BIG DEAL Pilot Episode Ordered & BACK TO LIFE Renewed for Season Two by Showtime

Big Deal Pilot Episode Ordered and Back to Life Renewed for Season Two by Showtime

Showtime has given a pilot episode order to Big Deal and has renewed Back to Life for a Second Season. The press releases below detail the Big Deal pilot order and Back to Life second season renewal.

Big Deal Pilot Episode Ordered Press Release

SHOWTIME has announced a pilot order for the half-hour comedy series BIG DEAL, starring and executive produced by Emmy nominee Vanessa Bayer (Saturday Night Live). Bayer co-created the project with Emmy nominee Jeremy Beiler (Saturday Night Live), who will also executive produce. Emmy winner Jessi Klein (Inside Amy Schumer, BLACK MONDAY, Big Mouth) will serve as showrunner and executive produce along with Michael Showalter (The Big Sick, Wet Hot American Summer), who will direct. Annapurna’s Megan Ellison and Sue Naegle will also executive produce. The announcement was made today by Gary Levine and Jana Winograde, Presidents of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc.

Produced by SHOWTIME, BIG DEAL is a grounded comedy in which Bayer plays a character, inspired by her own past, who overcame childhood leukemia to achieve her lifelong dream of landing a job as a QVC host.

“Vanessa Bayer is such a sharp and joyful comic talent, and in BIG DEAL she mines the story of her own life to deliver hard comedy with deep resonance,” said Levine. “In Jeremy, Jessi and Michael, we have a veritable All-Star team who never fail to deliver smart, subversive and funny comedy – which BIG DEAL certainly promises to be.”

Nominated for an Emmy and an American Comedy Award during her seven seasons on Saturday Night Live, Bayer has also appeared in such film and television projects as Trainwreck, Ibiza, Office Christmas Party, Will & Grace, Drunk History, Portlandia, Sound Advice and Man Seeking Woman.

Beiler has earned three Emmy nominations and two Writers Guild of America awards for his work on Inside Amy Schumer and Saturday Night Live. His recent credits include I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.

A multiple Emmy nominee, Klein served as head writer and executive producer of Inside Amy Schumer, which won the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series and a Peabody Award. She also served as consulting producer and writer on BLACK MONDAY. Her writing and producing credits also include Dead to Me, Transparent, Kroll Show and Saturday Night Live, and she is also one of the lead voices on Big Mouth. Klein’s debut book, You’ll Grow Out of It, was released in 2016 and became a New York Times bestseller.

In addition to directing the critically acclaimed The Big Sick, Showalter’s extensive resume of writing and directing includes Hello My Name Is Doris, Wet Hot American Summer and its sequels, Search Party, Childrens Hospital, Super Fun Night, The State and the upcoming The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

BIG DEAL is executive produced by Vanessa Bayer, Jeremy Beiler, Michael Showalter and Jessi Klein, along with Megan Ellison and Sue Naegle of Annapurna and Jordana Mollick of Semi-Formal.

Back to Life Renewed for Season Two by Showtime Press Release

SHOWTIME has announced a second season of the six-part comedy series BACK TO LIFE, which will be a co-production with BBC Three. From Fleabag producers Harry and Jack Williams of Two Brothers Pictures, BACK TO LIFE is created and written by Daisy Haggard and Laura Solon, with Haggard starring. Debuting to rave reviews, BACK TO LIFE will wrap up its first season on Sunday, November 24 at 10 p.m. ET/PT with two back-to-back episodes. The entire season is available now for on-demand streaming or download on the SHOWTIME and SHOWTIME ANYTIME® apps, as well as for viewing via SHOWTIME On Demand. The announcement was made today by Gary Levine and Jana Winograde, Presidents of Entertainment, Showtime Networks Inc.

“BACK TO LIFE is a charming, funny and introspective comedy that resonates beautifully with SHOWTIME viewers,” said Winograde. “With such sharp writing and sensitive, winning performances from Daisy and the cast, we are confident that this gem from across the pond has even more delights to share with us in season two.”

Daisy Haggard said, “Laura and I are delighted that Showtime and the BBC are giving us a chance to continue Miri’s story. There’s so much more to tell, and we are incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to do that!”

“The reception that BACK TO LIFE has received has been amazing,” said Harry Williams, Managing Director, Two Brothers Pictures. “Daisy and Laura are those rare writers that can make you laugh and cry in equal measure – which is a wonderful quality. We can’t wait for fans to see what they have in store for Miri this time around.”

In the first season of BACK TO LIFE, Haggard plays Miri Matteson, who after 18 years behind bars, returns home and stumbles back into adult life in the coastal town she once knew, while the mystery of her past looms large. Miri’s first few weeks out of prison see her trying (and frequently failing) to lead a normal life in her picturesque but claustrophobic seaside hometown. Miri attempts to rekindle old relationships, make new ones, look for work and readjust to life outside, while desperately waiting for the world to forget about what happened that fateful night. Guiding Miri as she tries to adapt are a cast of offbeat and intriguing characters with secrets of their own, including her sexually frustrated mother, Caroline (Geraldine James), her obsessive environmentalist father, Oscar (Richard Durden), and her parole officer with no filter, Janice (Jo Martin). We also meet first love Dom (Jamie Michie), ex-best friend Mandy (Christine Bottomley), next-door neighbor Billy (Adeel Akhtar) and fish and chips shop owner and new boss Nathan (Liam Williams).

BACK TO LIFE is produced by Two Brothers Pictures for BBC Three, UK in association with all3media international. The series is created, written and executive produced by Haggard, Harry and Jack Williams and Sarah Hammond. Co-writer Laura Solon serves as executive producer. For more information on the series, go to www.sho.com/back-to-life.

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