Dan Harmon is taking it back to ancient Greece in a new animated series for Fox
TV Features Dan Harmon
Dan Harmon is adding another animated series to his growing roster of adult properties. According to Variety, the Community creator and Rick And Morty co-creator is gearing up for another quick-witted comedy. This time, the untitled new project is for Fox and the setting isn’t a suburban household rendered chaotic by one far-too-brilliant patriarch, but rather ancient Greece.
There are precious few available details at the moment. What we do know is that the show will play with early Greek mythos while taking on the the politics and culture of today. This will be done through, as Variety notes, “a flawed family of humans, gods and monsters that tries to run one of the world’s first cities without killing each other.” Voice casting is underway and will be announced in the coming months.
Harmon’s new series will serve as a pretty important milestone for the network: As our own TV Editor Danette Chavez very patiently explained to this writer, this will become the “first fruit” (at least on the programming side of things) of Fox Entertainment, the production company that rose from the ashes of 20th Century Fox when Disney acquired the network in 2019. Fox is trying to expand its slate of well-received animated shows, including a newly ordered comedy called Housebroken, which features Lisa Kudrow, Clea DuVall, and Will Forte.
64 Comments
I hope its art style isn’t yet another Rick and Morty clone.
The proliferation of a single art-style across a creator’s multiple projects is probably seen by studios as a strength — it helps drive home to the viewer that what you’re watching is familiar — but I’m with you. I don’t think it’s a great trend. When all your shows look alike, I begin to associate your successes with your failures, and vice-versa.And it’s not just Harmon’s style that’s being endlessly proliferated. Loren Bouchard seems like a good dude, but just because I like Bob’s Burgers doesn’t mean Central Park and The Great North need to look like exact replicas. The same can be said about Seth MacFarlane’s shows.
Who’s doing that?
Solar Opposites has it, and I think a Netflix show as well.
I think Solar Opposites can be let off the hook, being co-created by Justin Roiland.
There’s also some basketball cartoon on Netflix that looks like basically the same style, and from the trailers I have seen of Star Trek Lower Decks it seems to be a “cuter” version of the same style (and that one seems to be biting R & M’s style of humor also, again based on the trailers). As you said Solar Opposites is from Roiland so I can give that one a pass, but it would still be more interesting to see them branch out instead of going the Seth McFarland rout of all you shows looking the same.
Having the same animation style for all his shows seems to have worked for Matt Groening too.
Solar Opposites is the most obvious given it’s another Roiland show, but Hoops and Star Trek Lower Decks are also beholden to Rick and Morty’s style, and even on the shows I like that uses it, it looks rull bad IMO.
Having been involved in many-a developments of animations over the last three decades I can tell you there’s quite a few layers of nuance here.Firstly, the way pitching any TV series or film (or podcast or magazine or…) goes, in most cases at least, you have to make comparisons to other already successful programs out there. Yes, it’s annoying, it’s trivialising creativity, it’s many things, but that’s just how the business has evolved to be. Of course there’s exceptions to this — if you have big names or studios already attached you might be lucky enough to avoid a few investor meetings or go above a few execs, but that’s rather rare with the amount of media people “need” to ingest nowadays. There are obviously ways of steering the conversation to the benefit of the talent, but there are always and I repeat ALWAYS compromises.I remember being in a pitch meeting for a trivia type gameshow that only got to record two episodes before it got canned and never heard of again… It still stings even though I was just a little cog in the machine. 🙂
Secondly, the animation studio talent does get shared around. I am not personally familiar with how Titmouse or Bardel operate, but I’m sure there is a lot of overlap with people working on these bigger scale productions. There’s thousands of people who can run Toonz and stare at a $4000 Cintiq screen but there’s only so many that “have made it big”. Style travels and the point made in the first part of this long-ass comment also applies. There are styles that stick for a while, ie Groenig, Warner Bros, Grimsaem etc etc. It’s just how it is…Superjail went from Augenblick to Titmouse and that caused furore like someone rubbed their junk on a fake baby or something… oh wait… what…
What’s Up Jerks? Light this b*tch up with Jason Mantzoukas starring. Even though mothers in stores tell their children not to go near Jason I think this could break for him.
