Fox is expanding its relationship with Seth MacFarlane.
The network announced Friday that has ordered to series Bordertown, a new animated comedy from the creator of Family Guy.
Bordertown hails from MacFarlane and Family Guy producer Mark Hentemann and will debut du ring the 2014-15 season. Hentemann created the comedy, which takes place in a fictitious desert town in Texas and centers on Bud Buckwald, a married father of three who serves as a border patrol agent who isn't adjusting well to the cultural changes around him. It takes a satirical look at America's cultural shifts through the evolving relationships between Bud's family and that of his next-door neighbor Ernesto Gonzales, a Mexican immigrant and father of four.
Hentemann created and penned the story and will exec produce along with MacFarlane. Family Guy's Alex Carter and Dan Vebber (American Dad, Futurama) are on board the 20th Century Fox comedy as co-EPs. The series has been in development at the network since 2009, when Fox ultimately picked up Bob's Burgers to series. (The network recently renewed the animated entry for a fifth season.)
COVER STORY: Seth MacFarlane: The Restless Mind of a Complicated Cartoonist
The pickup comes at a time of decline for MacFarlane's Fox empire. Although the exec producer recently received a full-season order from live-action multicam foray Dads, The Cleveland Show was canceled this year and the current run of fellow animated entry American Dad will finish its 10th run on the network this season.
TBS picked up American Dadfor a 15-episode 11th season in July. And after the final Fox run ends in early 2014, co-creator/co-showrunner Mike Barker will no longer be on board.
Family Guy, however, continues to be a powerhouse for Fox. The cartoon continues to drive some of broadcast TV's youngest viewers to its 9 p.m. Sunday slot, where it is averaging a 2.5 rating among adults 18-49 against NBC's Sunday Night Football and growing to a 3.4 rating in live-plus-7 returns.
Bordertown also comes as the network said an early farewell to Murder Police, which had been given a 13-episode order at the network but was canceled before its premiere. Producers 20th Century Fox Television plans to shop the series to cable.
The network will also debut the 13-episode MacFarlane-produced Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey docuseries next year. The network
For Fox, Bordertown joins a 2014-15 lineup that already includes the already renewed scripted seasons of Sleepy Hollow, Bob's Burgers, Glee and The Simpsons, as well as new entries Mulaney, Hieroglyph, Gotham and an untitled comedy from 30 Rock's Tina Fey, Matt Hubbard and Robert Carlock.
E-mail: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit
