According to Deadline, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane will executive produce a new single-camera comedy for Fox called 2 Black Dudes created by J. Lee, a writer on MacFarlane’s late Cleveland Show. Mike Mariano (Raising Hope) will serve as showrunner. The series is reported to be an “edgy comedy” about two cousins who have different perspectives on life and “continuously bump heads on everything from religion, sex, politics, and being black in America all the way down to who’s the best ninja turtle.” This doesn’t seem very edgy at the outset, but just imagine if the two turtles chosen were tedious Donatello and moody Raphael. Then this show would prove itself to be a real wild card.
Anyway, since 2 Black Dudes sounds pretty boring, let’s talk about its creator, J. Lee. He’s an accomplished classical pianist who played at Carnegie Hall at the age of 12. However, upon graduating in 2005 with a BA in Piano Performance and Theater and Drama, he retired his metronome and moved to Los Angeles to try writing words and stuff. He was hired as a receptionist on Family Guy, and MacFarlane eventually made him a writer on The Cleveland Show. Lee has even voiced characters on Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show. So this guy’s life has been pretty unique so far. Let’s hope he brings some of that distinctness to 2 Black Dudes, or that he at least explains why not selecting Leonardo or Michelangelo as your favorite ninja turtle basically makes you a sociopath.