New Comedy for ABC Family

BURBANK: The half-hour comedy Melissa & Joey, starring Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence, has been picked up for a ten-episode order by ABC Family.

Lawrence and Hart also serve as executive producers on the new multi-camera series. Hart portrays Mel, the grown-up former wild child of a political family who is now a local politician herself. Her sister winds up in prison and her brother-in-law flees after the scandal hits, and Mel is left to care for her teenage niece and pre-adolescent nephew. Lawrence plays Joey, who moves in and becomes the family’s "manny."

“We love Melissa and Joey,” said Paul Lee, the president of ABC Family. “Melissa has a long history on the network, and she and Joey recently starred in the network’s original movie My Fake Fiancé, which broke records for the network last year. They have fantastic chemistry and are just so relatable to our viewers. We knew we wanted to get them together again, and developed this comedy specifically with them in mind.”