Down," following a bidding war for the project between ABC and NBC.Frazer's memoir is about his own odyssey to eliminate the stress that was causing his various medical ailments.
Jason Dean Hall (Grand Theft Auto) will adapt the book for television, with the plot revolving around a pharmaceutical salesman who sells his supplies at hospitals and believes he is suffering from various illnesses... the symptoms of which end up being real, rather than imagined, but are caused by other factors.
Murphy is attached to direct and executive produce the pilot for Hyper-condriac, which is expected to shoot next year.
The news comes swiftly on the heels of Murphy's sale of his drama pilot script Glee, which FOX picked up in July and has hopes to put on the air sometime in March.
Glee is about a high school Spanish teacher who becomes the adviser to the school's glee club, made up of a motley crew of eccentrics whom he hopes to mold into a formidable musical force.
I read the script for Glee about two weeks ago and have to say that I was less than impressed. I get that FOX wants to put this on the air at the same time that American Idol is on, hoping that the halo effect will continue over to this dull drama.
Murphy mined teenagedom to far better effect in his shortlived WB series Popular and here the characters are so stock that they seem made of cardboard. I also just don't see where this series is going and the plot seems better suited for a film than an ongoing series, especially given that some of the obstacles facing the glee club are already erased by the end of the pilot script. How very disappointing.
Stay tuned.
What's On Tonight
8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Celebrity Family Feud (NBC); Beauty & the Geek (CW); Wipeout (ABC); Kitchen Nightmares (FOX)
9 pm: Big Brother 10 (CBS); America's Got Talent (NBC; 9-11 pm); Reaper (CW); I Survived a Japanese Game Show (ABC; 9-11 pm); House (FOX)
10 pm: Without a Trace (CBS)
What I'll Be Watching
8-10 pm: Britcoms on BBC America.
I don't know about you but by Tuesday night, I'm usually in need of some comedy in my life. Why not stick around on Tuesday nights for BBC America's new comedy lineup, consisting of classic episodes of Coupling, new comedy Not Going Out, and Absolutely Fabulous?
8 pm: Kitchen Nightmares.
'Cause I miss the softer side of Gordon Ramsay.
10 pm: Flipping Out on Bravo.
On the second season finale of Flipping Out ("Back in the Market"), Jeff refuses to be a "doormat" anymore and comes down hard on his crew whilst finding himself looking for a new place to live, with a deal on Commonwealth looking likely to close.
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