NBC just landed one of the biggest names this pilot season.
Andy Garcia, who has fielded multiple broadcast offers over the past few pilot seasons, has been tapped to star alongside Kenan Thompson in NBC’s comedy pilot from Lorne Michaels.
Formerly called Saving Kenan and now called The Kenan Show, the single-camera comedy stars the Saturday Night Live favorite as a newly widowed dad determined to be everything for his kids while begrudgingly letting his persistent father-in-law become more involved in their lives.
Garcia (the Ocean’s franchise, The Godfather: Part III) will portray Percy, Kenan’s father-in-law and a retired police officer. Jackie Clarke (NBC’s Superstore) penned thee script and will executive produce the comedy alongside SNL mastermind Michaels and his Universal Television-based Broadway Video banner topper Andrew Singer. Thompson will be credited as an executive producer in addition to starring.
Should The Kenan Show be picked up to series — which now, given the star wattage with Garcia attached, seems increasingly likely — Thompson would exit SNL, where he currently ranks as the NBC variety show’s longest-running castmember. The actor, who won his first Emmy last year for SNL, has been with the sketch comedy for 16 seasons.
Repped by CAA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Loeb & Loeb, Garcia next appears in an episode of Amazon’s anthology Modern Love and counts HBO’s My Dinner With Herve and Ballers and features including What About Love, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Passengers and Ghostbusters among his recent credits.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter