Kudrow's NBC Comeback

Lisa Kudrow and her producing partner sign a new development deal with NBC Universal that may also see the Friends star returning to primetime

By Josh Grossberg Jun 14, 2006 9:25 PMTags

With Lisa Kudrow's Comeback cut short on HBO, the Emmy winner is looking to her old pals at NBC for some work.

The former Friends standout and her producing partner, Dan Bucatinsky, have inked a two-year development deal that could ultimately see her back on the air on the network that made her famous.

Per the Hollywood Reporter, the pair's three-year-old production banner, Is or Isn't Entertainment, will exit its current home base at Warner Bros. TV and relocate to NBC Universal Television Studio, which will have first shot at any series Kudrow and Bucatinsky may hatch.

While the duo will serve as producers on most projects, the erstwhile Phoebe is reportedly willing to return to TV should the right material come along.

So far in her post-Friends life, though, the right material has eluded Kudrow both in front of and behind the cameras.

In her HBO meta-series, The Comeback, she played Valerie Cherish, a neurotic has-been TV star who headlines a new reality program called The Comeback following her attempts at reviving her career as a bit player on a new sitcom. But the show-within-a-show premise failed to click with viewers and HBO pulled the plug after one season.

Kudrow and Bucatinsky's track record as producers has been sketchy, having developed and produced a quartet of pilots that never flew: an untitled comedy starring former Talk Soup host Aisha Tyler; the 2005 CBS drama pilot The Commuters starring David Arquette; NBC's All In with Janeane Garafalo; and Beck and Call for UPN. Is or Isn't Entertainment also produced the 2003 ABC Family flick Picking Up and Dropping Off.

For its part, NBC hopes that Kudrow will be able to rekindle ratings that have been in free-fall since Friends left the Must-See lineup. The network is also banking on Kudrow to have better success than former cast mate Matt LeBlanc, whose Joey was a resounding bomb.

The network has also invited back Matthew Perry, who will star in the new Aaron Sorkin series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, about the behind-the-scenes drama at a sketch comedy show, which will debut this fall.

"Lisa and Dan have an incredibly sophisticated and distinctive taste," Shelley McCrory, NBC Universal TV's senior vice president for comedy series, told the Reporter. "They are a great talent magnet, and they are very prolific. She is a great performer and producer, and he is a terrific writer, so the two are a great team."

Under the NBC deal, the company is reportedly developing several new projects, including an adaptation of the book But Enough About Me by Jancee Dunn about a Jersey girl who winds up hanging with Hollywood stars. Kudrow and Bucatinsky are also teaming up with the producers of Project Runway for an unscripted show for Bravo set in the world of sketch comedy.

No word when--or if--any of these programs will be ready for prime time.