Chemists familiar with the history of the periodic table may be aware that Dmitri Mendeleev gave the prefixes eka, dvi, and tri (Sanskrit for “one,” “two,” and “three”) to eight then-unknown elements.

In a competitive situation, Showtime has landed Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, a half-hour comedy with musical elements from top feature writer Aline Brosh McKenna and CBS TV Studios. The project, written by ...