'Galavant' creator feels ABC's love

* GALAVANT. 8 and 8:30 p.m. Sunday, 6ABC.

PASADENA, Calif. - TV producers are used to getting notes from networks and studios: suggestions, helpful or not, from the people who pay the bills.

"Galavant" creator Dan Fogelman's lately been getting love notes. "They gave us a lot of leeway," said Fogelman, of ABC's approach to "Galavant," a musical-comedy filmed in Britain.

It's probably coincidence that Fogelman, a Penn grad who earlier created ABC's aliens-in-New Jersey comedy "The Neighbors" and is a screenwriter ("The Guilt Trip," "Crazy, Stupid, Love"), spent a year studying literature at Oxford, alma mater of ABC entertainment chief Paul Lee.

They do seem to share a sensibility, though.

"Paul would send emails like, 'I love this f---ing show, Dan!'" said Fogelman, imitating the puckish Lee's British accent.

"Galavant," which opened to promising ratings on Jan. 4, boasts music from composer Alan Menken ("Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin"), who performed Wednesday during the Television Critics Association's winter meetings here.

"It's been like an experiment for network television," said Fogelman of the four-week run. "We shoot in real castles. A musical number takes a day and a half to shoot."

The show also fulfilled a New Year's resolution for Timothy Omundson, who is "evil King Richard" in the show.

The actor, who played Detective Carlton Lassiter for eight seasons on USA's "Psych," got his "musical-theater juices . . . flowing" when that show did a two-hour musical in 2013.

"My New Year's resolution that year was that I wanted to sing more," Omundson said, and "the first thing I auditioned for was 'Galavant.' "

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