Fox is rapping the holidays with an early pickup of a comedy starring Method Man and Redman from writer Kell Cahoon and Regency TV.
Meanwhile, ABC has given the green light to a Secret Service drama from "Alias" executive producers Alex Kurtzman-Counter and Roberto Orci and Touchstone TV.
Based on an idea by Method Man, the untitled Method Man/Redman project will star the two rapper-actors as themselves as they move into a big house in a predominantly white New Jersey suburb. The good times are rolling for the twosome, who wreak havoc upon the neighborhood until Method Man's mom moves in with them and straightens things up.
"It is a very traditional fish-out-of-water story, but Meth and Red really bring a lot of charm and their particular brand of charisma to it and make it very appealing," Regency TV senior vp comedy development Erin Simon Berenson said.
Regency jumped on the idea at the moment the rappers pitched it to then-Regency president Peter Aronson several months ago. The Fox TV Studios/New Regency company paired the two with Cahoon and took the trio to Fox.
"The show seemed destined for Fox from the moment we heard about it; it seemed like a perfect fit," Berenson said.
It's been a prerogative for Regency this development season to try to develop a potential companion series for its Fox comedy "The Bernie Mac Show," a co-production with 20th Century Fox TV.
Frequent collaborators Method Man and Redman have appeared together in such movies as "How High" and "Scary Movie 3." The two also are attached to topline an untitled comedy at New Line Cinema described as an urban version of "The Producers" and Miramax's remake of the South Korean comedy "Jail Breakers."
Method Man, of Wu-Tang Clan fame, next appears in MGM's comedy "Soul Plane" and Miramax's "My Baby's Mama."
Cahoon's credits include NBC's "Just Shoot Me" and HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show."
Method Man, Redman and Cahoon are repped by CAA. Method Man also is repped by Shauna Garr and attorney Amy Nickin.
Redman is managed by James Ellis.
The untitled Kurtzman-Counter/Orci project for ABC, which was given a hefty put pilot commitment in September, is a character-driven gritty procedural drama centered on a young woman who struggles to balance her marriage with the demands and dangers of her career in the Secret Service.
Kurtzman-Counter and Orci penned the pilot, which the two will executive produce with Francie Calfo. Kurtzman-Counter and Orci are repped by Broder-Webb-Chervin-Silbermann and attorneys Michael Gendler and Kevin Kelly.