A hybrid series -- partially scripted, partially unscripted -- starring Drake Bell of Nickelodeon's "Drake & Josh" will be filmed and set in Pittsburgh, though the particulars on the project have yet to be worked out.

	Drake Bell of Nickelodeon's "Drake & Josh" will be playing Pittsburgh later this month in a concert that will be taped to air as part of an upcoming reality series. Click photo for larger image.

A joint production of locally based PEI Production Group and Los Angeles' Hudson Canyon Entertainment Group, the proposed 13-episode first season has not yet been sold to a network. PEI president Philip Isaly said two offers have been made, but none accepted.

Nickelodeon, a logical place for the project since it's the home of "Drake & Josh," has not been pitched on this Pittsburgh-based series, according to a network representative.

Bell, 20, is a budding rock star whose new album, "It's Only Time," was released by UniversalMotown earlier this month.

Scenes for the pilot episode were shot when Bell played a concert in Ross in August. He'll be in town again Dec. 27 to play at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall, and more footage will be shot during that concert.

Thomas E. van Dell, Bell's manager and president of Hudson Canyon, said the series will be a cross between "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "This Is Spinal Tap."

The series will begin with Bell at a concert in Pittsburgh, where he gets news from his manager (Jerry Trainor, who plays "Crazy Steve" on "Drake & Josh") that Nickelodeon has canceled "Drake & Josh" (the show is in its final season). Bell decides to stay in Pittsburgh. Van Dell said the show will have a tie-in with the Pittsburgh mayor's office.

"The mayor's office will offer him everything to help him out, and everything they offer will be more of a mess," van Dell said. "Drake becomes a whole project for the mayor's office."

And van Dell does not envision a fictional mayor character.

"We're trying to use Luke," he said. "We want to be using every element that's offered by shooting in Pittsburgh."

Dick Skrinjar, communications director for Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, said the mayor's office is aware of the project but not the specifics.

"We're always anxious and welcome production opportunities here in Hollyburgh," Skrinjar said. "The mayor has a pretty full production schedule of his own with the city. ... Being the mayor is a full-time job. Luke doesn't have any plans to become a Hollywood star. He's quite occupied and pleased with being the mayor of Pittsburgh. It's a full-time gig."

There's no schedule for when production on episodes beyond the pilot might commence, but van Dell envisions a spring start date.

"We're not trying to rush it," he said. "We're just trying to put our best foot forward with the pilot."

Former county Commissioner Mike Dawida put together the deal between PEI and Hudson Canyon and made the announcement at the Pittsburgh Film Office headquarters yesterday. Once considered a candidate for mayor of Pittsburgh, Dawida said he probably won't run.

"This is where the action is," Dawida said, referring to the Bell project.

Isaly said filming the pilot cost upward of $70,000, but van Dell said total costs on pilot development and production will be about $500,000. How much the series would bring the region won't be known until the project has a network partner. Typically, broadcast network programs cost significantly more to produce than basic cable fare.

Writers are now at work plotting episodes for the first season of the series, which does not yet have a title, van Dell said.

Isaly said Bell was impressed by the reception he received in Pittsburgh in August, and Isaly was impressed with Bell's devotion to fans, signing autographs into the wee hours of the night and spending time visiting sick kids at Children's Hospital.

"Drake is a very, very solid kid," Isaly said.

It's possible van Dell will bring other filmed projects to Pittsburgh, including a new "Sleepaway Camp" horror film, "Sleepaway Camp Reunion."

(Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor)

Trend in Super Bowl shows

For a third consecutive year, the network hosting the Super Bowl has gone with Safe, Old and For Gawdsake No Breasts! in its search for a halftime performer.

On Feb. 4, it'll be Prince on CBS, on the heels of last season's Rolling Stones on ABC and, before that, Sir Paul Bad-Taste-in-Women on Fox.

Not coincidentally, these three flat-chested blasts from the past followed the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show on CBS, in which congressmen were blinded, FCC commissioners plotzed and little towheaded babes were doomed to lives of debauchery when they caught a glimpse of a female breast.

Bad, bad breast!

On a brighter note, a new expression was added to the lexicon: wardrobe malfunction.

Granted, at 48, Prince is considerably younger than Paul McCartney, 64, or Mick Jagger, 63. And he is the guy who wore those heinie-cutout yellow pants to the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards.

But since then, Prince has become a Jehovah's Witness and, for the past couple of years, has been sounding just like a parent.

In 2004, a few months after Justin Timberlake unveiled Janet Jackson's breast at that historic Super Bowl halftime show, Prince told Rolling Stone: "This culture is in big trouble. All you see on television are debased images."

(Lisa de Moraes, The Washington Post)