ABC Orders Dysfunctional Family Comedy ‘Crazy Gene’

ABC is adding another dysfunctional family sitcom to their comedy lineup.

ABC has given the go ahead for a pilot called Crazy Gene, a single-camera comedy based on Andrea Abbate’s family that is “prone to felonies.” The show will follow a woman trying to raise the children of her incarcerated brother along with her adopted African-American teenage son.

Joining Abbate on the show as executive producers are Marty Adelstein, Becky Clements, and Shawn Levy.

This is one of several comedies this upcoming television season that’s based on the life of their showrunner. Fox’s sitcom, Ben and Kate, is based on Dana Fox’s brother. It centers on a single woman getting help from her not so bright brother as she raises her daughter. ABC’s midseason show How to Life With Your Parents for the Rest of Your Life is based on the life of showrunner, Claudia Lonow, and follows a woman and her child who are forced to moved back in with her parents after a divorce leaves her life in disaster.

This is not Abbate’s first foray into television sitcoms. She wrote and executive produced the popular comedy Accidentally On Purpose.