TBS is hitting the road with Jason Jones and Samantha Bee.
The Turner-owned cable network has picked up to series the untitled family comedy from Daily Show correspondents — and married couple — Jason Jones and Samantha Bee, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The family comedy has earned a 10-episode pickup with production set to begin in the summer for a premiere in the fourth-quarter 2015, marking the first series order handed out by new entertainment boss Kevin Reilly (though the pilot was developed by his predecessor, Michael Wright). Fellow TBS pilots Wrecked and Quality Time are both considered to still be in the mix.
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Jones, who stars, and Bee will pen the pilot and exec produce for TBS, which is producing. Steve Pink (Hot Tub Time Machine) directed the pilot. The project is inspired by Jones and Bee's experiences on family getaways and described as an honest and darkly comedic look at family. TBS' new series will follow a couple and their two young kids as they take a road trip to Florida. Jones stars as unfiltered dad Nate, who packs his wife, Robin (The Following's Natalie Zea), along with their rebellious daughter Delilah (Louie's Ashley Gerasimovich) and simpleton son Jared (Liam Carroll, The Neighbors), into the family car for what Nate is convinced will be the adventure of a lifetime. Every leg of their trip, however, is fraught with unforeseen disaster as they encounter one hellish turn after another.
Plans call for each season of the show to chronicle a different family adventure.
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"This show delivers on exactly the direction we are taking our TBS comedies — honest, smart and provocative," said Brett Weitz, executive vp original programming at TBS. "We couldn't be happier to be in business with Sam and Jason on what we hope will be the first of many more projects together. Watching them step into the creator/executive producer role on the pilot really allowed the characters and the show to find solid footing from the very first frame. We can't wait to see where they take this mildly dysfunctional family."
For TBS, the comedy joins a scripted roster consisting of entirely new programming (save for animated acquisition American Dad) including Steve and Nancy Carell's Rashida Jones cop comedy Angie Tribeca, David Kohan and Max Mutchnick's Buzzy's as well as Greg Malins and Jamie Tarses' Your Family Or Mine to series. All four series are expected to bow in 2015. The Jones-Bee comedy also marks the second project that TBS will produce in-house — joining Tribeca, which coincidentally also hails from a married couple behind the scenes. The pickup comes after Reilly has cleaned house at TBS, canceling veterans Ground Floor, Men at Work and Sullivan & Son, with the final season of Cougar Town currently running.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit
