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Starz Announces Courteney Cox Comedy; Fox Pulls The Moodys

STARZ announced it has given an eight-episode series order for the horror comedy Shining Vale, starring Golden Globe(R) nominee Courteney Cox (Friends, Cougar Town), Academy Award(R) nominee and Emmy Award(R) winner Greg Kinnear, Oscar(R) winner Mira Sorvino (Hollywood, The Expecting), Merrin Dungey (Big Little Lies, The Resident), Gus Birney (Dickinson) and Dylan Gage (PEN15). Dearbhla Walsh (The Handmaid's Tale, "Traitors) directed and executive produced the pilot episode. The chilling half-hour comedy from Jeff Astrof (Trial & Error, Ground Floor) and Sharon Horgan (Divorce, Catastrophe) is the newest title from STARZ, which recently launched the #TakeTheLead initiative deepening the network's existing commitment to narratives by, about and for women and underrepresented audiences.

Shining Vale is a horror comedy about a dysfunctional family that moves from the city to a small town into a house in which terrible atrocities have taken place. But no one seems to notice except for Pat, who's convinced she's either depressed or possessed - turns out, the symptoms are exactly the same. Patricia "Pat" Phelps (Cox) is a former "wild child" who rose to fame by writing a raunchy, drug-and-alcohol-soaked women's empowerment novel (a.k.a. lady porn). Fast forward 17 years later, Pat is clean and sober but totally unfulfilled. She still hasn't written her second novel, she can't remember the last time she had sex with her husband (Kinnear), and her teenage kids are at that stage where they want you dead. She was a faithful wife until her one slip-up: she had a torrid affair with the hot, young handyman who came over to fix the sink while Terry was at work. In a last-ditch effort to save their marriage, she and Terry cash in all their savings and move the family move from the "crazy" of the city to a large, old house in the suburbs that has a storied past of its own. Everyone has their demons, but for Pat Phelps, they may be real. Cox plays the lead role of Patricia "Pat" Phelps, with Kinnear playing her ever-optimistic husband, Terry Phelps, whose patience and self-control will be tested like never before. Sorvino plays Rosemary, who is either Pat's alter ego, a split personality, her id, her muse, or a demon trying to possess her. Dungey plays Kam, Pat's oldest friend and book editor. Gus Birney and Dylan Gage also star as Pat and Terry's teenage kids, Gaynor and Jake. Shining Vale will air on STARZ in the U.S. and Canada and on its international streaming platform Starzplay across Europe, Latin America and Japan.

Fox will pull The Moodys from the lineup beginning Thursday, April 29. Name That Tune encores will now air at 8:00pm ET when Hell's Kitchen finishes, with Last Man Standing remaining at 9:00pm ET and comedic puppet series Let's Be Real now airing at 9:30pm ET (instead of the planned 8:30pm ET, following Family Guy encores at 8), replacing The Moodys on the schedule. The latest episode of The Moodys only delivered 1.1 million viewers on Thursday (April 15). Episode 5 airs this coming Thursday (April 22), but the remaining three episodes have been pulled, as of now. Starring and executive-produced by Emmy Award and Golden Globe nominees Denis Leary (Rescue Me) and Elizabeth Perkins (Sharp Objects), The Moodys follows a tight-knit, but slightly dysfunctional, family through their misadventures.

Posted by Pavan -- SitcomsOnline.com at 12:00 PM

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Labels: Cougar Town, Fox, Friends, Last Man Standing, Let's Be Real, Shining Vale, Starz, The Moodys