Fox Greenlights A Sitcom About A Telekinetic Yogurt Shop Worker
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Go home, Fox, you’re drunk. Or I am. Clearly one of us is, because that’s the only explanation for the Deadline story reporting that Fox has greenlit a series about “a 25-year-old woman who works at a frozen yogurt shop and whose life is going nowhere — until she discovers she is telekinetic.” I’m not ever saying it will be bad, necessarily. I’m just saying that Fox is still on my shit list for Firefly and Almost Human, Fox, and this isn’t helping their case.
Alright, alright, I’ll remove my cranky old man pants, and that wasn’t intended to sound nearly as unsettling as it does in retrospect. Here’s the skinny: the so-far-untitled single-camera half-hour comedy was created by 30 Rock writer Colleen McGuiness, also a veteran of NBC’s About a Boy. McGuiness is writing the pilot, which is being produced by Universal TV and a pair of guys named “Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.” Hmm, doesn’t ring any bells. Fox has given the project a script commitment plus penalty, which means if they don’t order the series to pilot Fox will have to pay a penalty.
I haven’t seen any of NBC’s About a Boy, but 30 Rock is obviously awesome, so McGuiness at the very least carries some impressive credentials. As for the “untitled telekinetic yogurt girl show,” at first blush the concept sounds like it could maybe sustain a recurring SNL sketch, but not much more than that. But it’s pretty much all going to come down to execution, isn’t it? Is the show going to be focused solely on the girl’s days at the yogurt shop? Because really, how many misadventures can a budding Jean Grey get into within the confines of a workplace comedy? I mean, she can only slip and accidentally levitate a customer their sample portion so many times before it gets old.
One thing the show has going for it is that it’s single-camera, meaning it’s likely at least trying to be more Arrested Development than 2 Broke Girls. Of course, Fox canceled Arrested Development, so… (Totally unrelated factoid: 2 Broke Girls is currently entering its fourth season on Fox.)
All that being said, this show could actually be totally amazing if they embrace the inherent silliness of the idea and have Yogurt Girl freak out and go on a telekinetic murder rampage at the end of every episode. Sort of like this viral stunt created to promote last year’s Carrie remake. (And hat tip to io9 for pointing out the similarities.)
Seriously, that show I would watch.
