Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Daryl "Chill" Mitchell returning to TV comedy

From Variety. Mitchell (pictured) is one of the few wheelchair users with a flourishing high-profile acting career in Hollywood. CCH Pounder signed on April 6 to play the mother on the show.

Former pro football player Michael Strahan, who now serves as a football analyst for "Fox NFL Sunday," is trying out his sitcom chops.

Strahan is set to star in the laffer pilot "Brothers" (working title), which Fox greenlit on Sony Pictures TV and the prolific Tantamount label -- which already has six other pilots in the works this season -- are behind the project, which comes from scribe Don Reo.

Also set to star: Daryl "Chill" Mitchell ("Ed"). Ted Wass is attached to direct.

"Brothers" will star Strahan as a retired NFL player who returns to his hometown and starts working to reconnect with his family -- especially his brother (Mitchell), who is confined to a wheelchair following a car accident.

In real life, Mitchell was paralyzed in a 2001 motorcycle accident; he played a paralyzed bowling alley manager on "Ed." Prior to his accident, he also starred in "Veronica's Closet" and "The John Larroquette Show."

As for Strahan, although the sitcom world is new to him, he appeared in a Web series, a commercial for Snickers and starred in a humorous advertisement for Right Guard. Strahan hosted Spike TV's "Pros vs. Joes" and the DIY Network series "Backyard Stadiums," and he has guested on series such as NBC's "Chuck."

Reo will exec produce with Tantamount's Eric Tannenbaum, Kim Tannenbaum and Mitch Hurwitz.