Jim Carrey is returning to television to star on new Showtime half-hour comedy series “Kidding,” which will reunite him with “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” director and co-writer Michael Gondry.
The premium cable channel has ordered 10 episodes of the show, with Gondry set to direct all of them. Carrey and Gondry will also executive produce the upcoming series, as will Jason Bateman, Raffi Adlan, Michael Aguilar and Jim Garavente.
“Kidding” was created by Dave Holstein, who wrote the pilot and will serve as showrunner.
On “Kidding,” Carrey will play Jeff, aka Mr. Pickles, an icon of children’s television, a beacon of kindness and wisdom to America’s impressionable young minds and the parents who grew up with him. Jeff also anchors a multimillion dollar branding empire, per Showtime’s official description. But when this beloved personality’s family — wife, two sons, sister and father — begins to implode, Jeff finds no fairy tale or fable or puppet will guide him through this crisis, which advances faster than his means to cope. The result: a kind man in a cruel world faces a slow leak of sanity as hilarious as it is heartbreaking.
“No one inhabits a character like Jim Carrey, and this role – which is like watching Humpty Dumpty after the fall – is going to leave television audiences wondering how they went so long without him,” said David Nevins, president and CEO, Showtime Networks Inc. “With his ‘Eternal Sunshine’ partner Michel Gondry on board to direct, we are on our way to a magnetic, volcanic and emotional viewing experience.”
“Kidding” marks Carrey’s first television series regular role in more than 20 years. The “Ace Ventura” alum currently executive produce Showtime’s “I’m Dying Up Here.”