ABC has become the latest network looking for inspiration from Canada. The net announced that is has acquired the rights to the comedy series "18 to Life", developed for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC). The series focuses on two teenagers who get married on a dare.
Despite its Canadian roots, the key players should be familiar with American viewers. Stacey Farber and Michael Seater play the newlywed couple. Farber has been playing Ellie Nash on Canada's "Degrassi: The Next Generation" since 2002. Ironically, Farber will be getting younger on TV. On "Degrassi" (which airs in the U.S. on The N cable network), Farber's character is in college while her "Life" character is just graduating high school. Seater has played the title character on the Canadian import "Life with Derek", which airs on the Disney Channel stateside.
Neither ABC nor the CBC has announced where or when "18 to Life" will air.
"Life" is the third Canadian import made by American networks recently. CBS's "Flashpoint" is a co-production between that network and Canada, as is NBC's upcoming drama "The Listener", expected to debut next year.
ABC did very well with the CBC series pick-up, "Just for Laughs", which was one of their strongest summer series last year, and performed adequately against "American Idol" in the winter/spring this year.
With ABC's SOAPnet picking up CBC's "MVP" and ABC FAMILY picking up "Sophie", it seems the Alphabet have found themselves quite a prolific Northern partner-producer.
