The comedy pilot “Belated” from creator Peter Tolan and starring Kal Penn is not moving forward at FX, Variety has learned exclusively from sources.
The half-hour series was meant to follow an unexpected intergenerational friendship between Sachin (Penn), a recently out man in his 40s, and Clay (Kaden Kearney), a 17-year-old trans teen, as Sachin and his ex-wife and children attempt to find their new normal. Along with Penn and Kearney, the pilot starred Ellie Taylor, Amir Bageria, and EaeMya ThynGi.
FX did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
Tolan wrote, directed, and executive produced the “Belated” pilot. Nick Alford of Cloudland also executive produced. FX Productions was the studio. Variety exclusively reported the pilot had been set up at the basic cabler back in October 2021.
The pilot would have brought Tolan back into the FX fold. He previously co-created the hit FX series “Rescue Me” with Denis Leary. The show, in which Leary also starred as New York firefighter Tommy Gavin, ran for seven seasons and 93 episodes at the cabler. Tolan received three Emmy nominations for his work on the series, including one for directing the pilot. Tolan is also known for his work on “The Larry Sanders Show,” for which he and Garry Shandling won the Emmy for best writing in a comedy series in 1998.
FX has a number of other comedy pilots in the works at present. Most recently, the basic cabler ordered the pilot “English Teacher” from Brian Jordan Alvarez about a gay English teacher in Texas and an untitled comedy from Lauren Ludwig about a group of queer twentysomethings.
(Pictured: Kal Penn)
