From the day that Netflix booted whimsical buddy comedy Tuca & Bertie out of the nest last year, we’ve been quietly hoping that some benevolent network (or a petty enough streaming competitor) would come to its rescue. Star Tiffany Haddish even mentioned the possibility of the Lisa Hanawalt creation finding a new home back in August after admitting to a number of conversations with interested execs. Today, Adult Swim announced that the fine-feathered friends will be joining its equally whimsical late-night family in 2021 with a brand new season.
Per Variety, Adult Swim has ordered 10 episodes of the adult animated comedy, which made its Netflix debut just last May. “I’ve been a fan of Adult Swim shows since my teens, so I’m thrilled to bring my beloved fowl to the party and be a new voice for a fresh decade of absurd, irreverent, yet heartwarming adult animation,” said Hanawalt in a statement.
Tuca & Bertie stars Haddish and Ali Wong as the titular duo, along with Steven Yeun as Bertie’s aggressively nice boyfriend, Speckle. The series follows their friendship as they navigate commitment, anxiety, trauma, and the city together, wing-in-wing. The news does not come with a solid return date as of yet, and there’s no word on who is and isn’t returning (though Haddish and Wong were also executive producers the first time around, along with BoJack Horseman’s Raphael Bob-Waksberg, so we can fairly assume that they, at least, are back). But the move is an auspicious one, as the new network already seems like an ideal fit. The first season will remain on Netflix while Adult Swim will have domestic rights for the new episodes.
Welcome back, ladies (and Speckle).
44 Comments
This made my week. Which says more about virus life than anything but it’s still terrific!Have there been any other Netflix shows that were cancelled and picked up elsewhere? Any precedent for what happens to the first season?
One Day at a Time was cancelled by Netflix and then picked up by PopTV. The first three seasons are still on Netflix, but PopTV acquired the linear rights to them, so they can reair them.
Hard to say whether the same deal will happen here with Adult Swim, since they stream their stuff online and sometimes for free.
This is legitimately great news. I’ve been slowly losing hope that someone would pick it up.
Same here. This made my day. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Lodge 49 as well.
Oh WOW! This is superb news. Huzzah!
Gotta assume this will come to HBO Max too, then? This is a great move by Turner/WB, well done!
2020 is terrible, and nothing good will ever happen to fix the year.“Tuca and Bertie is miraculously renewed for a second season”Okay…fine…2020 has had one good thing happen.
AS is probably hoping this will catch on at least somewhat so it can be used as schedule filler once Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers leave next year.
Not to mention AS has gotten some controversy not including more shows aimed at or made by women. Snatching up something by a female creator that didn’t have its full potential realized on another network and already has an existing audience is a win-win.
My first thought, other than “hurray! More Speckle!” was exactly this. Adult Swim’s aggressively anti-humour, stoner dude vibe isn’t exactly what I think of compared to Tuca & Bertie… but hey, I’m glad it got renewed!
Adult Swim’s aggressively anti-humour, stoner dude vibe isn’t exactly what I think of compared to Tuca & BertieLOL I went exactly there when I heard this news. Maybe they’re trying to push their own boundaries. In which case, good for them.
While they won’t have the same freedoms as Netflix, I do think their overall “humor” does fit the crude nature of shows like Aqua Teen hunger Force, so I guess there is some opportunity for them to succeed.If anything the restriction of having a limit on how far they can push themselves may help them be more humorous.
I really wonder if they’ll get backlash from their usual dudebro audience as a result. I could see a lot of them angrily pointing at the TV during an episode, huffing “Hey! I resemble that remark!”
It still amazes me that those FOX reruns make up like 70% of their schedule.
As long as Team Venture comes back it can be 90% fox shows for all I care
I would rather watch an eternity of bob’s burgers than have to sit through one episode of some tim & eric comedic miscarraige
I haven’t watched the network live in years, but back in the day they would do a bump with their top-rated shows for the week and like 90% of the time a Family Guy ep on its 50th rerun would be #1 over new episodes of their original shows.
It is still that way, mostly. Their original shows do decent numbers, but Rick & Morty is the only one that can compete with the Fox shows. Hell, it’s the only show on either Adult Swim or Cartoon Network that can compete with Nickelodeon.
