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[06/21/07 - 05:57 PM]
The Futon's First Look: "Playing Chicken" (FOX)

[05/04/07 - 06:09 PM]
Development Update: Week of April 30-May 4
Updates include: The CW orders "Farmer Wants a Wife," HBO eyes a pair of sports-themed mini-series and Twentieth Television extends "Divorce Court" and "Judge Alex."

[03/23/07 - 03:39 AM]
Development Update: Friday, March 23
Updates include: HBO sets its summer schedule, "Drawn Together" creators set up at 20th and NBC orders a new dating show pilot.

[03/20/07 - 04:57 PM]
2007 FOX Program Development Guide - Comedy Series
FOX details its 13 comedy pilots under consideration for next season.

[03/14/07 - 01:20 AM]
Development Update: Wednesday, March 14
Updates include: Penn Badgley, Polly Walker, Jake Busey and Melissa McCarthy all snag pilots while CBS eyes a new game show and FOX tables "NSA Innocent."

[03/08/07 - 12:05 AM]
Development Update: Thursday, March 8
Updates include: Pilots for Kal Penn, Jeffrey Tambor, Michelle Trachtenberg, Hector Elizondo, Mia Maestro, Adam Goldberg and many more!

[03/01/07 - 12:27 AM]
Development Update: Thursday, March 1
Updates include: Lots of casting news, including pilots for Horatio Sanz, Faith Ford, Paul Reubens and Donald Sutherland.

[02/05/07 - 12:11 AM]
Development Update: Monday, February 5
Updates include: Brooke Shields, Norbert Leo Butz, Eric Balfour all land pilots, plus new clearances for "UFC Wired" while the CW adds another drama pilot.

[02/01/07 - 12:34 AM]
Development Update: Thursday, February 1
Updates include: New pilot orders from ABC and FOX plus ABC finds its "Mrs. Smith" and Laurie Metcalf to play "Virgin" for Lifetime.

[01/17/07 - 12:07 AM]
Development Update: Wednesday, January 17
Updates include: FOX adds two pilots to its roster, casting news on NBC's "The I.T. Crowd" and new scripts at HBO and Showtime.







PLAYING CHICKEN (FOX)
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY:
1/17/07 - 6/21/07
STATUS:
previously in development (2007-2008 season)
DEVELOPMENT STAGE:
ordered to pilot
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
pilot filmed on 4/18/07
DESCRIPTION:
(from FOX's press release) America is more politically polarized than ever. More and more of us are discovering political divisions within our own homes. These were once predominantly generational divides the liberal, idealistic young clashing with the conservative, older Establishment. Today, all bets are off. Your ideological nemesis could be your best friend, your wife or even your very own brother. Such is the case with JAKE (Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz, "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels") and TIM (actor/comedian Bill Burr, "Late Show with David Letterman," "Chappelle's Show"). Jake is a tough, brash, obnoxious, call-it-as-I-see-it conservative. His brother Tim is a passionate, opinionated, but lazy liberal. They agree on almost nothing. The boys grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. While Jake was off hunting, dirt-biking or drinking with his buddies in the country, Tim was reading, going to art films or hanging out at the university. Eventually, Tim moved to New York and began teaching middle-school English, while Jake remained in Wisconsin, where he worked as a roofer and partied with his rowdy friends. When one of those friends challenged Jake to a game of chicken on jet skis and neither of them turned out to be chicken, Jake wound up in a wheelchair. Tim left his job and his rent-controlled apartment to return to Madison and help with his brother's rehabilitation. A year later, the fiercely determined Jake is largely independent. Now Jake's roommate, Tim picks up subbing gigs at local schools and works on his novel. The brothers disagree, argue and go to insane lengths when trying to make a point. The only person who dominates them is their mother DONNA (Marianne Muellerleile, "Life with Bonnie"), a caustic, large-and-in-charge bulldozer of tough love. Widowed for three years, she recently opened herself up to the possibility of a love life by moving into a community for retired singles. Along with their dim, sweetly enthusiastic childhood friend KARL (Jake Busey, "Enemy of the State") and Jake's lovely, quirky and compassionate physical therapist COLETTE, Tim and Jake continue to wrestle with the politics of the world and the family PLAYING CHICKEN until somebody flinches first. PLAYING CHICKEN is from Warner Bros. Television and Werner-Gold-Miller. Tom Werner ("That 70s Show," "3rd Rock from the Sun," "The Cosby Show"), Jimmy Miller ("Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," "Borat") and Mike Clements are executive producers.
PRINCIPAL CAST INFORMATION:
· Alanna Ubach as Colette
· Bill Burr as Tim
· Jake Busey as Karl
· Marianne Muellerleile as Donna
· Norbert Leo Butz as Jake
CREW INFORMATION:
· Eric Gold as EP
· Jimmy Miller as EP
· John Morris as CRTR/CO-EP
· John Pasquin as DIR (Pilot)
· Mike Clements as EP
· Sean Anders as CRTR/CO-EP
· Tom Werner as EP
GENRE(S):
· comedy (all)
· comedy (multi-camera)
STUDIO INFORMATION:
· Warner Bros. Television
· Werner-Gold-Miller