NBC Orders Two Female-Forward Comedies About Drinking and Being Imperfect

NBC has made its first two comedy pilot pickups of the 2018-2019 fall TV season, and not only are they both coming from trusted legends of NBC's comedy past, they're both fronted by women of color. Take that, patriarchy.

Amy Poehler will executive produce the new sitcom I Feel Bad, which stars Sarayu Blue (No Tomorrow) as... well, OK, I don't really know what this show is about at all. But here's NBC's description to see if you can make sense of it: "Emet (Blue) is the perfect mom, boss, wife, friend and daughter. OK, she's not perfect. In fact, she's just figuring it out like the rest of us. Sure, she feels bad when she has a sexy dream about someone other than her husband, or when she pretends not to know her kids when they misbehave in public, or when she uses her staff to help solve personal problems. But that's OK, right? Nobody can have it all and do it perfectly. From executive producer Amy Poehler comes a modern comedy about being perfectly OK with being imperfect."

The show also stars Paul Adelstein, Aisling Bea, Zach Cherry, Johnny Pemberton and James Buckley.

Abby's comes from executive producer Mike Schur (The Good Place, Parks and Recreation) and is a little more straight-forward; think Cheers but highly illegal because it's about a woman (Natalie Morales) who runs a bar in her backyard. While patrons must abide by a few big rules (no cell phones!), it's a scene unlike any other and worth the effort to be a part of. One cool thing to note about the show: it's a multi-cam comedy that's filmed outside in front of a live studio audience! Nelson Franklin, Kimia Behpoornia, Jessica Chaffin, Leonard Ouzts and Neil Flynn also star.

Though these are NBC's first comedies ordered, the network has already picked up three new dramas: the Ryan Eggold medical drama New Amsterdam, the Jennifer Carpenter-fronted FBI thriller The Enemy Within, and the "bunch of people live in a Brooklyn apartment" tearjerker The Village.

First-year comedy A.P. Bio was also renewed for a second season.

NBC will announce its 2018-2019 fall schedule early next week.