NBC has replaced two actors following a table read for a new comedy project, bringing aboard an “Ally McBeal” veteran, Deadline.com reports.

Aasif Mandvi and Justin Chon are off the single-camera comedy pilot “The Gates,” replaced by “McBeal’s” Greg Germann and “Ben & Kate’s” Echo Kellum, the story reports.

“Germann was cast as a regular, while Kellum is a guest star,” the piece reports. “Based on the British series, ‘The Gates’ is an adult ensemble comedy set at the front gates of an elementary school drop-off and revolves around the parents, school staff and 15-minute social minefield they navigate at the beginning and end of each school day.”

The report adds: “The show centers on type-A Helen (Kathleen Rose Perkins), who just moved to town with her husband Mark (Ken Marino) and their 8-year-old daughter for Helen’s big new job. Germann will play another dad at the school, a super-driven, competitive Yale-educated lawyer who’s one of these comedically intense guys who pushes his kids way too hard. Kellum will play a ‘manny,’ who, even though he’s young, has seen it all at the school, and he serves as a buddy/confidant to Mark.”

“Ben & Kate” remains to be officially canceled by Fox, the piece notes, but it is effectively dead: The show was pulled from the network schedule, production has been shut down and the main cast members are all fielding offers from other projects.

Greg Germann