SO we can assume that his Sirens of Titan series died of COVID?
Vonnegut is so due for a great modern day adaptation of one of his books. I recall there being announcements in the past few years for Sirens of Titan, Cats Cradle, and Slaughterhouse-Five, yet none of them seem to be coming to fruition unfortunately.
No Breakfast of Champions? I woukd like to see how film would deal with the “asterisk”
“This doesn’t seem like a good idea. Are you sure I should do this, Rickus?”“Go ahead. She’s just some broad with snakes for hair. Now get in there, Mortius!”
Sounds too Latin. I would go with Rickules and Mortistophle.
Can it possibly be better than The Roman Holidays?
What was that about cancel culture ruining men’s lives again?
Boy, that Dan Harmon sure likes to whine about cancel culture. All he does, sunup to sundown, is whine about cancel culture! Jeez Dan, give it a rest with the cancel culture already.
Frankly I’m surprised you weren’t piling on the guy for his fake baby abuse video that all the QAnoners were talking about a couple months ago and therefore proving the existence of the horseshoe theory.
It’s fun to make up arguments you wish people had said isn’t it
My favorite thing about you is that literally every comment you make also applies to yourself.
And you run to the defense of every abusive white male out there
Every? He runs to the defense of “every” white male? Wow that’s quite a claim. I’d love to see you back it up, but I think we both know that isn’t possible because you’re a mentally ill piece of shit.
Recognitions is easily one of the most pathetic people on earth. Every single thing he writes is a masterpiece of sanctimony and good old fashioned ignorance.
I mean, to be fair, the majority of your arguments are just telling people to “shut up” or calling them “mentally ill”. And I’m 75% positive you’re an alt account for a burner troll Eustis Reilly (https://kinja.com/eustisallthetime/discussions) who got shadowbanned considering you both use similar insults, he stopped commenting on January 16 after his account got shadowbanned, and your comment history only goes back to around January 16…EDIT: Scratch that it is the same guy (https://aux.avclub.com/1846236524).
Congratulations. You’re still an enormous loser who gets so worked up about the comment section on a website that you actually keep a spreadsheet of things people have written so you can act like a snotty 12 year old who runs to tattle on someone who used a naughty word. This website is all you have because you’re a fucking failure and literally nothing you can say or do will ever change that. Get me banned again you little snot nosed shit head. Or do everyone a favor and finally put a bullet in your undoubtably ugly head.
I bet you’re busy emailing your contact at the avclub as we speak. “Sorry to bother you again, there’s another meannnnn person I need you to shadowban immediately. I know I’m an adult but this website comment section is literally all I have to show for my existence and I can’t deal with people not being sanctimonious pieces of shit like myself. Please help me… again I’m an adult.”
“Please hurry. This website is all I have. To the extent that I spend my entire day here refreshing the page waiting for someone… anyone to say something to me so I can pretend other humans want anything to do with me.”
Keep refreshing that page fuck face. It isn’t going to make your shitty depressing ass life any better.
Does it bother you that you’ll never procreate because no one on earth would ever want to be in a relationship with someone like you?
Refresh – refresh – refreshWhat an exciting, meaningful life you live. Refresh – refresh….. refresh
Refresh refresh refresh
You’re the king of this content section. Everything you see here is yours. Refresh refresh refresh. How does it feel exercising the one power afforded you in this life? I bet it gets your tiny little dick hard as a diamond doesn’t it?
I bet you used to get the shit beat out of you as a child. Too bad your bullies didn’t finish the job and stomp your ugly ass to death. Would have been doing the world a favor.
Keep refreshing – don’t ever stop refreshing. If you stop refreshing you’ll be forced to sit quietly with your own thoughts and contemplate what a pathetic meaningless existence you inhabit. Refresh refresh refresh.
