ABC orders pilot for potential series based on the Geico cavemen ads

Associated Press

NEW YORK March 03, 2007 12:41 am

— Those Geico ''cavemen'' shouldn't be so upset after all - they may get their own television series.
ABC said Friday it had ordered a pilot for a comedy, tentatively titled ''Cavemen,'' that features the characters used in a series of ads by the insurance company.
In the ads, cavemen appear insulted by a Geico 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's 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 don't make it that far.