Nancy Hower and John Lehr has closed a script deal with MTV for “The Hippo,” a workplace comedy set in a live music venue in Los Angeles, Variety has learned exclusively.
Hower and Lehr, the team behind Hulu’s “Quick Draw” and TBS’s “Ten Items or Less,” created the project together. Lehr is also set to star.
In “The Hippo,” the music club is packed every night, but the business is mysteriously losing money. When a former district manager from TGIFridays (played by Lehr) is brought in to turn things around, the twenty-something crew rebels. Each episode will feature actual musicians, bands and artists that perform in the club and interact with the cast.
Hower and Lehr are penning the pilot. They will serve as exec producers with Andrew Jameson, who was a producer on Starz’s “Power.”
Though “The Hippo” is a scripted series, the music-based project fits into MTV’s recent mission to restore music-driven programming on the Viacom cabler that was solely known for playing music videos when it launched in the ’80s. Since, the content has drifted to reality programming, docuseries and scripted series.
Hower and Lehr are both repped by CAA.
