USA buys a legal comedy starring Happy Endings' Eliza Coupe

By Kevin McFarland  |  October 24, 2013 | 4:16pm
Aux Features TV

Happy Endings is dead. Long live the cast members of Happy Endings! Adam Pally has started his run as a regular on The Mindy Project. Damon Wayans Jr. returns to New Girl when the show does in November. Casey Wilson and writing partner June Diane Raphael have projects at both ABC and NBC. And now that postmortem cast poach continues, as Eliza Coupe has another gig to go along with her recurring role as Will Arnett’s ex-wife on parental farting multi-cam sitcom The Millers.

USA—which came pretty close to picking up Happy Endings itself—has ordered a pilot for Benched, a legal comedy from Michaela Watkins (Saturday Night Live, Trophy Wife) and fellow Groundlings alum Damon Jones, with Party Down co-creator John Enborn as showrunner. Coupe will play Nina, “a dedicated, career-driven corporate attorney who has a very public nervous breakdown after getting passed up for an expected promotion,” who now works as a public defender. At the very least, this could be the counter-programming to Franklin & Bash the legal comedy has needed. At best, it could be another Ally McBeal. Either way, it has the eminently talented Coupe. Zachary Knighton and Elisha Cuthbert better step it up.

 
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