Showtime Makes An Appointment With 'Web Therapy'

Showtime will move Lisa Kudrow's online series Web Therapy to the premium service next year.
Showtime has ordered 10 half-hour installments of the onine series, aiming for an on-TV screen launch early in 2011.

The premium network said the series will integrate content from the original series, which is now in its third campaign, sponsored by Lexus, with fresh material.

Web Therapy features Kudrow as Dr. Fiona Wallice, narcissistic "therapist" who insists on healing her patients online in three-minute sessions. Guest stars that have played patients include Glee's Jane Lynch, Rashida Jones, Courteney Cox and Julie Louis-Dreyfus. Much like Curb Your Enthusiasm, which HBO has picked up for an eighth season, the actors are given a rough framework, with most of the material ad-libbed.

The show was conceived and is executive-produced by Kudrow and her producing partners Dan Bucatinsky (for their Is or Isn't Entertainment) and director/producer Don Roos, all of whom executive- produce NBC's Who Do You Think You Are?.

"I've always been a huge fan of Lisa, Dan, and Don, who master-minded this very clever show," said Showtime Entertainment president Robert Greenblatt in announcing the serier order. "As the TV landscape continues to change, we really fell in love with the idea of taking something that has made so much noise on the Web and reconceiving it with the original creators as a completely satisfying yet different experience for a half-hour audience on a television network."