“Will & Grace” co-creator, “Friends” grad team for sibling comedy pilot

PanARMENIAN.Net - NBC may have found its multicamera comedy to pair with its Will and Grace revival, and it comes from familiar auspices, The Hollywood Reporter said.

The network on Friday, January 27 handed out a pilot order to Happy Peppers, a multicamera comedy from Will and Grace co-creator Max Mutchnick and Friends alum Jeff Astrof.

Developed at CBS in 2015, the comedy centers on an adult brother and sister who wind up living together for the first time since they were kids after one of them suffers a big loss. They become each other's wingmen, shoulders to cry on, best friends, and punching bags as they navigate love, loss and work while helping to get each other "un-stuck."

Astrof, a comedy veteran whose credits include Friends, Grounded for Life and The New Adventures of Old Christine, will re-team with Mutchnick on the project following their collaboration for CBS' short-lived comedy Partners. Mutchnick and Astrof will write the script. Mutchnick produces via his Too Mutch Ink banner, while Astrof will serve in the same capacity via his Barge Productions banner. The comedy hails from Warner Bros. Television.

Happy Peppers marks NBC's seventh comedy pilot order of the season and first multicamera entry. The network also has its 10-episode Will and Grace multicamera comedy revival. (It's also only the third overall multicamera pilot order this season, including Will and Grace.)

NBC's Jennifer Salke told THR this month that the network was looking to pair Will and Grace with another big multicamera comedy, and should Happy Peppers move ahead, it could hold that slot and create a block of programming for Mutchnick.

Mutchnick and his longtime producing partner David Kohan are set to return to write the Will and Grace revival, which is being produced by Universal Television.

The Will and Grace revival came out of Mutchnick's idea to do an election-themed revival that ultimately went viral. The sets were stored at Emerson College in Boston, where they had been housed for the past 10 years but needed to be moved. Mutchnick transported the sets to the show's original studio and had them reassembled.