CRAIG: Does Mulaney really fit in with Animation Domination and Brooklyn Nine-Nine?
SHILO: Not really. I think John Mulaney is a figure whose voice fits in with what FOX is trying to do with its live-action comedy and that a show from him could conceivably find a small, passionate audience that allows it to survive for several seasons. I just don’t think Mulaney is that show.
It’s hard enough mixing single cams and multi-cams in the same lineup – Dads, The Neighbors, and The Crazy Ones were all cancelled this past season after sticking out in their respective lineups. The tonal shift between single and multi cam comedies saps a lineup of flow, so FOX doing animated comedy, animated comedy, single cam comedy, animated comedy, and multi-cam comedy on Sundays just seems like a disaster waiting to happen. I understand that they’re trying to boost Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Mulaney by giving them access to their strongest male-skewing lead-ins in The Simpsons and Family Guy, but it’s been about a decade since live-action comedy worked on Sundays for FOX and asking that audience to accept a multi-cam, even if its from someone like Mulaney, just feels like a lot to me.
Not helping Mulaney is that FOX has another Seth MacFarlane animated comedy in Bordertown that could easily slide into the 9:30 slot should it stumble out of the blocks. With Bordertown still undergoing production, it likely won’t be ready until 2015, so barring any ratings collapse, Mulaney and its 16-episode order might have the rest of 2014 to make the case that multi-cam comedy can work in the lineup formerly known as Animation Domination.
Navigate to the next page below:
