Ty Burrell to Star in Roku Comedy ‘Tightrope!’ From EP Bryan Cranston

Rick Porter
·2 min read
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Ty Burrell and Bryan Cranston are set to walk a Tightrope! for the Roku Channel.

The two Emmy winners are teaming up for a comedic reworking of a short-lived detective drama from the late 1950s (exclamation point very much included). Burrell will star in and executive produce the six-episode series, while Cranston is an executive producer.

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Roku made the announcement Tuesday at its newfronts presentation to advertisers, where it also showcased upcoming programming including a travel series from Tracee Ellis Ross, culinary competition Best Bite Wins hosted by Josh Peck and a talk show from John Cena, among others.

Tightrope! aired for one season in 1959-60 on CBS. The drama starred Mike Connors as an undercover police officer who infiltrated various criminal organizations. The Roku show will “reshape the drama of the vintage 1950s series into a slapstick comedy, where Burrell plays a lone wolf detective following cases city to city while he searches for his long-lost love who got away.”

“I was inspired by the on-the-nose old drama series of the ‘50s to mess with the whole thing and create a new version of a lunatic comedy, never seen before in a TV series,” Cranston said in a statement. “Tightrope! is a result of a fever dream, and conceived over a bowl of chili at Chasen’s, savvy?”

Village Roadshow Television is producing the series with Cranston’s Moonshot Entertainment and Burrell’s Blue Whale Productions.

“We’re thrilled to have Ty Burrell and Bryan Cranston join us at Roku for this imaginative, funny series,” said Roku Media president Charlie Collier. “What a joy to welcome Ty and Bryan to the Roku Originals lineup, along with the Moonshot and Desert Whale teams and our partners at Village Roadshow Television. We’re pleased to add Tightrope! to our growing originals slate to delight our audiences.”

Added Burrell, “I’m so thrilled to be working with Bryan and Roku Originals on this bonkers (in the best way) idea of a show.”

Cranston and Moonshot Entertainment’s James Degus executive produce with Burrell. Adam Small and Fax Bahr (Mad TV) will exec produce and direct.

Modern Family star Burrell is also starring in and exec producing Forgive and Forget, a multicamera comedy pilot at ABC.

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