[Editor's Note: TVWW contributor Donna J. Plesh died April 2, 2015, from ovarian cancer. She was 71. Donna covered television since the early 1980s, initially for the Orange County Register and its TV magazine. She also was a member of the Television Critics Association. Donna was always a cheerful spirit within the TVWW network and often gave readers a kind, up-close viewpoint in her interviews with a wide variety of television stars. She will be missed.]
PASADENA, CA. -- Peter Pan is returning to NBC.
NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt said Sunday the classic musical will air live on the network on Dec. 4. Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who produced the ratings hit The Sound of Music for the network this past December, will return as executive producers of Pan. No cast has been announced.
NBC first staged a live version of the popular Broadway musical in 1954, starring Mary Martin (right), with several other live productions until 1960.
In a wide-ranging question and answer session at the NBC portion of the Television Critics Association winter press tour, Greenblatt also announced that the network’s Thursday night comedy Parks and Recreation will return for a seventh season. This came after Greenblatt acknowledged NBC’s Thursday night 8-10 p.m. comedy block (Community, Parks and Recreation, The Michael J. Fox Show and Sean Saves the World) has been problematic for the network, ratings-wise.
For years, Thursday night was a “Must-See TV” night on NBC. Though giving Parks a seventh season, Greenblatt did not say if it, or other comedies, would continue to be the focus of the network’s 8-10 p.m. Thursday lineup.
Jay Leno, leaving the network and his The Tonight Show with Jay Leno next month, came in for high praise from Greenblatt.
“I have to tell you, this network has been incredibly fortunate to have had a talent like Jay on our team since 1992. He’s kept the great brand of The Tonight Show virtually No. 1 for his entire run. He’s been a fixture at this company and in people’s bedrooms for over two decades...
"It is no exaggeration to say that Jay Leno is the hardest working man in television, the very definition of a team player, and to those who know him personally -- and I’m happy now to include myself in that group -- he’s truly one of the nicest and most decent people in this business," Greenblatt added.
"As he told me recently, NBC has really been his only home, so I’m very much hoping we’ll enter into a new relationship with him after The Tonight Show, and keep his home here at NBC. On behalf of everyone at NBC, I want to publicly say for the record to Jay Leno, Debbie Vickers and the entire incredible Tonight Show team, we thank you for making television history and for doing it with class on NBC,” Greenblatt said.
”I would love him to do specials with us, and we’ve got ideas about other sorts of shows he can host. We’re being very respectful of him, and not sort of really pushing that agenda too hard. He didn’t want to have any of those conversations until he got through the final week of The Tonight Show."
Greenblatt added that Billy Crystal, who was Leno’s first guest when he began the show on May 25, 1992 (seen at left above) will, along with Garth Brooks, be one of the talk show host’s guests on his farewell show Feb. 6.
In other programming news, Greenblatt said NBC has ordered a drama pilot, State of Affairs, which stars Katherine Heigl in her return to television. Heigl plays a CIA attaché who counsels the President on high-stakes incidents around the world.
The network also will continue its relationship with Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler.
“We love Amy Poehler," Greenblatt said. "We’re so happy that she won the Golden Globe last week for her great work on Parks and Rec. We feel she’s a part of the NBC family. She grew up here on SNL...
"We’re so proud of Parks and Rec, so I’m pleased to also announce that we’ve just closed a three-year overall producing deal with her to develop and produce new shows for us. I have to say she works really fast.
"This deal is barely done, and she’s already delivered us this script that we’re piloting. We are really happy to find new ways to grow our relationship with her, as she remains as the star and the centerpiece of Parks and Rec,“ he added. That show, as yet untitled, from Poehler’s company, is a comedy starring Natasha Lyonne, who stars as a woman who’s trying to find herself, while working as an aide to a group of elderly people.
In addition, Greenblatt said NBC has ordered 10 episodes of a new dramatic miniseries called Emerald City, a re-imagining of the Frank L. Baum books that inspired The Wizard of Oz and Wicked. It focuses on a 20-year-old Dorothy, who is sent on a journey that takes her into the center of an epic and bloody battle for the control of Oz.
Also in the works is The Slap, an eight-episode miniseries based on an Australian project of the same name. It is a complex family drama about what happens after an incident where a man slaps another couple’s misbehaving child. The seemingly minor dispute pulls the family apart and begins to expose long-held secrets.