Load up the family truckster: TBS has placed a 10-episode order for a new untitled family vacation comedy series from “The Daily Show’s” Jason Jones and Samantha Bee, who are married in real life.
Jones stars in the series, which is inspired by his and Bee’s own experiences with family getaways. Also starring are Natalie Zea (“Justified”), Ashley Gerasimovich (“Louie”) and Liam Carroll (“The Neighbors”). Production is slated to begin this summer, with the premiere scheduled for fourth quarter of this year.
The dark comedy will follow a couple and their two young kids as they take a road trip to Florida. Jones plays unfiltered dad Nate, who packs his wife Robin (Zea) along with their rebellious daughter Delilah (Gerasimovich) and simpleton son Jared (Carroll) 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.
Jones and Bee are executive producers on the project and wrote the pilot, which was directed by Steve Pink (“Hot Tub Time Machine”).
“This show delivers on exactly the direction we are taking our TBS comedies – honest, smart and provocative,” said Brett Weitz, executive vice president of original programming for 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.”
Counting this series, TBS now has four scripted comedies set to debut in 2015, including “Angie Tribeca,” starring Rashida Jones and created by Steve Carell and Nancy Carell; “Your Family or Mine,” a domestic comedy starring Kyle Howard, Kat Foster, Richard Dreyfuss, Ed Begley Jr. and Cynthia Stevenson; and “Buzzy’s,” a workplace comedy with Ashley Tisdale, Mike Castle, Lauren Lapkus, Ryan Pinkston, Matt Cook and George Wendt.