This summer, Fox is giving viewers something funny to watch on Saturday nights. Among the announcements made at Fox's presentation at the Winter TCA press tour was the line-up for Fox's planned Animation Domination High-Def late-night alternative animation programming block, which will air on Saturday nights starting in July.
Fox says this late-night animated comedy block will serve as their on-air component to the digital, multi-platform animation. The shows will premiere Saturday, July 27 at 11:00 p.m. and air until 12:30 a.m. ET/PT on Fox. Between the late-night hours, the quarter-hour format, and the list of voice talent, which includes Ken Marino, Peter Serafinowicz, and Megan Mullally, along with Vincent Kartheiser, Mandy Moore, Patton Oswalt and Britta Phillips, it's easy to draw comparisons between what Fox is looking to do and what Adult Swim has been doing quite well for some time, in giving grown-ups funny late-night programming.
Pictured below is Nick Weidenfeld (fittingly, formerly of Adult Swim) Head of Animation Domination High-Def, who was at the TCA's to answer questions yesterday.
Among the shows to be featured during Animation Domination High-Def are:
Axe Cop sounds like a very imaginative and colorful story, described as an action-comedy about a badass superhero who only gets two minutes of sleep a night and eats only birthday cake. Axe Cop and Flute Cop (his partner), "unleash their unique brand of vigilante justice on bad guys everywhere – including stopping Hitler from creating an army of evil zombie robots and helping BAT WARTHOG MAN find the villain who stole all his best friends!"
Fox credits five-year-old Malachai Nicolle for creating and writing the comic, along with his 30-year-old brother Ethan Nicolle. It was originally told online and the two brothers' story was later published as a graphic novel by Dark Horse Books, and now it's evolving into an animated series. The voice-cast for the animated show includes Megan Mullally (Children's Hospital, Parks and Recreation, Patton Oswalt (Young Adult and more recently, Justified) and Ken Marino (Party Down, Children's Hospital).
Next up is High School USA!, which follows a group of millennial students dealing with growing up in the modern world, from cyber-bullying to Adderall-addiction and embarrassing sexint incidents. This one comes from Community's Dino Stamatopoulos and features the voices of Mad Men's (and Angel's) Vincent Kartheiser and Tangled's Mandy Moore.
And finally, the third announced project to join the line-up has no title yet and is going by The Untitled Lucas Brothers Project, as it comes from comedians (and twins) Kenny and Keith Lucas, aka The Lucas Brothers. The show follows an animated version of the twins, who inherit their uncle's old van and start a moving company called Va¢ation Boy$. Because they're kind of scrawny, people are hesitant to hire them but their response to this is to point out that "that's why God made two of them." Ha. Twin humor! Sounds like the show will focus on their attempts to move people's stuff and deal with the catastrophe that ensues.
Fox has ordered six quarter-hour episodes of each of the above series, and there will be additional scheduling and programming announced at some point in the future.
