Felicity Huffman Returns To TV To Star In ABC Baseball Comedy – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Felicity Huffman returns to acting – and ABC – with a one-camera comedy that landed a big pilot production engagement at the network. The peanut butter hawkZack Gottsagen is a co-star on Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment Project.

Written by Becky Hartman Edwards, the untitled comedy is inspired by Susan Savage, the real owner of the Sacramento River Cats Triple-A baseball team. This is the first project Huffman has undertaken since the 2019 college admissions scandal.

The Emmy-winning actress has been heavily courted for television series and pilots since serving her short jail term after pleading guilty to fraud over a year ago. Kaplan approached Huffman with the idea of ​​a Savage-inspired series, to which she responded. He brought in Hartman Edwards as a writer, and Gottsagen, who has a talent contract with Kapital, came on board to co-star against Huffman. The project was pulled, attracting multiple bids, and ultimately landed at ABC. He was then made redundant at ABC Signature.

A funny, surprising and at times heartbreaking half-hour about love, loss, family, and Triple-A baseball, the project stars Huffman as the unlikely owner of a minor league baseball team. After suddenly losing her husband and inheriting her beloved team, she is forced to navigate her new normal with the help of her dysfunctional family, including her eldest son (Gottsagen), an avid baseball fan with syndrome. Down, his working family and the community of Sacramento at Large. It’s the story of a woman who goes through grief, local politics and the sports business and learns not only to adapt, but to thrive.

Hartman Edwards, Huffman and Savage produce alongside Kaplan and Dana Honor of Kapital and Joel Zadak of Artists First. Gottsagen is a producer. ABC Signature is the studio.

Huffman and Kaplan both have a long history at ABC.

All three TV series that Huffman has led have been on ABC and have all received critical acclaim: comedy Sports evening, drama Desperate housewives and dramatic anthology American crime. All three roles earned Huffman major award nominations; she won an Emmy for Desperate housewives.

Kaplan’s first pilot as a producer, comedy Funny in Farsi, was at ABC. He currently has three series on the network: drama A million little things comedy American housewife and the next limited series Women of the movement.

On TV, Huffman recently starred in Ava DuVernay’s award-winning Netflix limited series. When they see us. On the feature film side, Oscar nominated Huffman’s most recent credits include Netflix Otherness and indie Tammy is still dying. It is replaced by ICM Partners.

Peanut Butter Falcon marked the acting debut for Gottsagen. His role as aspiring wrestler Zak in the comedy-drama Boyfriend has earned him accolades including the Rising Star Award at the 2020 Palm Springs Film Festival and the 2020 Newcomer Award from the Hollywood Critics Association. He is replaced by Gail Williamson of KMR, Zadak and lawyer Priya Verma of Morris Yorn.

Hartman Edwards was recently executive producer on ABC’s The baker and the beauty and Freeform’s The daring guy. It is covered by UTA, Literate and Del Shaw Moonves.

In 1999, the Vancouver Canadiens Triple-A of the Pacific Coast League were bought by a group led by Art Savage who moved the team to West Sacramento, renaming it River Cats. Savage was the majority owner of the team until his death in November 2009 at the age of 58. His widow, Susan, became the majority owner upon the death of her husband, which made the franchise successful. In 2016, the River Cats were named the most valuable franchise in minor league baseball with a value of $ 49 million. The team is the reigning Triple-A national champion who won the championship game last year.