Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were the showrunners at The Simpsons during seasons 7 and 8, and writers for many seasons before that. Since leaving The Simpsonsin 1997, they’ve worked on lots of shows both together and independently, including Futurama and Portlandia and a whole slew of pilots that haven’t seen the light of day. And now, they’re bringing one of the first scripted series to reality fixture Bravo with 22 Birthdays.
The show “centers on the sordid and scandalous activities of a group of parents at an exclusive private school, with each episode centered around an extravagant and lavish birthday party.†The pilot was actually produced for CBS back in early 2007, but it wasn’t picked up to series. In reports from around then, the show was reported to be a drama or a dramedy, but we’ll have to wait and see if the tone gets adjusted for its new home on cable.
Update: I chatted briefly with Oakley about the show, and he said that he and Weinstein are currently reworking the script for it to fit more in with the vibe on Bravo rather than CBS. It is indeed a dramedy, and he says the feel will fall “somewhere between Desperate Housewives and Party Down.†It won’t premiere until late next year at the earliest, so we’ve got a pretty long wait until we get to see what the show will end up being, but it sounds pretty fun so far.