Funnyman Kevin Hart Lands Animated Pilot on Fox TV

Growing up, Kevin Hart didn’t have it easy. Yet, thanks to his mother and his community, he stayed optimistic and positive, and has gone on to have a successful career and life.

Now he’s adding to his stand-up and recent big Poker win success with an animated series called Lil Kev. The pilot is a joint project between Lionsgate TV, with whom Hart has a deal, and 20^th Century Fox TV.

The show will be based on Hart’s stand-up work and will feature the adventures of an imaginative 12-year-old boy growing up in the tough inner city of North Philadelphia, negotiating a drug-addicted father, a quick-tempered mother, a pessimistic older brother and an ex-con uncle. Oh, and there’s also going to be a wise-ass talking dog. To keep things real, of course.

Fox TV is Pushing Animation

Michael Thorn, who has just taken over as the Fox network’s entertainment president, has stressed how important animation is to the brand and has made a lot of moves to push the animation line-up further. Since Fox is the only primetime network to air animated shows, Thorn said he felt they “should continue to own that space”.

Thorn has also commented that he believed a lot of people first remember Fox’s animated shows when they think of the network, and that he is very eager to add another original animated series to the three that are currently on the schedule – Family Guy, The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers. To that end, there are several animated pilots in the works, including Lil Kev and a half-hour show penned by Amy Poehler and husband-and-wife duo Mike and Julie Scully. Mike still works on The Simpsons, and Julie did so in the past.

The Simpsons has won 10 Emmys for Best Animated Programme, Bob’s Burgers has won 2, and the success of Family Guy is well known. Whatever is chosen as the fourth Fox network animated show in 2018 has some very big shoes to fill. This is especially true since the last 2 animated series launched by Fox didn’t go past their original orders If Thorn is serious about driving animated shows further, he is in need of a real winner.

Neither Son of Zorn, which was a live action/animation hybrid, and Bordertown, produced by Seth MacFarlane, extended past their 2016 premier seasons. With Family Guy, the TBS-aired American Dad!, a new season of Cosmos and executive producing, writing and starring in the Fox space dramedy The Orville, MacFarlane has his hands rather full. He is not taking on new animated projects, leaving the space open for Poehler, Hart and other leading lights.A Lot of Serious Talent

Hart isn’t really known for doing things by half-measures, and the team assembled to work on Lil Kev is clear proof that he has no intention of starting now. A lot of the top-drawer talent mentioned above has been assembled for this particular project. Michael Price, a writer on The Simpsons, and Matt Claybrooks, who previously worked on Everybody Hates Chris, will write the show. Price has also written for the Netflix show F is for Family.

The vocal gifts of Wanda Sykes who has worked on Curb Your Enthusiasm and The New Adventures of Old Christine, Gerald “Slink” Johnson of Black Jesus fame, black-ish’s Deon Cole and fellow stand-up comic Keith Robertson will star alongside Hart himself, and the show is to be executive produced by Hart, Price and Jeff Clanagan, a well-known producer who was behind Hart’s Laugh at my Pain in 2011. Claybrooks, meanwhile, will co-executive produce.

With all this behind the project, it just might be the one that Fox chooses for its prestigious fourth animated show slots. Either way, it means we’re going to see at least half an hour of Kevin Hart being even more animated than usual!