Following the success of Empire, Fox is taking another step toward mogul-dom with a sitcom about a hip-hop clothing line. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the network is developing a show about the inner workings of a successful hip-hop fashion label, as seen through the eyes of the company’s only white male employee. The show is called White Jeff, presumably because that’s also the moniker that will be given to the “buttoned-down CPA” who works for an “eccentric rapper” at a hip-hop clothing line.
White Jeff is being written by David Bickel, who has producing credits for The Soul Man and King Of Queens. There’s no telling just how Bickel’s previous work will inform this “lone white guy” concept, but we’re glad that Fox had the guts to tell such a tale. After all, while it’s been great to see an all-black lead cast dramatize a different version of the American dream on Empire, the show has lacked a strait-laced white guy to act as the voice of fiscal responsibility. And we all know that’s where the real drama/comedy lies.