Film director creating TV sitcom

Tyler Perry, the writer-director-star of the No. 1 movie in America, is looking to expand his brand into television.

And as with “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” and the new hit sequel “Madea’s Family Reunion,” he’s not following the conventional route.

Perry has teamed up with media company Debmar-Mercury – which syndicates “South Park” and “Farscape,” among other shows – to distribute a first-run sitcom called “House of Payne.” The show will get a test run in a handful of markets later this year, with national distribution set for 2007.

The deal allows Perry to retain creative control of the project, much as he did by making “Diary” and “Madea’s Family Reunion” outside the studio system (LionsGate has distributed both films).

“Payne,” about a multigenerational family sharing a home, will be the first original sitcom sold in syndication in more than a decade.

Spreading the love

Two stars and the creator of “Everybody Loves Raymond” may be coming back to television, but not as a package deal.

Patricia Heaton, who played Ray Romano’s wife in the long-running CBS comedy, is making a half-hour pilot for ABC in which she plays a widowed mom who gets involved with a parent-teacher organization.

Brad Garrett, who played Romano’s brother, is starring in the Fox pilot ” ‘Til Death” as a married man whose next-door neighbors are newlyweds. A talked-about “Raymond” spinoff for CBS starring Garrett didn’t came to fruition.

And “Raymond” creator Phil Rosenthal is working on “Play Nice,” a comedy pilot for CBS about a brother and sister running a family-owned toy company.

All the pilots are under consideration for the 2006-07 season.