Dan Harmon is a producer who likes to get involved with different types of projects. His latest idea will take him to FX, where he and comedy troupe Extremely Decent just landed new project Happy City. Even though the comedy is still in the early stages of development, it’s worth remarking on, as it sounds even weirder than you would guess. Happy City is being described as similar to Thomas The Tank Engine, only the project is for adults.
If you’ve taken a moment to let the Thomas The Tank Engine comparison sink in, there are other details related to Happy City. The plot itself will be about a group of millennial-aged friends who live in the big city. These won’t be any ordinary friends, however. Deadline reports the story will center on Tyler, who happens to be a taxi cab. Taxi Tyler will also be friends with a firetruck and a helicopter. Now, we’re betting you can see how the Thomas The Tank Engine comparison comes in.
Like the kids series, Happy City will give faces to the various vehicles in order to get across human-like emotions. The various comedy members in Extremely Decent will presumably play the millennial-aged characters on the series. That comedy troupe is made up of Nick Smith, Jon Eidson, Ian McQuown, Mikey Caro, and Brendan Rice. Nick Smith and Jon Eidson created Happy City. They will executive produce the project and will also write the script. Dan Harmon only seems on board as an executive producer.
If you’d like to know more about Extremely Decent, viral videos that don't feature helicopters with human-like tendencies can be viewed here.
Obviously, when you come up with a premise as wild as Happy City seems as if it could be, it’s probably easy to gain attention. However, it could be some time before we learned whether or not adults are actually interested in watching taxi cabs with faces drive around and crack adult jokes. This one currently hasn’t even made it to the pilot stage yet, so it could be quite a long time before FX decides whether or not to move forward to pilot and then potentially to series. If it does move forward, Happy City is expected to be a half-hour comedy.
FX is in a bit of a creative weird space right now. A lot of the network’s newer programming has earned critical acclaim but has had trouble gaining a lot of traction in the ratings, although American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson would be an exception. Newer comedies like Baskets and Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll have been renewed but have not done quite as solidly in the ratings. Maybe Happy City could be the ratings winner FX is doubtless looking for.
While we wait to hear what else FX has in the pipeline, you can check out what the networks and cable channels have in the works with our summer TV premiere schedule. You can also check out what major shows have already been renewed.
