‘A Black Lady Sketch Show’ Head Writer Lauren Ashley Smith to Produce and Write the Remake of the British ‘Timewasters’
Writer Lauren Ashley Smith, who is best known for her position as head writer on HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show, has been recruited to be a writer and executive producer of the American remake of the hit British comedy, Timewasters for ABC.
Timewasters is about a floundering jazz band that accidentally travels back in time to the Roaring Twenties. The four bandmates have to navigate being both young and Black during this time, while trying to find their way back home. On the bright side, the group is able to learn about the Jazz Age by living through it, witnessing its birth, and seeing how it’s embedded into the culture.
A show with a premise that is SO ME and a cast of people I really like is being… re-made? Where was I when this was being aired? https://t.co/kZK9i9mNw2
— Michael Moran (@TheMichaelMoran) January 27, 2021
According to Deadline, the show will be a single-camera comedy that is being reprised for ABC’s second cycle of the development process in 2021. Lawrence Taylor, Kenton Allen, and Matthew Justice also plan to be the other executive producers on the project. Allen and Justice are from the British production company that created the original show.
The main difference between the two versions is that the American one focuses on New York and explores the Harlem Renaissance, while the original is located in South London. A similarity they share, however, is the four bandmates getting the unique, unprecedented experience of comparing and contrasting their lives in both periods.
It deserves to said publicly: Based on the work that @msLAS did with A Black Lady Sketch Show’s premise *alone* (and how brilliantly they all pulled it off) — I’d green-light this in hot minute, no looking back.
— Carmen Phillips (@carmencitaloves) January 25, 2021
PS: Big Congratulations to Lauren Ashley Smith!! https://t.co/K5gOQ7FYx9
There’s no word yet on an air date for the new Timewasters, as it’s still in the works. On the upside, Smith will remain busy with the second season of A Black Lady Sketch Show which is supposed to release later this year.
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