Royalty Matters

Art Buchwald, call your lawyer--again. “Coming to America,” the hit Eddie Murphy film, is on its way to CBS this spring as a weekly series. (Columnist Buchwald is suing Paramount Pictures for allegedly misappropriating for its movie a story that he had written). Murphy will serve as exec producer and may make a cameo appearance in the pilot episode, according to Mark McClafferty, prez of Eddie Murphy Television Productions.

The story will focus on a younger sibling of Murphy’s movie character--Murphy played an African prince searching for the ideal bride in NYC. McClafferty declined to specify how many episodes CBS ordered. He said casting is under way and that Arsenio Hall, who co-starred in the film, would not be involved in the series.

Murphy might direct and script some episodes, McClafferty added.

“It (the TV show) will have the feel and comic quality of the film,” McClafferty said, “but the series will definitely take the film’s concept into a different time and different place.”