Filmmaker Kevin Smith has been the owner of a comic book store called Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash for decades, and for seven seasons AMC aired a reality show that was based around the store and the characters that inhabited it, a show called Comic Book Men. Now, Variety reports that Smith is drawing inspiration from his own comic book store again while developing a new TV series called Local Heroes. Smith is a writer and executive producer on the new show, alongside 30 Rock alums Josh Siegal and Dylan Morgan. Set up at Universal, the show is being developed for NBC.
Hazy Mills’ Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner are also behind the project, as is Jordan Cerf.
Local Heroes is said to be about a group of comic book store regulars who band together to solve crimes in their hometown.
Jim Donnelly, Universal TV comedy development executive vice president, provided the following statement: “We pride ourselves on facilitating collaborations. Sean Hayes’ company has been here for a long time. Josh and Dylan are overall deal writers who have worked in Mike Schur’s and Tina Fey’s camps. And Kevin Smith is a hero of mine and has his finger on the pulse of the genre world. This murder mystery show in a comic book store really fits into NBC’s single-camera workplace, large-ensemble shows.“
Local Heroes is part of an “uptick in the output” of Universal’s comedy division, emboldened by an Emmy win for their show Hacks earlier this year, which was the first time the company had won that award since 30 Rock got the honor in 2009. Donnelly says the key ingredient for a Universal comedy is that it should have an “underlying positivity.” “Our shows tend not to be caustic. We think of comedy as, it makes you feel good at the end of the episode or at end of the season. I think that all our shows do that pretty successfully.“
In addition to Hacks, other comedies Universal is currently having success with include A Man on the Inside, St. Denis Medical, Happy’s Place, and Loot. Their show Laid, starring Stephanie Hsu as a woman whose lovers are mysteriously dying, one by one, is set to premiere on Peacock on December 19th, and The Four Seasons, starring Tina Fey and Steve Carell, will reach Netflix next year. They’re also working with Greg Daniels and Michael Koman on a new comedy set in the world of The Office.
What do you think of Universal’s comedy line-up? Does the Kevin Smith series Local Heroes sound interesting to you? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
I have been a dedicated Kevin Smith fan for thirty years, so I’m looking forward to seeing how Local Heroes will turn out… and hoping that this association with Universal will somehow also get him a greenlight for the Mallrats sequel he has been wanting to make for years.
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