HBO’s new series from Christopher Guest is coming soon, and today the network released this teaser with the first footage we’ve seen. Family Tree is a documentary-style comedy that appears to be populated with exactly what we expect from Guest; quirky, utterly off-the-wall characters who are all a part of one man’s search for his roots.
Starring several faces familiar to Christopher Guest fans from films like Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, the straight-to-series half-hour show will air simultaneously on HBO and overseas on BBC2. The cast includes Ed Begley, Jr., Fred Willard, and Michael McKean, all regulars in Guest’s films, and stars Bridesmaids Chris O’Dowd as Tom, a 30-something guy who is a little bit lost in life after losing his job and his girlfriend. He receives a mysterious box from a deceased great aunt. Its contents send him off on a search for his family, crossing the ocean to California where he meets an interesting and strange array of characters related to him who teach him a lot about himself.
The eight-episode season is expected to premiere in May, although we don’t have an exact premiere date just yet. What we do have is a woman who talks to a monkey puppet, some Civil War re-enactors, and a man pushing toothbrushes with instruction booklets attached to them. I suspect this will be one series that makes us all feel better about our own family quirks.
