Evan Shapiro’s digital comedy Bartlett starts up on Vimeo Jan. 30. Based on the life of former ad executive Martin Edwards, the show is about “the topsy-turvy, cut-throat world of advertising,” and “mines the gray area between failure and reinvention in six musically inspired installments.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda appears in the show, as does Utkarsh Ambudkar of White Famous.
Chrissy Mazzeo and Anthony Veneziale are executive producing along with Shapiro. Mazzeo and Veneziale also star.
Shapiro launched short-lived NBC digital comedy channel Seeso, where he was NBCU executive VP of digital enterprises. He was also IFC/SundanceTV president. eshapTV is his production shingle.
Bartlett trails advertising agency bad boy Roger Newhouse (Veneziale), who is having a rough year. Maggie Knowland (Mazzeo), the brains behind the success of the newly formed agency, has left him, and their agency, for Sanjay Kahn (Ambudkar), one of Roger’s bitter rivals. Losing clients left and right, Roger finally realizes the time has come to quit his job and fulfill his longtime dream to become a musician.
The six episodes take place over a single day.
Original songs were written by Veneziale, supervised by Bill Sherman, and produced by Jeremy Fisch and Joel St. Julien, with a score from Peter Golub.
"When it comes to rich topics to explore as storytellers, advertising has got to be at the top of the list,” said Mazzeo. “From Mad Men to Bewitched to every ad we relish on Super Bowl Sunday, this is a world worthy of creative exploration. We think viewers will connect with these relatable and truly entertaining characters--they are human in every way and focus on what we have in common versus our differences. I think everyone could use a dose of that narrative these days."
Bartlett is produced by A Bartlett A Day LLC and eshapTV and created by Martin Edwards and Chrissy Mazzeo.
