Comedy pilot gets new life under Silverman

The comedy pilot "Zip," left for dead at May's upfronts, now has a better than zero chance of making it onto NBC's schedule.

The network's new regime, led by co-chairman Ben Silverman, has given a cast-contingent pilot order to the show, the showbiz trade papers report, after undergoing some script rewrites. Not coincidentally, the pilot comes from Silverman's former company, Reveille.

"Zip" centers on a single dad who tries to give his kids a better life by moving them into a posh area, then running a series of cons to convince his new neighbors he belongs there. The first pilot starred Rob Huebel ("The Showbiz Show"), though with the cast contingency on the new order, it's unclear whether he'll be back.

"Entourage" veterans Marc Abrams and Michael Benson wrote the script with Mark Rizzo, and Richard Shepard ("The Matador," "Ugly Betty") is in line to direct the new pilot. Abrams and Benson will also serve as executive producers, while Rizzo will be a supervising producer.

The order for "Zip" potentially deepens a thin comedy bench at NBC. The network is also working on another Reveille show, "Kath and Kim," while the future of the one new comedy it did order in May, "The IT Crowd," remains up in the air.