http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/08/fx-renews-louie-orders-sci-fi-comedy-pilot.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+live_feed+%28The+Hollywood+Reporter+-+Live+Feed%29
[ http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/08/fx-renews-louie-orders-sci-fi-comedy-pilot.html ]FX orders Star Trek spoof pilot, renews Louie by [ http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/author/jhibberd/ ]James Hibberd | August 3, 2010 FX has ordered a comedy pilot from the makers of "Reno 911" whose logline makes it sound like an unofficial "Star Trek" parody. Set a thousand years in the future, "Alabama" follows the crew of the space ship USS Alabama as they continue a seven-year mission to maintain interplanetary peace. "The show will follow the heart-pounding action as our crew visits hostile planets, meets alien life-forms, and tries to have sex with each other in their tiny, metal bunk beds," FX said. "Alabama" is created by and stars "Reno 911" veterans Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant and, just like the former Comedy Central series, will be part-scripted and part-improvised. Garant and Lennon are executive producers along with Peter Principato and Paul Young. In addition, FX has renewed the Louis C.K. comedy "Louie" for a 13-episode second season. The pickup comes about five weeks into the show's run, with the comedy performing fairly modestly -- averaging about 1 million viewers per week. The announcements were made at the Television Critics Association's press tour, where FX had the longest presentation in the network's history, scheduling nearly a full day of panels. FX's entertainment president John Landgraf said he hopes to expand the network's burgeoning lineup to a dozen shows, including 6-8 comedies. After that, Landgraf said, the network will reach a saturation point, unable to expand further due to the marketing costs associated with promoting so many shows. FX has already hit its goal to get on the comedy map, with veteran "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" steadily improving in the ratings and freshman animated series "Archer" becoming a surprise breakout. Along with "Louie" and "The League," the network has four functioning half-hour comedies. Critics noted FX's paucity of Emmy nominations, and Landgraf noted that TV Academy favorite "Damages," which is shifting to DirecTV, is set in the upper echelons of elite Manhattan society compared to the network's array of blue collar protagonists. "Emmys live in their own separate universe," he said. "Of the shows that qualified for an Emmy, 'Rescue Me,' 'Justified,' 'Sons of Anarcy' and 'Damages' all accured as much acclaim universal acclaim based on their Metacritic scores ... We the tendency to do the literature of the common man and common woman I don't think there's a lesson in personal grooming to be taken from 'Sons' ... Does that effect the Emmys? I don't know." Landgraf also said that, for actors, in recent years it has become more prestigious to land a cable show. "It's become a status symbol for an actor to have a cable show," Landgraf said. "A lot of being a movie star is being in a latex costume in front of a green screen wearing guide-wires and learning to do karate." Wrapping up the session, Landgraf noted, "I haven't said anything Tweet-worthy," then announced: "Peter Rice told me I could deny that Steve McPherson is becoming a judge on 'American Idol.'"
