Love Bites (TV series)
Love Bites is an American anthology comedy-drama television series originally planned for the 2010–11 television season on the NBC network that eventually aired as a summer replacement series. It premiered in its regular Thursday night time slot at 10:00 pm Eastern/9:00 pm Central, on June 2, 2011. On July 11, 2011, NBC canceled the show and the series finale aired on July 21, 2011.
Plot
Love Bites was originally set to focus on "optimistic, bubbly social worker" Annie and "sarcastic career bridesmaid" Frannie,two single women exploring modern stories of dating, marriage, love, and sex, while dealing with their other married friends.Due to off-camera complications, the show was retooled as an anthology series focusing on multiple vignettes per episode. Each story was loosely connected by common themes or romantically-challenged characters related to the pilot's three main protagonists: Annie, Judd, and Colleen.
Cast and characters
Main
- Becki Newton as Annie Matopoulos, A single woman who is Frannie's best friend.
- Greg Grunberg as Judd Rouscher, Colleen's love interest.
- Constance Zimmer as Colleen Rouscher, Judd's love interest.
Development and production
In January 2010, NBC announced Love Bites as one of many pilots on its early development slate. Becki Newton was cast in late February, followed quickly by Jordana Spiro. Marc Buckland was confirmed to be directing the pilot in early March. In May 2010, NBC announced it had green-lit the series. The series was scheduled to air on Thursday nights in the 10–11 pm slot starting in the fall of 2010. On May 17, 2010, Greg Grunberg announced via Twitter that he will be joining the cast.A number of changes eventually prevented the series from going into production as planned. On June 24, 2010, Spiro left the series after 3 episodes due to her contracted role on My Boys. Krysten Ritter guest starred in the pilot episode as Cassie, replacing Spiro. Due to Newton's announced pregnancy, her character, a virgin, was reimagined, and prior to production, showrunner Cindy Chupack voluntarily reduced her role to writer, citing personal reasons. NBC moved Love Bites to midseason 2010–11 and moved The Apprentice to fall 2010 to take the timeslot. Pamela Adlon was originally cast as Colleen in the unaired pilot and was replaced by Constance Zimmer in the subsequent aired episodes. In July 2010, Ink UMS announced that Tracy Poust and Jon Kinnally would serve as writing showrunners for the series.
On December 9, 2010, Deadline Hollywood reported that NBC had cut back the episode order from 13 to 9 episodes. NBC's subsequent cancellation for the cult series led to new pilot choices by Spiro at Lost and Found, Newton at an untitled Jackie and Jeff Filgo CBS pilot and Grunberg landing at Big Mike.
After numerous delays, NBC announced that the 9 completed episodes were to premiere on June 2, 2011.