TBS has given the go-ahead for a new mystery sitcom called Search Party. Alia Shawkat, John Early, John Reynolds and Meredith Hagner will star in the series about four twenty-somethings who reunite when a mutual friend goes missing.
Here’s the press release and a video preview:
TBS Greenlights Mystery Comedy Series Search Party
Alia Shawkat, John Early, John Reynolds and Meredith Hagner Star in Series from Creators Sarah-Violet Bliss, Charles Rogers and Michael Showalter
TBS has given a greenlight to Search Party, a dark comedy about a group of four self-absorbed 20-somethings who come together when a former college acquaintance mysteriously disappears. Led by Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development), the cast of Search Party features an ensemble of young comic actors, including John Early, John Reynolds and Meredith Hagner. The pilot was written and directed by Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers, whose credits include the 2014 SXSW Film Festival Grand Jury Award-winning feature film Fort Tilden and Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, and overseen by Michael Showalter (Hello, My Name Is Doris, Wet Hot American Summer). Tony Hernandez (Broad City, Inside Amy Schumer, Louie) and Lilly Burns (< em>Broad City, Difficult People, Younger) will serve as executive producers, alongside Showalter, Rogers and Bliss.
Plans call for Search Party to launch domestically across TBS’s linear, digital and mobile platforms in 2016. Turner International‘s general entertainment networks will partner to present the series outside of North America.
“Sarah-Violet, Charles, Michael and this fantastic cast of comedians have truly hit on the glory and utter misery of early adulthood,” said Brett Weitz, executive vice president of original programming for TBS. “Search Party is a carefully observed, blunt comedy for people who are testing out who they are and who they strive to be.”
Search Party centers on Dory (Shawkat), a fragile, frustrated, life-long doormat who’s not particularly proud of her impact on the world, especially since her greatest accomplishment to date is organizing clothes to be donated to Goodwill for her wealthy employer. Dory feels stuck in a stale and disconnected relationship with her boyfriend, Drew (Reynolds), a kind of clueless, complacent, spoon-fed doofus who just really loves Christmas. She also feels removed from her closest friends, Elliott (Early), a self-diagnosed narcissist who loves adding job titles to his designer-stylist-curator multi-hyphenate lifestyle, and Portia (Hagner), an actress always struggling to balance the challenging demands of chronic insecurity and pathological self-absorption.
Search Party opens with Dory learning that Chantal, a girl she barely knew in college, has gone missing. Despite having almost no personal connection to her, Dory becomes fixated on the mystery. Dory, Drew, Elliott, and Portia are not crime solvers. They value brunch, parties, and their own loud opinions. So when Dory drags them into a bumbling, perilous pursuit to find the missing girl, they soon learn the meaning of real danger and become entangled in a sinister plot that is more than their privileged Brooklyn lifestyles ever bargained for.
Search Party is being produced for TBS by Tony Hernandez’s Jax Media, the award-winning production company responsible for Broad City, Inside Amy Schumer, Younger, Difficult People,Odd Mom Out and many others.
About TBS
TBS is basic cable’s #1 network with young adults. Available across multiple platforms in 95 million homes, TBS features the original comedies American Dad! and the upcoming Angie Tribeca, The Detour, Wrecked and Search Party, along with the unscripted originals Funny Or Die Presents America’s Next Weatherman, Meet the Smiths and the upcoming Separation Anxietyand America’s Greatest Makers (working title). In late night TBS is home to CONAN, starring Conan O’Brien, and the upcoming Full Frontal with Sa mantha Bee. The TBS lineup also includes the popular contemporary comedies The Big Bang Theory and Family Guy; blockbuster movies; and live coverage of Major League Baseball’s regular and post-season play; the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship; and the brand new eSports gaming league.
TBS is part of Turner, a Time Warner company. Turner creates and programs branded news, entertainment, kids, young adult and sports content across television, digital and mobile platforms for consumers around the world.
What do you think? Do you like the sound of this new show? Do you plan to check it out?
