NBC just ordered up a pilot for a multi-camera sitcom written by and starring stand-up John Mulaney, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The untitled show is a loosely based on Mulaney’s life as a stand-up comedian and has been described as “a young ensemble vehicle.†Mulaney serves as a writer on Saturday Night Live and has appeared twice on the show to do commentary at the Weekend Update desk. His SNL boss Lorne Michaels is producing the sitcom via his company Broadway Video, which also produces 30 Rock, Portlandia, Up All Night, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, SNL, and the YouTube channel Above Average. Michaels has one other show in development for the fall, an untitled sitcom written by and starring SNL’s Kenan Thompson for NBC, but it hasn’t been ordered to pilot yet. This John Mulaney show seems like a safe bet with Mulaney’s experience as a longtime SNL writer and a popular stand-up coming in handy for his writing and acting duties. It’ll be hard for a multi-camera sitcom about a stand-up comedian and his friends not to remind people of Seinfeld, but if anybody can make something super cool to break free of those Seinfeld comparisons, it’s John Mulaney.
