As 30 Rock peters out and the funny ladies who are her immediate heirs — Mindy Kaling, Amy Poehler — take over network comedy, we’ve been wondering what Tina Fey will do next. More books? Movies (something else in the vein of Mean Girls, pretty please)? Does she have another genre-redefining sitcom up her sleeve? While it’s still not entirely clear what’s in Fey’s immediate future, Variety gives us a glimpse, reporting that she’s signed a four-year overall deal with Universal Television, where she’ll develop TV shows in which she may or may not also act.
According to Variety, “Fey is likely to launch her own shingle, which will give her the ability to develop shows with other writers in addition or instead of her own creations.” This suggests to us that she may take a more behind-the-scenes role consistent with the impression we get that she doesn’t particularly enjoy being a celebrity. It also gives us hope that she’ll take some young, talented female comedy writers under her wing. Whatever the plan is, her deal won’t go into effect until mid-next year, which means we won’t see any new Tina Fey projects debut in the 2013-14 season.