Amy Poehler's new animated series Duncanville may fulfill one of your Parks and Rec wishes
Welcome to Duncanville. Population: one average, awkward teen.
Premiering Feb. 16 at 8:30 p.m. on Fox, the animated comedy with an impressive voice cast follows Duncan (Amy Poehler) as he navigates life with an intense mom, Annie (also Amy Poehler), his tragically needy dad, Jack (Ty Burrell), and quirky friends (Zach Cherry, Yassir Lester, Betsy Sodaro). “Duncan’s mom is constantly worried that he’s one bad decision away from ruining his life,” teases Mike Scully, who created the show with his wife, Julie Scully, and, you guessed it, Poehler. “His dad is infuriated that his son won’t friend him on Facebook. His five-year-old sister [Joy Osmanski] thinks he’s the greatest, most handsome brother in the world and hopes to someday marry him.”
More comedic complication awaits this freckled kid entering the throes of puberty and age-coming. You’ll see Duncan match wits with his slightly younger, purple-haired sister, Kimberly (Riki Lindhome), glean wisdom from the school’s beloved gym coach/guidance counselor/nurse Mr. Mitch (Wiz Khalifa), and not quite manage his crush on cool-girl Mia (Rashida Jones). And, as luck would have it, his interest in Mia comes with value-added. Quips Scully: “It answers all the requests we used to get on Parks and Rec about ‘When are Ann and Leslie gonna hook up?'”
On a network teeming with animated family comedies all stacked up on one night, where will Duncanville find its quirky spot? “We want it to sit nicely between The Simpsons and Bob’s Burgers, but to have more of the teenage world,” says Scully, a former showrunner of The Simpsons. “That ‘70 Show was a bit of a template in that Topher Grace’s [Eric Forman] character had the world with his friends and the world with his parents. We kind of reversed it, where we’re a little more on the family side than the friends. We want to try to do some jokes that maybe they can’t do on The Simpsons or Bob’s because the kids are younger.”
Enjoy those jokes — which include a Wendy’s reference that will never be turned into a commercial, plus a wholly holy drive-by — in the above peek at the series premiere.
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