by Showtime is going to take a crack at retelling the initial comedy boom of Los Angeles in the 1970s, giving Jim Carrey and Dave Flebotte a one-hour pilot to adapt the book I’m Dying Up Here, to premium cable TV.
“The 1970s L.A. comedy scene gave rise to some of the biggest and most influential performers of the last half-century,” said David Nevins, Showtime Networks president. “Who better than Jim Carrey and Dave Flebotte, who were both there, to tell the story of that special era along with the complicated and talented performers that dared to grab an open mic.”
Flebotte is writing the pilot and executive producing with Carrey. Other EPs on the project: Michael Aguilar and Christina Wayne. Jonathan Levine will direct. It’s from Endemol Shine Studios and Assembly Entertainment. Journalist William Knoedelseder wrote the book, centering it around the comedians who gathered at and around The Comedy Store on L.A.’s Sunset Strip, striking for better wages in the late 1970s when they weren’t all dying and trying to get on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
HBO has a new series coming out, Vinyl, that celebrates the rock ‘n’ roll era of that period and looks promising, thanks in large part to the participation of Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger.
Here’s hoping Flebotte and Carrey can work similar magic.
Flebotte is executive-producing the upcoming HBO comedy, Brothers in Atlanta, and currently is a Co-EP on Showtime’s hit period piece retelling the history of the sexual revolution with Masters of Sex. He’s also served as a Co-EP, EP or producer on Desperate Housewives, Will & Grace, Raising Hope, and The Bernie Mac Show. Before that, he was a stand-up comedian himself.
And Carrey certainly remembers what it was like there and then. Roll the clip!
