Pilot Preview: 'Growing Up Fisher'

Colleen Hayes/NBC

We read all the scripts, now we’re watching all the pilots. SSN brings you our insight on the hot new pilots of the upcoming TV season as we watch the screeners and report back to you.
GROWING UP FISHER
NBC Comedy
Premieres Midseason 2013
Executive Producer: DJ Nash (Up All Night, Guys with Kids, Traffic Light), Jason Bateman (Narrator), Jim Garavente
Director: David Schwimmer (TV directing: Little Britain USA, Joey, The Tracy Morgan Show, Friends)
Writer: DJ Nash
Cast: J.K. Simmons, Eli Baker, Ava Deluca-Verley, Jenna Elfman, Narrator: Jason Bateman
Logline: This comedy is inspired by DJ Nash’s real family. Mel Fisher is a blind attorney. He kept it a secret for a long time and while he did, his 11 year old son Henry helped guide him in various situations. Then everything changed when Mel got a new guide dog named Elvis and Mel and his wife decided to divorce. As Henry tries to cope with all the changes at home, he blames it all on the dog. Meanwhile, Henry’s mom is going through an adolescence of her own as she’s no longer someone’s wife. This complicates things for the Fisher’s teenage daughter too as she wants a mother, not a BFF. In the end, Henry slowly discovers the guide dog is doing more to help his family than keep him from his dad.
SSN Insight: Casting note: Parker Posey played the mother in the original pilot; she has since departed the project. Jenna Elfman has since been cast in the role.
After working on a couple of woefully underappreciated comedies, NBC’s Bent and FOX’s Traffic Light, Nash has created a show that is a warm, affectionate remembrance. Very Wonder Years in feel, with the right balance of wryly funny moments and heart. Nash may have found the secret to a hit comedy: tell your own story and find the funny in your own truth.
The show’s competition: TBA