Of the plethora of actors currently working, there are few that I enjoy seeing on a regular basis more than Ken Marino, founding member of the legendary sketch group/series The State. So it should be easy to understand why I’m so jazzed about Marino signing up to join fellow funnyperson Casey Wilson for the single-camera pilot Marry Me. The pilot is being set up at NBC, so it should be just as obvious why I’m as worried as I am excited.
Marry Me doesn’t have too complicated a storyline, which means it’ll probably run out of steam in about three episodes. It will follow Marino and Wilson as a young couple who get engaged, only to realize that the road to marriage is one paved with difficulties. I’m foreseeing eccentric family members, problems buying rings and a wedding venue that keeps changing. Oh, and a couple of exes will probably pass by to spice things up a bit. Honestly though, good writing could make any stereotype workable, so here’s hoping this script is full of it.
According to Deadline, the pilot is being developed by Sony TV, Fanfare and David Caspe, the creator of ABC’s Wilson-starring Happy Endings, which was cancelled last year. (Caspe also wrote Adam Sandler’s 2012 groan-fest That’s My Boy, but we promise to forget about that if you will.) Seth Gordon will step in as director. Gordon’s breakout documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters landed him directing jobs on Parks and Rec and The Office before he found huge success with both Horrible Bosses and Identity Thief, but he’s been busy with episodes of ABC’s The Goldbergs, so this should be a piece of cake for him.
Marino has been all over movies and TV in the past few years. 2013 saw him in Jacob Vaughan’s ass-blasting horror comedy Bad Milo and Lake Bell’s directorial debut In a World…, and he recently finished filming Rob Thomas’ big screen debut of Veronica Mars. On the small screen, Marino was an asinine sports show host in the fourth season of HBO’s Eastbound & Down, and also stars in Adult Swim’s absurdist hospital comedy Childrens Hospital, the Bachelor/Bachelorette web-turned-TV spoof Burning Love, in addition to having lent his voice to Fox’s Axe Cop and the holiday special Toy Story of Terror. He also has a handful of upcoming TV projects in differing stages of production, including a Fox sitcom he was developing with his wife Erica Oyama.
Because it seems like not enough people have watched Burning Love, here’s a preview to get you interested.
