Mike Judge Knows What NPR Needs: Puppets And Nimrods

A new show poking at the overly sober monotone of National Public Radio from comedy icon Mike (King of the Hill, Office Space) Judge? Yeah, sure, we’re interested. A comedy about NPR where the hosts are stop-motion puppets interviewing actual human guests? Guess we’re going to be subscribing to Peacock after all. 

That’s In The Know, Peacock’s first foray into adult animation (though much of it will be live-action). Judge is developing the show with Greg Daniels, who you might remember from The Office, and Zach Woods, his old pardner from HBO’s Silicon Valley -- if nothing else, In The Know has an impressive pedigree. If it was a horse, we’d put down twenty bucks when it raced at Santa Anita.

Here’s the official description from the PR wonks at Peacock: “Lauren Caspian is NPR’s third most popular host. He’s a well-meaning, hypocritical nimrod, just like you and me. He’s also a stop-motion puppet. Each episode follows the making of an episode of Lauren’s show In the Know, in which Lauren conducts in-depth interviews with real-world human guests. Lauren collaborates with a diverse crew of NPR staff. They are also puppets and nimrods.”

Daniels told The Hollywood Reporter that he’s pretty stoked to see where the team can push the form. “We’re in a golden age for content, right?” he said. “That’s animation, too.”

In fact, Daniels and Judge have even formed an animation company, Bandera Entertainment, to kick out more cutting-edge cartoonery. Judge says his Beavis and Butthead revival over at Comedy Central represents the kind of risk-taking their new animated ventures will be known for.

First up will be Bad Crimes on Netflix, with Laura Lapkus and Nicole Byer voicing the dark crime procedural. (Yep, still a cartoon -- though one Netflix says will have language, sex, nudity, and gore. Needless to say, we’re in!)

And there’s more in the hopper, including shows from Woods, Jimmy O. Yang, Alison Bechdel, Carrie Brownstein, and a Sacha Baron Cohen project that Judge calls “a very funny kids show.” There’s even a reboot of King of the Hill in the offing.  

We’ll leave you with one project in the works that Daniels describes as “if Breaking Bad were a comedy.”  

Wait, Breaking Bad wasn’t a comedy?

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