Yes, I heard about ABC ordering a pilot television sitcom based on GEICO’s series of commercials starring the “So Easy A Caveman Could Do It” cavemen.

I didn’t think much of it, because hundreds of TV pilots get ordered every year, with a small fraction ever becoming fully developed into a weekly series. As popular as the cavemen are, I doubted they would make it onto a primetime network schedule.

I may be wrong about that. It seems that the preliminary news is causing an early groundswell of support, thereby upping the odds of success.

Even if this doesn’t result in “The Caveman Show”, it’s already accomplished its broader advertising/marketing mission — i.e., even more publicity for the campaign:

The ABC TV Studio spokeswoman said she’d never had so many e-mails from the general public about a project, including some who think they are naturals for the roles because of their physical resemblance to, um, cavemen. One guy wrote in saying he had a series of caves under his house and invited the network to shoot the series there.

The weirdest thing: If any GEICO mascot were to graduate to its own show, I’d have guessed their quirky gecko would have been first in line.