Fourteen years after the end of Ally McBeal, Fox is returning to the legal dramedy arena with another female-centered young ensemble. The network has given a script commitment plus penalty to The Underlings, from Hart of Dixie creator producer Leila Gerstein and Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment.
Written/executive produced by Gerstein, The Underlings is set at a corporate law firm fueled by greed where a group of beleaguered, hapless assistants, led by a plucky paralegal, resolves to right the wrongs of their evil bosses and clients.
Kaplan is executive producing with Dana Honor. The project has been laid off at 20th Century Fox TV.
Gerstain created and executive produced small-town dramedy Hart of Dixie, starring Rachel Bilson, which ran on the CW for four seasons. Her series credits also include The O.C., Eli Stone and Gossip Girl. She is repped by WME.
Kapital’s sales this season include comedies Me, Myself and I, from writer Dan Kopelman, which has a pilot production commitment at CBS; Charlie Foxtrot, from Sam Sklaver, which has a put pilot commitment at ABC; and 9J, 9K, and 9L, from Dana Klein and Mark Feuerstein, with a significant penalty at CBS.
