TCAs: TBS gets first primetime toon

US basic cable network TBS has ordered its first primetime animated series.

Tarantula, from Carson Mell (Silicon Valley) and Rough House Pictures, will be a half-hour comedy about the residents of the Tierra Chula Resident Hotel, and centres on an uncertified tattoo artist who delivers absurd yet introspective monologues.

Rough House will coproduce with Turner-owned Studio T, with Danny McBride, Jody Hill, David Gordon Green, and Brandon James (all Vice Principals) serving as executive producers.

TBS has given the show an open ended run, beginning next year, and has also ordered a Greg Garcia single cam comedy, The Guest Book.

The anthology series is based on fictitious stories Garcia (My Name is Earl) leaves in rental cabin guest books to freak out the next renters.
CBS Television Studios is producing with Studio T, which is the in-house arm of TBS and sister network TNT, with a 2017 airdate pencilled in.

“Our new projects, from some of the best creators and producers in the industry, will fit perfectly with the new direction we’ve been taking the TBS brand,” said Brett Weitz, executive vice president of programming for TBS.

“Each show brings something fresh and unique to the comedy genre, from the unforgettable characters that Greg has created in The Guest Book to the wild, animated absurdities of Carson’s Tarantula.”

The commissions came as part of host of announcements Time Warner-owned networks made over the weekend at the TCA tour. Others include:

• TBS ordering a pilot for half-hour comedy World’s End, which is based on an Icelandic scripted format. Electus and Studio T are coproducing
• TNT greenlighting a ‘provocative’ series called The Race Card (WT) in which NBA legend Charles Barkley goes on a personal journey to uncover why the US is so divided. Studio T produces in association with DocShop Inc. and Kin Studios
• TNT ordering a pilot for Rod Lurie post-Civil War drama Monsters of God, from Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, and a fourth season of The Last Ship
• truTV ordering “genre-hopping” scripted anthology series Bobcat Goldthwait’s Messed Up Stories, with Left/Right attached to produce
  CBS- and Lionsgate-owned Pop handing eight episodes to T Group Productions’ scripted comedy The Joey Mac Project (WT), which stars New Kids on the Block singer Joey McIntyre
• National Geographic Channel greenlighting a virtual reality short-form doc from director Kathryn Bigelow, The Protectors (WT), and a Katie Couric-produced doc titled Gender Revolution; and a drama based on sci-fi writer Michael Crichton’s soon-to-be-published manuscript Dragon Teeth; and acquiring worldwide rights to an untitled climate change doc from Fisher Stevens, Leonardo DiCaprio and Marton Scosese