A sitcom about a sportswriter? Risky concept

I learned today that Mandalay Sports Media is developing a television comedy based "loosely" on the life of Los Angeles Times sports columnist T.J. Simers, whose work entertains me greatly and annoys the heck out of countless sports people, and an occasional reader.

I hope the show gets made and is a huge success. If it were based on my life, it would be a really, really, really big hit. But only if someone else wrote it, and made up a bunch of really, really, really funny stuff.

History tells us comedies about sportswriters do about as well as comedies about earthquakes.

OK, "Everybody Loves Raymond" was on CBS for 10 seasons. But only maybe three episodes ever featured Ray Romano's character, you know, working. The show was about the petty, juvenile Ray Barone arguing with his wife, his brother, and his parents. He had kids on the show, but they were seldom seen. I didn't much like it.

The classic "The Odd Couple," obviously had very-funny Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison. But the show was as much about sportswriting as "The Big Bang Theory" is about theoretical physics.

There was a one-season sitcom called "Listen Up!" based "loosely" on the life of then-Washington Post sports columnist Tony Kornheiser. Jason Aleander of "Seinfeld" fame was the star. The show wasn't good. The first five seconds of this clip says it all:

Then there was one of the best sitcoms no one ever watched, called "The Slap Maxwell Story." It starred Dabney Coleman. Slap Maxwell was an old-school sportswriter, a drinker, and above all, a cad. It was dark, and it was tremendous. Coleman won an Emmy award best actor in a comedy series, a series that spanned a mere 22 episodes. His acceptance speech was funnier than most of what's ever been on TV.

I couldn't find a snippet from the show, but here's a promo: