In a competitive situation, Netflix has given a 10-episode straight-to-series order to a half-hour workplace comedy inspired by the front office of the Los Angeles Lakers. The project hails from Mindy Kaling, former star/executive producer of one of the all-time great workplace comedy series, The Office; Modern Family alumna Elaine Ko; Lakers’ President and Governor Jeanie Buss and Warner Bros. TV.
Written by Ko, the untitled series is inspired by the personal and professional dynamic between the family owners and front office team that together run one of the most iconic franchises in all of sports: the Los Angeles Lakers. The workplace comedy follows fictional team governor Eliza Reed as she navigates NBA ownership and family drama with her best friend by her side.
Ko serves as showrunner and executive produces with Kaling, Buss and Linda Rambis of the Lakers, and 3 Arts’ Howard Klein. Jordan Rambis will be a producer.
The series is produced by Mindy Kaling’s Kaling International in association with Warner Bros. Television, where Kaling is under an overall deal.
This is the third LA Lakers-themed upcoming series. It joins the upcoming 1980s Lakers drama series on Warner Bros. TV sibling HBO and a docuseries about the past four decades of the Lakers on Hulu. Of the three, two, the Netflix comedy and the Hulu docuseries, are done with the club’s participation and Bass and longtime Lakers senior executive Linda Rambis serving as executive producers.
Ko was an executive producer on ABC’s Modern Family. She wrote/co-wrote 28 episodes of the acclaimed comedy and directed two. For her work, Ko shared in two of Modern Family’s Outstanding Comedy Series Emmys and earned an individual Episodic Comedy WGA Award for her episode “Virgin Territory.”
Kaling co-created and executive produces the Netflix series Never Have I Ever, which returns for a second season in July. She is in production on her upcoming HBO Max/Warner Bros. TV comedy series The Sex Lives of College Girls, and she is also executive producing and voicing the title character in Warner Bros. Animation’s upcoming HBO Max adult animated comedy Velma. She previously created and starred in The Mindy Project.
Buss is responsible for running all aspects of the Los Angeles Lakers organization. She became the first female Governor to win an NBA Championship when the Lakers tied a league record with their 17th NBA title in 2020.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Deadline