NBC has ordered 12 episodes of Working The Engels, a new sitcom that will star SCTV veteran Andrea Martin, despite the fact that Martin has no tween-aged YouTube fans to speak of. Engels “marks the first time a U.S. and Canadian broadcaster have collaborated to produce a half-hour network comedy,” wrote an NBC publicist who probably hoped that would sound a lot more momentous than it does.
Martin has played a number of small live-action TV and film parts since SCTV left the air in 1984, but she has been more prolific in animation: She’s had recurring roles on Rugrats, Kim Possible, and The Adventures Of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, among others. Her new show will center on a family (the titular Engel clan) that pulls together to run their father’s “storefront law firm” after he dies. It should be the most hilarious TV tale of legal malpractice since that episode of Ed where Ed bullies a confused old widow into a winner-takes-all bowling match for her entire estate.