TV Talk: Amazon Freevee orders ‘Pradeeps of Pittsburgh’ comedy series
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“The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh” is coming to Amazon Freevee – but not to Pittsburgh.
The eight-episode, half-hour comedy series will film in Toronto.
The show, created by Vijal Patel (“Schooled,” “black-ish”) and inspired by his personal experience growing up in Pittsburgh, has been in development since at least May 2021.
The single-camera comedy series will star Naveen Andrews (“Lost”), 2004 Carnegie Mellon University grad Megan Hilty (“Smash”) and comedian Sindhu Vee.
A modern-day immigrant story produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon Studios, the show will recount the humorous events in the life of the Pradeep family in the first few months after moving to America from India. It will be told through often conflicting flashbacks from an interrogation room after the Pradeeps find themselves involved – personally and professionally – with a polar-opposite neighborhood family.
Patel serves as showrunner. Amazon Freevee did not make Patel available for an interview.
“This show is from a very personal place, and explores the many facets of the immigrant struggle,” Patel said in a prepared statement. “As my parents say, the pain got funnier over time — like wine.”
Other executive producers include Sara Gilbert (“The Conners”), Tom Werner (“The Conners”) and Michael Showalter (“Spoiler Alert”) who will direct the first episode.
Andrews will play Pradeep patriarch Mahesh, an engineer who brought his family to America for a business opportunity. Vee will play matriarch Sudha, who has a brewing feud with her new neighbors.
Hilty stars as Janice Mills, “a sexy suburban Christian” mom who preaches forgiveness but rarely forgives. Ethan Suplee (“My Name is Earl”) plays “guy’s guy” Jimbo Mills with Nicholas Hamilton as teenager Stu Mills.
Additional Pradeep family members include teenage Bhanu (Sahana Srinivasan), mama’s boy Kamal (Arjun Sriram) and Vinod (Ashwin Sakthivel).
Pete Holmes (“How We Roll”) and Romy Rosemont (“Big Sky”) will recur as Dark Suit and Light Suit, investigators in the Pradeep case.
Amazon Freevee, formerly known as IMDb TV, is a free, ad-supported streaming service that’s currently filming season two of “American Rust” in Pittsburgh.
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