I was actually going to include a caveat about Rick & Morty because it does such big numbers for them. I enjoy the show but I have always been a bit surprised that it became this zeitgeist-y hit that their other shows weren’t. I do wonder how well the nightly R & M repeats do considering there were only 30 episodes when they started showing it all the time, and even after this season they will still only have 40. I’m sure if they could chain Harmon and Roiland up in a basement until the 70 episode order was complete they would.
The schedule has gotten more diverse since they lost King of the Hill and The Cleveland Show. You’d never see Home Movies at 8pm and MHA at 5:30am if they still had the rights to those shows. It also helps that AS has a limit on how many Fox shows they can air in a week, typically no more than 13 or 14 hours a week.
Wait, they’re losing the rights to Family Guy? Holy shit, might as well start writing the obit for AS. I kid, I kid, but man, AS and FG are like, completely linked in my mind.
Yea, Disney’s keeping the rights to their shows once their contracts expire. FG leaves in 2021 and Bob sometime after that. It’s already affected them somewhat because AS doesn’t have the rights to the past few seasons of either show.
I’m delighted over this, so I’m just gonna share my favorite joke from Season One and call it good.
“It’s all just toast! You’re not fooling me!”
This is the best news, thanks!
Wish it was another season of Bojack instead. This show never really clicked for me.
Best pandemic ever.
Finally some good fuckin news
YES! This show was so absurd and delightful, I can’t wait for more of it. Wong and Haddish were so fun in it, but my biggest surprise was Steven Yeun–I never watched Walking Dead, but a “serious actor” like that usually doesn’t make for a great voice actor but he was SO good and delightful. I can’t wait.
I find myself singing Tuca and Speckle Day often. Delightful is really the best word to describe his performance.
Good news, and it’s not in the form of a slideshow or video, nice!
This is the second show Netflix has canceled and has a new home. One day at a time was fuckin awesome, and they canned it, and now it’s on pop. I love tuca and birdie! I’m glad it’s back!
It wasn’t a bad show but I probably don’t need to watch season 2. Just couldn’t get into it
i was not as crazy about this show as everyone else seemed to be. it advertised itself like some absurd romp (and it was, briefly) but by the end of the season it had turned into just another bojack-y “yell at each other about depression but we’re animals instead of people so we can legally call it comedy” show
*inserts animal pun to lighten the mood, then commits suicide.
Good. Hopefully it’ll suck up a slot that would’ve otherwise gone to some Tim & Eric “comedic” miscarriage.
I loved this show. Didn’t expect it to return and am very happy about this news.
This is delightful news, although I imagine [adult swim] are going to have a lot of boobs to censor if season one was any indication.
Fuck yeah!
hoooooorrible “entertainment” for ugly fat people with nothing to live for.
I had lost hope for Tuca & Bertie season 2; this is an absolutely delightful surprise. Yay something good happening!
This is genuinely fabulous news. What is this sensation? I… feel like I don’t know how to respond to good news anymore?
Wow, they are losing Fox stuff? Yikes!I havent watched it live in years (like others) and I downloaded the App on my firestick a while back and went through some of my favorite classics like Birdman, squigglevision HomeMovies, and Ghost in the Shell but I was okay losing [AS] when I ditched cable years ago because the program had gotten really, really weird. I could handle an odd show here and there, but they had a stretch of what I’d call bad shows and a mix of live action that I could never get behind (sorry Tom Goes to the Mayor and Tim and Eric your shows were literally devoid of humor), NTSF, Delocated… I could go on. Nothing against those shows (except you Tim and Eric) but they just weren’t for me. I liked Rick and Morty but I only watched the first two seasons and haven’t thought about it since.I’m sure my humor has changed as I’ve aged over the years so [AS] isn’t my thing, but if they lose those FOX shows that lead into their programming they are going to start losing people to other late night programming. Most of the time I turned it on and let the other stuff run in the background after the shows I still enjoyed.I’d note that my Hulu stats suggest I’ve watched all of Bob’s Burgers probably 40 times through now and Cleveland Show about 20… and maybe only those shows. I’m actually excited about this show though, my gf loves Ali Wong (we went and saw her in Chicago, great show) and this doesn’t look like it’s ‘out there’, I’ll have to check it out on Netflix first and go from there.
Athough it happened before airing, I read that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was toned down for broadcast audiences after Showtime dropped it. Has there been any indication that something similar will happen with this show?
Absolute brilliant news. Now can someone pick up the OA, Innøcents and The Get Down please?