Six Feet Under network being sued

According to TVGuide.com, writer J. Davis Reed is suing both HBO and out gay scribe Alan Ball, claiming that Ball’s dark comedy centered on a family-run funeral home, Six Feet Under, was originally Reed’s idea. Reed states that the show “contains substantially the same setting, characters, plot, storyline, theme, development of story, sequence of events, dialogue, and other copyrighted expressions” as his script, titled For Heaven’s Sake. The cable network responds, “Six Feet Under was created by Alan Ball, and this suit is totally without merit.” On the plus side, Variety reports that the ratings have never been better. Schedulers at HBO quickly moved the show from its slot after the male-skewing Arli$$ when the numbers for the comedy dropped drastically after being moved from its post–Sex and the City premiere slot. Now that it again follows Sex and the City, audiences are staying tuned, and the show gained its highest rating since the show made its debut, getting an 11.3 last Sunday, putting it in 3.9 million HBO households.