Ben And Kate Preview: A Look At Fox's Family-Focused Comedy

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Cast of Ben And Kate
(Image credit: Fox)

It looks like Fox made the right choice in pairing Mindy Kaling's new comedy with New Girl, and the same could probably be said about Ben and Kate being paired with Raising Hope on the Tuesday night comedy lineup. While Kaling's comedy focuses on a woman trying to improve her life, Ben and Kate seems to be all about family, of which the Chance family likely would approve.

On paper, Ben and Kate sounds like a cute, family-focused comedy series about a single mom whose brother returns to town and offers to stick around to help raise her daughter. But the trailer actually sells the concept much better. Check that out below, along with Fox's official synopsis for the series and the cast photo…

BEN AND KATE, the heartwarming new sibling comedy created by Dana Fox (“What Happens In Vegas”) and directed by Jake Kasdan (“Bad Teacher”), debuts this fall. Starring newcomer Dakota Johnson and Nat Faxon (“Bad Teacher,” Academy Award-winning co-screenwriter of “The Descendants”), the comedy follows a pair of odd-couple siblings – one, an overly responsible single mom; the other, an exuberant kid-at-heart – and their friends as they push each other out of their comfort zones and into real life.

Formerly titled Ben Fox is my Manny, Ben and Kate stars Dakota Johnson (whom you may remember for her role as the girl who told Justin Timberlake's character Sean Parker about Facebook in The Social Network), Maggie Jones (recently seen being adorable in We Bought a Zoo) and Bad Teacher's Nat Faxon, all three of whom you'll meet in the trailer below.

The trailer almost feels more like a movie than a TV show, but that only makes Ben and Kate more intriguing to me. "Heartwarming" seems like a fair description, and I like that Fox is looking to expand on their family-focused programming.

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View Fox's full 2012-2013 Fall lineup here.

Kelly West
Assistant Managing Editor

Kelly joined CinemaBlend as a freelance TV news writer in 2006 and went on to serve as the site’s TV Editor before moving over to other roles on the site. At present, she’s an Assistant Managing Editor who spends much of her time brainstorming and editing feature content on the site. She an expert in all things Harry Potter, books from a variety of genres (sci-fi, mystery, horror, YA, drama, romance -- anything with a great story and interesting characters.), watching Big Brother, frequently rewatching The Office, listening to Taylor Swift, and playing The Sims.