Own TV Show? It's So Easy, Even Geico's Cavemen Might Get One

March 4, 2007

The ABC network said it had ordered a pilot for a comedy, tentatively titled "Cavemen,'' that features the characters used in a series of television ads by an insurance company.

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In the ads, cavemen appear insulted by a Geico insurance pitchman's claim that the company's Web site is so easy to use that "even a caveman can do it.''

The potential series, one of 14 pilots that will be produced by Touchstone Television this spring, features the cavemen as they "struggle with prejudice on a daily basis as they strive to live the lives of normal thirty-somethings in 2007 Atlanta.''

It is unusual for characters from an advertising campaign to move into shows of their own, but not unprecedented. The CBS comedy "Baby Bob'' featured a talking baby that had been used in several advertisements, according to Daily Variety.

The advertising copywriter who helped create the "cavemen'' ads is writing the pilot, the studio said.

A pilot order is no guarantee a show will make it on the air. In fact, the majority of pilots do not make it that far.