After the success it has had with Mad Men—and to a lesser extent, Halt And Catch Fire—AMC has decided to bring some of that period drama magic to its slightly less prestigious comedy division with Fast Boys, a show about the creation of the fast food industry set in the years after World War II. AMC is still developing the script, but The Hollywood Reporter says it has “shades of There Will Be Blood and early Tim Burton-esque Americana.”
Oddly, John Lee Hancock’s upcoming movie about the founding of McDonald’s has also been described as being similar to There Will Be Blood, which makes us wonder just how bleak and violent the early days of fast food really were. How many times did Dave Thomas beat Paul Dano to death with a square hamburger patty and a baked potato? If it’s fewer than one, then the comparison doesn’t really fit, does it? Or maybe it’s all a biting commentary on how cheaply produced food that tastes like garbage is just as important to modern American society as oil used to be? It sounds pretty edgy, either way. AMC recently passed on another period comedy, We Hate Paul Revere, so it remains to be seen if Fast Boys will at least make it to air.