Oprah and Dave, Talking It Out at Last

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Having placed a woman in the Oval Office on ABC, Rod Lurie is hard at work on Part 2 of his Never Gonna Happen political saga: a drama series about a teenage boy elected mayor of a medium-size town.

And, despite the fact that Lurie's departure from "Commander in Chief" was so abrupt, or maybe because of it, ABC is the network for which he's developing the series, called "Triumph." When Lurie left "CiC," he was signed to a deal with Touchstone Television, which, like ABC, is owned by Disney and which produces "CiC."

Show-running on "CiC" was taken over by Steven Bochco, with whom Touchstone also has a big overhead deal.

One possible trouble point: An 18-year-old high school student named Chris Seeley recently was elected mayor of a town. But Linesville, Pa. -- well known in bird circles as the place where ducks can walk on the backs of carp that teem near the spillway at Pymatuning Reservoir, according to news reports -- had a population of just 1,138 in 2004, the Census Bureau estimates.

Lurie, presumably, is working with a larger canvas, where things like that just don't happen. Teen boys becoming mayor -- not ducks walking on the back of carp.

Besides, Lurie told trade paper Variety, he had been "noodling" with the boy-politician thing long before Seeley got himself elected.

And, as with "Commander in Chief," Lurie said he does not plan to get bogged town in political minutiae with the new series.

The idea, he explained, is that the show be about a boy in a man's world.

You know, like "Doogie Howser, M.D."

From Bochco.

For ABC.