Fred Armisen-Led NASA Comedy Moonbase 8 Picked Up at Showtime; John C. Reilly Also Stars

Rebecca Iannucci
·2 min read

Showtime is (quite literally) shooting for the moon with its latest project: The premium cabler has picked up Moonbase 8, an astronaut comedy series starring Fred Armisen (Portlandia), John C. Reilly (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story) and Tim Heidecker (Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!).

Moonbase 8 finds the aforementioned trio playing subpar astronauts — Skip (Armisen), Rook (Heidecker) and Cap (Reilly) — who live at NASA’s Moon Base Simulator in Winslow, Ariz., all of them harboring hopes of being chosen to travel to the moon. “While working vigorously to complete their training,” the official logline reads, “a series of unexpected circumstances forces the astronauts to question their own mental sanity, trust in each other and whether or not they’re cut out for space travel.”

In addition to creating and writing the half-hour comedy, Armisen, Heidecker and Reilly serve as executive producers with Jonathan Krisel (Baskets), who also directs.

“In a year when we have all been forced to come to terms with life in close quarters, we are happy to have landed this offbeat take on life in captivity with dreams of escaping to something grander,” said Jana Winograde, Showtime’s president of entertainment. “While the show was produced before the pandemic, its subject matter is timely — and thanks to Fred, Tim, John and Jonathan, its humor is timeless.”

Moonbase 8‘s six-episode first season will premiere sometime this fall. Will you be tuning in?

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