Viacom, Sundance Cook Up 'lab'

Viacom Prods. and the Sundance Channel are partnering on an unusual on-air series incubation project dubbed "TV Lab."

Sundance plans to air "TV Lab" as a half-hour special consisting of several "mini-pilots" for stand-alone series projects. The mini-pilots airing under the "TV Lab" banner will even include the creative teams breaking the fourth wall and delivering a short "pitch" directed at the audience.

As part of the agreement, announced Friday by Sundance Channel president and CEO Larry Aidem and Viacom Prods. president Perry Simon, Sundance Channel may opt to develop some of those concepts into regular series. Viacom Prods. also will have the option of developing them into full-blown pilots to be shopped to other broadcast and cable networks.

Sundance, a joint venture of Viacom's Showtime Networks, Universal Studios and Robert Redford, may also decide to make "TV Lab" a regular weekly series.

Aidem said he hoped the "TV Lab" experiment would "unearth some terrific ideas for television programming." Simon said the partners hope the process will help identify "fresh new voices" among writer-producers.

"TV Lab" will be executive produced by Jim Czarnecki, an indie veteran whose credits include recent documentaries "Bowling for Columbine" and "Love Liza." Adam Pincus, Sundance's senior vp original programming, will oversee the project for the channel.