WE’RE JUST LIKE YOU: In new ABC series “The Neighbors,” aliens take the names of sports stars in an attempt to blend in. (ABC)
Lennox Lewis has a dispute with “The Neighbors.”
Producers of ABC’s new alien comedy — which names all of its other-worldly characters after professional athletes — say the retired heavyweight champ refused to allow them to use his name.
“A bunch of people said no,” executive producer Dan Fogelman tells The Post. “Lewis said no and I think for (the late) Wilt Chamberlin, it was problematic with the estate.”
But Lewis insists he was always on board.
“To me, the answer was supposed to be yes,” he says. “Anytime somebody mentions my name, or if it is on a TV show, it is a great advertisement for me. So I am actually shocked by this.”
“The Neighbors,” starring Jami Gertz and Lenny Venito, follows an unsuspecting family that moves into a gated New Jersey housing development inhabited by human looking extra-terrestrials.
“The premise is that we worship our athletes, so the aliens have taken on their names in an attempt to blend in,” Fogelman says.
“They are naming themselves after our finest physical specimens as a tribute to us.”
For tonight’s premiere episode, producers secured clearances to name characters after NBA star Larry Bird, baseball Hall-of-Famer Reggie Jackson and Olympic hero Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
“Jackie actually made a point to reach out to me and say ‘make sure that happens. I really want to be a part of it,’” Joyner-Kersee’s agent, Patrick Quinn, tells The Post. “That is unusual.”
“But the bottom line is it keeps her top of mind in the public consciousness.”
Fogelman — whose characters receive nourishment by reading books, and cry green goo from their ears — admits the process of getting other jocks on board was trickier than expected.
“I thought since we weren’t saying it was the (real) person, a name was fair game — at least by the rules of parody,” he says. “But it’s not.”
“When I found out you had to go through all these legal channels, I honestly didn’t know if it was going to be possible to get any of them.”
In the original pilot, alien son Reggie Jackson (Tim Jo) was named Joe Montana, according to published reports. And the Larry Bird character (Simon Templeman) was intended to be Chamberlin.
“It is difficult to clear names of people who are deceased,” Fogelman says, “because it has to go through various estates.
“Also people who have a problematic background tend to be more wary of giving you their name.”
For their participation, the athletes are paid “a really small stipend,” Fogelman says. “No massive amounts of money are being transacted.”
Aliens named after Mary Lou Retton, Dominique Wilkins, Billie Jean King and Kareem Abdul Jabbar are already cleared to appear in future episodes.
“We found, generally speaking, that a lot of the athletes think it is kind of fun and cool to have their names used,” Fogelman says. “As long as you are not poking fun at them — which we don’t do — they seem pretty cool with it.”
Fogelman — who also wrote the mega hit movies “Cars” and “Tangled” — says he hopes to create a storyline where the aliens will come face to face with their real-life namesakes.
“We’d be happy to do that,” Quinn says. “That would be a lot of fun.”