As Broadcast Comedy Is Having A Moment, Fox Hopes ‘Animal Control’ Will Leap Out Of Its Cage

Fox wants in on the broadcast comedy renaissance and is hoping that Animal Control, a single-camera comedy starring Joel McHale, will provide that bite.

As Abbott Elementary soars on ABC, NBC has a multi-camera hit in Night Court and CBS continues to scare up viewers with Ghosts, Fox is looking for its own comedy pet project, which premieres tonight.

“We believe that Animal Control is going to be the comedy that propels Fox back to the forefront of this comedy renaissance that’s currently underway. That’s why we’re going all in and giving it this huge launch because we really believe in it,” Michael Thorn, President of Scripted Programming at Fox told Deadline.

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“I think it’s great for broadcast TV to have several comedies that people are watching and engaging in and I really believe that the majority of the audience wants to laugh right now and the more comedies are working, spells well to Animal Control finding its own place in this landcape right now,” he added.

The series is a workplace comedy following a group of Animal Control workers whose lives are complicated by the fact that animals are simple, but humans are not.

It stars McHale, who hosted Fox reality series Crime Scene Kitchen, as Frank Shaw, an opinionated, eccentric Animal Control officer who may not have gone to college but is still the most well-read person in the room. A former cop, Frank tried to expose corruption in his department, but his efforts got him fired, which may explain why he’s so cynical and curmudgeonly. He has an almost superhuman ability to understand animals. Humans…not so much.

It also stars Michael Rowland as Frank’s new partner Fred “Shred” Taylor, Vella Lovell as awkward boss Emily Price, Ravi Patel and Grace Palmer as Amit Patel and Victoria Sands, partners in the office, Alvina August as veterinarian Dr. Summers, Kelli Ogmundson as receptionist Dolores Stubb, and Gerry Dee as Templeton Dudge, an Animal Control officer from a neighboring precinct with a real chip on his shoulder.

Fox has broken W.C. Fields’ cardinal rule of never working with animals or children. “Oftentimes, companies have their biggest success when they break those cardinal rules,” joked Thorn.

He did, however, point to an interesting trend in Hollywood – the animal renaissance. One of the most talked about movies of the year is Cocaine Bear, a horror comedy directed by Elizabeth Banks that tells the story of a bear that ingests a duffel bag of cocaine, and Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx voice Strays, a movie that follows an abandoned dog named Reggie that teams up with other strays to get revenge on his former owner, who never wanted him.

“Coming out of Covid, with people’s incredible attachment to their animals… I feel like there’s a moment right now, where great voices are using animals and animal driven comedy to tell unique stories. Obviously, we have Animal Control, Cocaine Bear is coming out, there’s that movie Strays that is coming out. We have Housebroken this summer coming back. I feel like there’s something in the wind,” added Thorn. “Animals have universal appeal. If you have your own pet or watch any video on TikTok or YouTube, you know where there’s animals, there’s comedy.”

Animal Control comes from The Moodys pair Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg and Long Shot’s Dan Sterling, who exec produce alongside Tad Quill and McHale.

Significantly for Fox, the show is Fox Entertainment Studios’ first fully owned live-action scripted comedy, coming on the back of such moves in animation with Krapopolis and in drama with Monarch.

“We continue to have strong studio partnerships around town, but this is this is a very deliberate step and in that direction of trying to build out our own ownership,” he added.

As we head into development season, albeit one where Fox eschews pilots for its script-to-series model, the network will have some tough decisions to make on its overall comedy lineup.

Call Me Kat is in its third season and Welcome To Flatch is in its second season. Thorn and his team have been developing a slew of projects including a new show with Patricia Heaton, Rock Camp and Buffalo Tens from Riki Lindhome and Natasha Leggero.

However, there are no current plans to launch a standalone comedy night. “At some point, we would love to have a comedy night but our goal right now, first and foremost, is to launch Animal Control successfully. We know that generally speaking comedies take a little time, they need to be nurtured. It’s a huge priority for us.”

He said that if Animal Control does, in fact, breakout, then it will work out whether it can build around it.

“I don’t know that we go immediately to a full night of comedy next season. We love Welcome To Flatch, the people who watch it love it but we’re still trying to get people in the tent and I don’t think that show’s quite ready to hold the night yet, it’s still finding an audience. It is absolutely something that’s being discussed for season three. Mayim is a phenomenal actress and great behind the camera for Call Me Kat. But I think what we have to see how Animal Control performs. Based on that and then based on the performance of our other comedies, we’ll ask where do we go from here,” Thorn added.

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