Judd Apatow Returns to TV With HBO Pilot

It's heartening to hear that Judd Apatow, the creator of the cult classics 'Freaks and Geeks' and "Undeclared," is returning to TV.

But to learn that Apatow, who went on to a spectacularly successful film career after leaving TV, is returning with a project about women?

Now that's intriguing.

Deadline.com reports that Apatow will be one of the executive producers of an untitled HBO project written by 24-year-old filmmaker Lena Dunham. HBO has merely ordered a pilot so we won't find out for some time if the project will become a full-fledged series, but the premise and the pedigree of the show are interesting.

The series, which Dunham will write, direct and star in, will depict the "assorted humiliations and rare triumphs" of a group of young women in their early 20s, according to the Deadline story. That's not what I would have predicted when I read that Apatow was returning to TV.

Apatow's not soley responsible for every single "awkward or immature man-child is forced to grow up" comedy out there, but he certainly helped give birth to the trend, which shows no signs of slowing down. Films such as 'Knocked Up,' 'Superbad' and 'The 40 Year Old Virgin' certainly have a lot going for them, but they're not exactly oversupplied with nuanced, winning female characters, a situation that led Apatow leading lady Katherine Heigl to call 'Knocked Up' "a little sexist."

Whether or not you agree with Heigl, it's good to see a different kind of female-centric project in the TV realm. When TV has taken chances on shows starring women, they're usually playing cops, lawyers or medical professionals, or they're appearing in one of Showtime's middle-class-women-in-crisis drama-comedy hybrids. Cable in particular has been a welcoming home to actresses of a certain age, but even that kind of mature-woman cable vehicle is starting to feel like something of a cliche.

At the very least, HBO isn't trying to remake 'Sex and the City,' which various networks have attempted with miserable results. Dunham, whose 'Tiny Furniture' won the top prize at South by Southwest, doesn't remotely sound like a Carrie Bradshaw clone. Sure, 'Sex and the City' was groundbreaking in its prime, but no one would argue that the franchise is in its prime now.

If the show does get picked up, I'll especially be interested to see who gets cast in the project. Most of the stars of Apatow's short-lived TV shows, which are much loved for their acute and hilarious yet realistic portraits of adolescence and young adulthood, have gone on to very successful film and television careers.

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