Fox Picks Up Pilot Pitched By Jamie Foxx

Television News

Fox Picks Up Pilot Pitched By Jamie Foxx

By our guest blogger, Alexandra Cervenak

Jamie Foxx is a man of many talents – television star, Oscar winner, auto-tuned singer. But he may be adding TV producer to his list of credentials, as Fox has ordered a pilot for an as yet unnamed sketch comedy show the actor/singer pitched to the network.

This wouldn’t be Foxx’s first foray into television, having had his own titular series “The Jamie Foxx Show,” which ran on the now defunct WB Network from 1996 to 2001. But even more importantly, Foxx has experience with TV sketch comedy, his breakthrough coming when he joined the cast of Fox’s “In Living Color” in 1991.

And indeed, Foxx’s latest pitch sounds like “In Living Color” revisited, as the new show promises to be sketch comedy with an “urban flavor.” Foxx will executive produce the project, along with Fax Bahr and Adam Small, writers from “In Living Color” who would later go on to create “MADtv,” also for Fox. Affion Crockett, formerly of MTV’s “Wild N Out” and known for his parodies of personalities like Jay-Z, Kanye West and Chris Brown, is attached as one of the stars.

The current project is actually an amalgam of two pitches--Foxx’s series plus a vehicle for Crockett that was being developed independently by Sony TV’s Tantamount. Aside from starring in that series, Crockett was also planning on writing along with Carl Jones, of Adult Swim’s animated series “The Boondocks.” But after Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly was presented with both pitches, he suggested merging the two projects together. As a result, Small, Bahr, Jones and Crockett will all write for the new combined project.

As Starr Rhett of BET points out, “There has been a huge void in the urban sketch comedy arena since ‘Chapelle’s Show’ went off the air.” And with the demise of “MADtv” last year, and shows like “Who’s Line Is It Anyway?” a distant memory, sketch comedy in general is sparse on regular network television. And no matter what Foxx produces, it’s doubtful it will be able to go against the cultural stalwart that is “Saturday Night Live,” even if their current season--without the comedic highs of last year’s presidential election--has been decidedly lackluster.

But if all involved with this venture play their cards right they could definitely be on to something by filling an open niche. And if the new show takes its cues from “In Living Color” and invites on high profile musical guests as well it could certainly turn itself into a draw (Maybe you’d be willing to be the first, Mr. Foxx?). A lot will probably depend on what timeslot Fox decides to give the show – the network has a pretty strong weekday lineup with shows like “House,” “American Idol,” and now “Glee,” so I have a feeling this sounds like something Fox would let languish to dismal ratings on a Friday or Saturday night (the same fate which befell “MADtv”).

Maybe bringing back the Fly Girls will help avoid that situation?

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