EXCLUSIVE: CBS All Access has landed for development Remote, a remote workplace comedy from Ben Silverman, Paul Lieberstein and Big Breakfast, I have learned.
Remote was one of the first COVID-relayed TV projects to emerge just a couple weeks into the initial safer-at-home orders in mid-March that saw offices around the country close and employees switch to working from home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
By end of March, Lieberstein and Silverman, former executive producers of one of the most popular workplace comedies ever, The Office, had started work on Remote with Big Breakfast, a comedy banner under Silverman and Howard Owens’ Propagate Content. I hear the project was recently taken put, landing at CBS All Access and CBS TV Studios. The streamer and studio declined comment.
“So many of us are jumping on daily Zoom meetings — for work and beyond,” Silverman told Deadline back in April. “We are in a new normal and are personally navigating ways to remain connected and productive at work and in our home lives. With the brilliant Paul Lieberstein at the helm, we think we have a series that not only brings humor and comfort during this troubling time but will also be an inventive and enduring workplace comedy for years to come.”
Created by Lieberstein and the Propagate/Big Breakfast team, Remote is set around a wunderkind boss who, in an effort to ensure his staff’s connectedness and productivity, asks them all to virtually interact and work face-to-face all day.
“Start with the office comedy, lose the office and you’re just left with comedy. The math works,” Lieberstein quipped when the project was first announced..
Lieberstein executive produces along with Silverman and Owens. Big Breakfast’s Luke Kelly-Clyne and Kevin Healey and Propagate’s Rodney Ferrell also serve as executive producers.
Lieberstein and Silverman shared in The Office’s 2006 Emmy win for best comedy series. Lieberstein went on to serve as executive producer on two other workplace comedy series, The Newsroom and Ghosted.
Propagate’s Hillary documentary on Hulu, which premiered at Sundance and Berlin, just received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction series. The company’s scripted slate includes Blood and Treasure on CBS, Charmed on the CW and Emma and Wireless on Quibi. Silverman and Propagate have a longstanding relationship with CBS TV Studios, which has yielded a number of series, including Jane the Virgin, Charmed, Blood and Treasure and Broke.