Valerie Bertinelli has signed on to star in a new comedy pilot for TBS from writer/executive producer Dave Caplan, whose credits include TBS’s popular sitcom The Bill Engvall Show, as well as George Lopez and The Drew Carey Show, officials said Wednesday.
The as-yet-untitled sitcom centers on a single mother trying to run a business while raising two children, with the show’s premise inspired by events in Caplan’s own life.
Bertinelli, a veteran of the sitcom One Day at a Time, will serve as producer. The project comes to TBS from Sony Pictures Television.
Caplan wrote the pilot script and will serve as executive producer along with Original Film’s Neal Moritz and Vivian Cannon.
“Valerie Bertinelli became a popular fixture on television playing one of two children being raised by a single working mother,” said Michael Wright, senior vice president in charge of the Content Creation Group for TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies. “Now she's exploring that world from the opposite angle, playing a single working mother raising two children.”
The Caplan project follows the life of a woman who manages to get through the day with surprisingly good humor despite very difficult circumstances: Her husband walks out, leaving her with two kids and a struggling lumberyard. It will take every ounce of energy she has to keep both her household and her business afloat, while facing obstacles at every turn.
