Deadline reports that ABC, the founding network of Grey’s Anatomy, is developing a new high-concept medical drama about a fan of a Grey’s-esque medical drama who actually gets to live in the show’s world. The project, Vital Signs, which hails from creator/executive producer Brian Tanen (Love, Victor, Grand Hotel), attracted multiple offers before finally landing at ABC.
Written by Tanen, Vital Signs is described as a reinvention of Grey’s that asks: What if your favorite TV escape became your reality?
The series heroine, Emmy Correll, is in a depressive rut. She wishes her dull, disappointing life was more like her favorite medical drama, Vital Signs, where the characters are life-saving heroes with endlessly exciting love lives. But when Emmy’s wish comes true, and she is transported into the show, she must confront whether this new life is what she truly wants.
Waking up in a TV show is beyond disorienting. Especially because, in this world, Emmy is apparently a newly hired doctor. But once she gets over the shock, she realizes she’s seen every episode and knows what’s going to happen. And that means here, in this world, she’s kind of a genius.
Tanen will executive produce the series alongside Kapital Entertainment’s Aaron Kaplan (The Neighborhood, The Chi). Dylan Hammalian (A Million Little Things, American Housewife) oversees for Kapital.
Vital Signs extends Tanen’s long relationship with ABC/Disney. Early on, he worked on such series as ABC’s Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives and Lifetime’s Devious Maids, all produced by ABC Studios. He went on to develop and executive produce the ABC Studios drama Grand Hotel, based on the Spanish series Gran Hotel. He also served as co-showrunner/executive producer on Love, Victor for the Hulu/20th Television series’ three-season run. ABC Studios was subsequently rebranded as ABC Signature and was recently folded into Disney TV Studios sibling 20th, Television.
Tanen is represented by UTA and attorneys Bryan Swatt and Ken Richman.