What happened the last time Bill Pullman played the president. (20th Century Fox)

Sixteen years after he recklessly endangered the office of the president by leading a counterattack against a destructive alien invasion, Bill Pullman is returning to the White House. In the upcoming season, NBC will feature in its lineup 1600 Penn, a new sitcom created by Jon Lovett, who until last October was a speechwriter to candidate and then President Obama.

And, like the first bit of advice all Hollywood hopefuls get in that first screenwriting class, Lovett is writing what he knows. Co-created with Book of Mormon star Josh Gad, 1600 Penn is the latest attempt at a family sitcom set at the most famous address in the United States. (The last high-profile approach was Comedy Central’s short-lived That’s My Bush.)

But unlike previous fictionalizations of the White House, 1600 Penn—despite the fetshization some Democratic staffers have for The West Wing—appears refreshingly un-Sorkinish. In the scene released today by NBC, the president’s oafish son, played by Gad, appears to be filming a fire-safety public service announcement, only to have things flare up and land in the Rose Garden, where President Bill Pullman (for lack of the character’s name) is greeting the president of Mexico.

Pullman, at this stage in his career (and especially after what seems like a fallow period) seems like a decent choice to play a bumbling commander-in-chief. Hey, perhaps he’ll even turn out to be Vice President Selina Meyer’s unseen boss! Honestly, I’m a bit miffed NBC didn’t take my suggestion of Ted McGinley under advisement, but Pullman could do it.

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