NBC has given pilot green light to two comedies, multi-camera Jefferies, starring Jim Jefferies, from the stand-up comedian, writer-producer Suzanne Martin and Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner’s Hazy Mills; and single-camera American Auto, from Superstore creator Justin Spitzer and Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment. Both projects hail from Universal Television where Hazy Mills and Spitzer are under overall deals.
Jefferies and American Auto both had a put pilot commitment at NBC — six years apart. Jefferies was pitched this past fall, while Spitzer and Kaplan originally teamed up and sold American Auto to NBC in 2013. The script did not go to pilot back then, and Spitzer went on to create another single-camera blue-color workplace comedy series for the network, hit Superstore, now in its fifth season. With Spitzer stepping down as Superstore showrunner last summer to focus on development under his Universal TV overall deal, he and Kaplan took a new stab at American Auto, which was redeveloped. .
Written by Spitzer, American Auto is set at the headquarters of a major American automotive company in Detroit, where a floundering group of executives try to rediscover the company identity amidst a rapidly changing industry.
Spitzer executive produces with Kapital’s Kaplan and Dana Honor.
