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[05/29/08 - 12:27 AM]
The Futon's First Look: "Hackett" (FOX)
[03/27/08 - 11:05 AM]
Development Update: Thursday, March 27
Updates include: "Dollhouse" adds quartet; Elisha Cuthbert to topline "NY-LON" for CBS; and ABC adds two pilots.
[09/21/07 - 06:49 PM]
Development Update: Week of September 17-21
Updates include: HBO orders "De La Hoya/Mayweather 24/7" sequel, HBO commits to the Will Ferrell-produced "East Bound and Down," AMC's "Mad Men" nears renewal and Jerry Bruckheimer will import "Eleventh Hour" for CBS.
[08/31/07 - 06:35 PM]
Development Update: Week of August 27-31
Updates include: ABC renews "Just for Laughs," TNT calls it quits on "Heartland," Donal Logue to topline FOX's "Hackett" and MTV commits to "The Paper."
[06/15/07 - 06:27 PM]
Development Update: Week of June 11-15
Updates include: "Veronica Mars" creator Rob Thomas to run ABC's "Miss/Guided," Donald Trump brings "Lady or a Tramp" to FOX, MTV renews "Laguna Beach" and "Run's House" plus a host of casting news.
[06/08/07 - 05:39 PM]
Development Update: Week of June 4-8
Updates include: ABC's "Wanna Bet?" and CBS's "The Captain" set for midseason duty, A&E renews "Gene Simmons' Family Jewels" and Sam Waterston's Jack McCoy earns a promotion on NBC's "Law & Order."
[03/20/07 - 04:57 PM]
2007 FOX Program Development Guide - Comedy Series
FOX details its 13 comedy pilots under consideration for next season.
[03/19/07 - 12:52 AM]
Development Update: Monday, March 19
Updates include: FOX orders six episodes of "Anchorwoman," "Help Me" creators move to the ABC Television Studio and the usual casting round-up.
[02/26/07 - 12:52 AM]
Development Update: Monday, February 26
Updates include: Christopher Guest to direct ABC's "The Thick of It," new roles for Eddie Cibrian, Jim Rash, Kristin Chenoweth, Anna Paquin and more!
[02/22/07 - 12:24 AM]
Development Update: Thursday, February 22
Updates include: Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, Molly Shannon, Chi McBride, Oded Fehr, Samaire Armstrong and Ving Rhames are among the latest to land pilot gigs.
[01/29/07 - 12:46 AM]
Development Update: Monday, January 29
Updates include: CBS and FOX each add two pilots, plus a start date for Lifetime's "Blood Ties" and "extra" seasons for "Extra."






HACKETT (FOX)
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY:
1/29/07 - 5/29/08
STATUS:
previously in development (2008-2009 season)
DEVELOPMENT STAGE:
ordered to pilot
DESCRIPTION:
(from FOX's press release) Meet Mr. THOMAS HACKETT, the new English teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High. He's a teacher who gives a teenager his old collection of Playboys because "the problem with getting boys to read today is that you never accidentally stumble on that brilliant article by William Styron surfing adult content on the Web." A bitter, hard-living womanizer with an irrepressible charm and no small amount of sex appeal, Hackett loves to rankle The Powers That Be. He's the last person you'd want as a role model for your kids and possibly the first one you'd want teaching them. Hackett used to be a high-flying professor at Yale, where he acquired a reputation as "the last great defender of the Y chromosome" and his novels propelled him into the hot, bright center of the New York literati set. But eventually his very public personal life the affairs, the drinking, the outspoken tirades overwhelmed his professional life. And when a 26-year-old grad student with whom he was having a consensual affair sued him for harassment, Hackett's career at Yale was over as was his marriage. Under a legal cloud for unpaid child support and desperate to see his young kids again, Hackett finds a job teaching English in what he calls "the hallowed halls of mediocrity" a public school in suburban Arizona. Soon, no one, not the slackers, the Goths or the wannabes, is safe from his lacerating wit. But Hackett's real sporting interest is the hyper-sensitized, super-PC world of public education, exemplified by power-hungry metrosexual Vice Principal EUGENE WOLGEMOTH (Jim Rash, "Help Me Help You," "Reno 911!"). Only AUDREY DOVER, the school's young, smart principal with a troubled personal life, barely manages to stay one step ahead of him. It is precisely Hackett's brash honesty and strong world view to which the kids respond. The truth is, he's becoming a great teacher in spite of himself. And with the help of his new friendship with fellow teacher TAM, a lesbian with as many problems with women as Hackett, he may find some redemption. HACKETT is an uncompromisingly edgy character comedy from writer Denise Moss ("Murphy Brown," "The Wonder Years," "Frasier") about a man who has to fall all the way to the bottom to find up again.
PRINCIPAL CAST INFORMATION:
· Daryl Mitchell as Doug
· David Koechner as Gary Stankwick
· Donal Logue as Thomas Hackett
· Morgan Murphy as Tam
· Rachel Boston as Audrey Dover
CREW INFORMATION:
· Barry Sonnenfeld as DIR (Pilot)
· Carl Beverly as EP
· Denise Moss as CRTR/EP
· Sarah Timberman as EP
GENRE(S):
· comedy (all)
· comedy (single-camera)
STUDIO INFORMATION:
· 25C Productions
· Sony Pictures Television