“The Middle” star Patricia Heaton is facing the end of her ABC sitcom after the current ninth season, but her production company with actor/producer husband David Hunt has a new beginning at NBC.
It’s no secret that certain political and/or religious beliefs can cause trouble in a Hollywood career, but while these difficulties exist, it’s not an absolute that you can’t be a public, outspoken Catholic and a showbiz success.
Along with being open about her Catholic beliefs, Heaton is also a strong advocate for the pro-life cause. While her new show doesn’t deal with that directly, it is about helping young people find their feet as grownups — to get better at “adulting” — so they can create future families.
From Deadline.com:
NBC has given a script commitment plus penalty to Winners, a half-hour single-camera comedy executive produced by The Middle star Patricia Heaton and David Hunt. The project hails from Heaton’s and Hunt’s FourBoys Entertainment and Warner Bros TV where the company has a pod deal.
Written and executive produced by The Simpsons co-executive producer Ryan Koh, Winners is about a group of young people struggling with growing up and becoming independent. When their parents run out of options, they send them to a residential life-coaching facility that prepares them to embrace adulthood.
FourBoys’ TV president Rebecca Stay is overseeing the project for the company, working with Heaton and Hunt.
Heaton and Hunt founded FourBoys Entertainment (the couple has four sons), which keeps offices on the Warner Bros. lot. On the feature-film side, the company is in pre-production on an indie called “Florence, Not Italy,” which Hunt will direct. Other film credits include “Mom’s Night Out” for Sony, and “Amazing Grace” for Walden Media.
“Mom’s Night Out” was a big hit with the values audience; and “Amazing Grace” starred Ioan Gruffudd as William Wilberforce, a Christian member of the British Parliament who led the fight to abolish the slave trade.
On the TV/streaming side are the Netflix documentary “The Bituminous Coal Queens of Pennsylvania” and the Web comedy “Versailles.”
Image: Twitter:@PatriciaHeaton
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