Keep refreshing. Don’t ever stop refreshing. If you keep refreshing you won’t have the time to think about what a failure you are
Everything about this guy screams “abuser in real life”
Actually let me amend this: recognitions is a fucking loser, but at least he doesn’t spend, literally, 24 hours a day refreshing this website like Laserface1242. Nor does he *literally* keep a spreadsheet of people’s “offensive” comments like some weird autistic kid. This comment section is the entirety of his existence. He regularly contacts the admins to get people shadowbanned because that’s how adults act right? He doesn’t have friends or family… he has this website. Nothing else. Laserface1242 is a loser with a little wiener and literally no matter what he says or does that will always be true.
Oh also Laserface maintains several accounts here so he can agree with himself. Can you even imagine doing something so fucking sad?
Hey now, I’ll have you know that taking pot shots at randos online under the guise of social justice is a bonafide kink, sir, and shall not be shamed!
Actually, kink or no, go ahead and shame the shit out of it. Because, again, the shtick is laughably transparent.
You mean the thing that you do to an almost comical extent?
Hasn’t Harmon apologized for what he did? He’s for the most part seems to be making a meaningful effort to atone.
Harmon’s apology was basically the closest thing to the platonic ideal of a MeToo apology as you’ll ever see in the real world, and Megan Ganz accepted it. I do think there’s maybe a conversation to be had about the fact that, apology notwithstanding, Harmon’s offenses have mostly disappeared from The Discourse, and how that’s likely a product of the fact that Harmon has made a couple shows critics really like. But generally speaking Harmon seems to have handled his MeToo moment pretty well.
I mean part of the reason some stuff disappears from discussion is that when dealt with, keeping on mentioning it only serves as a public reminder to the victim that they were victimized when 1) They know it and lived it and 2) Moved on after apology/consequences from/for the aggressor.
Yeah, he was pretty open about being immature and ignorant, IIRC. Not to mention last I checked, Rick and Morty is the only (or nearly) show on Adult Swim to have a writers’ room with gender parity.
I mean would a woman who’d pulled the shit he did get chance after chance the way he has
What “shit” did he pull? Be specific.
A broad, stupid question from an idiot
Not in the slightest, but IMO that’s a problem with women not getting chances. To be completely honest I’m more pissed off that JJ Abrams gets a free pass on milquetoast blockbusters.
I mean…the idea that making shitty movies is worse than harassing your employees and creating an unsafe environment sure is a take
The latter is objectively worse. The former is what I’m subjectively more pissed off about, because it’s indicative of an overall environment in which mediocre white dudes fail upward while minorities have to land perfect 10s to do everything, which in turn incentivizes the former to abuse power and the latter to not report bad bosses/coworkers in case they’re labelled as “difficult.”
You’re an idiot.
Problem is that, for some, apologies don’t matter. At all. Regardless of quality, sincerity, etc.Boy, it’d be fun if they’d just say “I will not accept apologies or view any attempts at atonement as valid,” but here we are. ::shrug::
You’re such a dumb piece of shit. Harmon wasn’t cancelled. Because he didn’t do anything wrong.
What’s your excuse for your pathetic existence? No one’s cancelled you but you’re a no one who nobody cares about – why is that?
Goes without saying if you’re wealthy enough, it doesn’t.
Harmon seems to be one of the very few to put in the work to get better. If that ends up being a load of crap then so be it, but so far so good.
He’s done this so many times before though. This is his whole M.O.; get called out, post some big self-flagellating apology that reads like oh I’m sorry, I’m awful, I’m such a piece of shit etc. Then he goes right back to pulling the same crap.
You should put a gun in your fat mouth and pull the trigger
I still can’t believe Great Minds with Dan Harmon can’t be found anywhere.
If it ever comes out though.Rick & Morty, hardly the most detailed or lengthy of animations, has managed an average of less than 5 episodes a year and the last two seasons haven’t exactly been outstanding across the board.
Lol you have no idea what you’re talking about and no one cares about your opinion
No one asked for or cares about your opinion
For.. THIS!?
The thing is, Greek cities (even if you are counting the earlier Mycenaean culture rather than the classical culture) aren’t anywhere close to the “one of the world’s first cities”. Even the Greeks themselves knew Egyptian civilization was older than theirs, and the Sumerian (and perhaps others) are older still.