David E. Talbert Sets Up ‘Overtime’ Comedy At ABC, ‘Twas’ The Night’ Musical Anthology At Disney+

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EXCLUSIVE: David E. Tabert has sold the single-camera comedy Overtime, about a retired NBA player, to ABC, with Warren Littlefield (The Handmaid’s Tale, Fargo) executive producing and Courtney Lilly (Black-ish, Grown-ish) in negotiations to also executive produce. Additionally, the filmmaker behind Netflix’s first musical Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey is staying in the holiday musical lane with Twas’ the Night, a musical anthology series in the works at Disney+ with Becky Hartman Edwards (Firefly Lane) executive producing. Talbert is writing both projects, which he is executive producing with his wife and producing partner Lyn Sisson-Talbert through their Golden Alchemy Entertainment.

In Overtime, a celebrated NBA star retires and returns home to play positions he’s managed to avoid throughout his 12-year career: father, husband, neighbor, friend. He’s been pampered his entire adult life, and followed the perfect game plan to great success. Now, away from the spotlight and left to his own devices, he’s facing his toughest opponent yet … himself.

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Littlefield, Ann Johnson, Graham Littlefield and Lisa Harrison executive produce through The Littlefield Company. 20th Television is the studio.

In Twas’ the Night, Santa Claus, now retired to civilian life, indulges his grandchildren in their favorite family tradition, sharing stories of his magical adventures. Only this year, they’re not interested in the ones with happy endings. This year, they insist he tell them about that One Night, that one fabled night, where everything went wrong. And the One Family who made it right.

Talbert and Sisson-Talbert have a first-look deal for Golden Alchemy at Netflix to write, direct and produce movies following the success of Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, which the duo produced and Talbert wrote and directed.

After starting as a playwright, Talbert broke into directing on the studio level with First Sunday. He followed with films Baggage Claim, based on his novel, and the holiday-themed Almost Christmas and El Camino Christmas, the latter of which he made for Netflix.

As a playwright, Talbert has written and produced 14 national tours including The Fabric of a Man, for which he won the NAACP’s Best Playwright of the Year Award, and also wrote the novels Love on the Dotted Line, and Love Don’t Live Here No More: Book One of Doggy Tales, which he wrote with Snoop Dogg.

Talbert also won the NAACP Trailblazer Award for his accomplishments in theater and the New York Literary Award for Best Playwright of the Year for his musical Love in the Nick of Tyme. He is repped by UTA and JSSK.

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