I don’t know anyone who isn’t filled with dread at the sight of CAVEMEN coming down the pike. The sitcom based on characters in a series of commercials for Geico has just announced that Bill Martin and Mike Schiff will be producing the show. Formerly of GROUNDED FOR LIFE and 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN, ABC has hired them for a seven-figure, multi-show development deal which includes wrestling CAVEMEN into submission.

“There was something appealing about coming into a project that was two weeks away from shooting and also something intimidating because you have to quickly wrap your head around everything — the characters, the script the casting,” Martin said.

Yes, that’s right, the executive producers had two weeks to turn the show to their own creative vision, and this in a nutshell is what’s wrong with showbiz today. I suppose something else wrong is the practice of leaning on pre-sold properties, and trying to expand ideas that worked in 30-second formats to fill an entire half-hour.

While I’m at it, Geico should be furious with their ad agency - weren’t at least some of those commercials working as backdoor pilots, instead of selling insurance, on Geico’s dime? I bet they’re keeping a very close eye on the Gekko unit.

That last sentence makes me a little uneasy, and I don’t even want to think about why.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 10th, 2007 at 1:05 am and is filed under General, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.