Actor Sean Hayes is returning to NBC
and will play a gay dad in a yet-to-be named comedy.
NBC programming chairman Robert
Greenblatt announced earlier this month at the Television Critics
Association (TCA) meet up in Los Angeles that Hayes was in talks to
return to the network where he played gay best friend Jack McFarland
on the hit sitcom Will & Grace for 8 seasons.
Forty-one-year-old Hayes has since come
out gay, insisting
he never hid his sexual orientation.
According
to Entertainment Weekly, the comedy will focus on a family
that includes a 12-year-old boy being raised by two dads. No word
yet on who'll play Hayes' partner.
Peter Tolan, co-creator of cabler FX's
Rescue Me, is near a deal to sign on as writer and executive
producer of the show, bringing his creative partner Michael Wimer.
The show will be produced by Universal Media Studios and Sony
Pictures TV.
Gay
entertainment website AfterElton.com notes that before creating
the gritty drama Rescue Me, Tolan wrote for several sitcoms,
including Murphy Brown and The Larry Sanders Show, and
the comedy films Analyze This and Guess Who.