Mel's Diner

The Dish: Schlemeel! Schlemazel! … TV Land’s gonna do it.

The network’s president, Larry Jones, said he is developing a loosely scripted show featuring the real Laverne & Shirley, Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams. As themselves.

Who: Larry Jones, president, TV Land
Where: Nishimura
When: Wednesday, March 13, lunch

The Dish: Schlemeel! Schlemazel! … TV Land’s gonna do it.

The network’s president, Larry Jones, said he is developing a loosely scripted show featuring the real Laverne & Shirley, Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams. As themselves.

He said a pilot, with the duo living together at Penny’s house, is scheduled to shoot next month. It would pair the actresses in a series for the first time since collaborating on the long-running sitcom, “Laverne & Shirley.”

And, omigod, “Make all our dreams come true/For me and youuuu.” (Sing it!). At least it would for me. … This working woman has always been a fan of “Laverne & Shirley.”

The show is one of several new originals New York-based Larry was in Los Angeles to meet on when we had lunch.

To complement the net’s classic TV lineup, Larry’s looking to expand his stable of new shows designed to appeal to TVLand’s target demo, Baby Boomers (40 to 54 year olds, or as TVLand says, the first generation of Americans to grow up alongside television).

He’s hunting for everything--reality, game, loosely scripted fare.

In addition to the real-life Laverne & Shirley project, TV Land is considering a show with George Foreman, who Larry calls the “poster child for reinventing yourself in the second part of life.”

He’s also eyeing a TV Land take on “My Super Sweet 16,” a popular reality series on sibling Viacom-owned network MTV. (TV Land would peg shows to 40th birthdays.)

In August, Larry expects to roll out TV Land’s version of “High School Reunion,” which ran for two seasons on The WB. The original featured 10 year reunions. TV Land is going with 20-year gatherings.

Larry spends three or four days every three weeks or so in Los Angeles, largely to talk to folks about originals.

He stays at the Four Seasons and each morning comes downstairs, camps out and takes pitches all day. It sounded like speed dating the way he described it.

During his last trip he decided to see how many Arnold Palmers he could down in a sitting. The record was 10.

Note to producers: He admits to being wound up after that much sugar and caffeine, so beware of late-in-the-day pitches. (Just jokes. I saw him handle Nishimura’s green iced tea. He can hold his caffeine.)

Larry remains on the lookout for the best way to hook a Boomer up, ie., he’d like to find the right show about dating. It’s an important part of life to many Baby Boomers, according to TV Land research.

There’s lots of TV Land research on the demo by the way.

Viacom’s MTV Networks have a knack for making a business out of serving the demo most interested in a type of programming.

(Read: MTV, Nickelodeon, even Spike, Comedy Central, BET.)

“What we’re doing is in the heritage, the DNA of MTV Nets,” said Larry, who has been with the company since 1988. Incidentally he replaced Rich Cronin, the GSN honcho who joined me for Mel’s Diner earlier this year, at TV Land when Rich left for a different gig.

“We stand for classic TV, we love classic TV,” Larry said. “Boomers were 75 percent of our audience. We thought, 'Is there a way to build a stronger bond not only with lovers of the genre but the demographic?'"

Larry and TV Land are likely to talk in more detail about the shows they’re cooking up and how they serve the net’s mission in New York on Friday. That’s when they’re holding their upfront presentation for advertisers. Boomer and former President Bill Clinton will be the keynote speaker.

Dined On: Sushi!

I’ve now been to two very different sushi joints while reporting Mel’s Diner and they could not have been more different.

Larry Jones recommended Nishimura in West Hollywood. Recently I met Telepictures boss Hilary Estey McLoughlin at Katsu-ya in Studio City.

Nishimura is discreetly located in an ivy-covered building on Melrose across from the Pacific Design Center. It’s bright, elegant, austerely appointed and quiet inside.

They serve traditional sushi, but a Mexican influence seemed apparent. Larry pointed out they were playing Mexican music. The green iced tea with lime in it could be mistaken for a margarita on the rocks. And the appetizer we shared featured pieces of fresh yellowtail with jalapeno and cilantro on it.

The frenetic, crammed Katsu-ya has yellowtail with jalapeno too, but not the cilantro. Or the Mexican music or the margaritas, er, green iced tea with lime (at least that I saw).

What’s your favorite sushi joint?