Tracy Morgan is back, and TBS has him. Three years after the end of NBC’s 30 Rock and two years after his horrific car accident, the comedian is returning to weekly television. The Atlanta-based basic cable network has ordered 10 episodes of a still-untitled, half-hour, single-camera comedy series starring and executive produced by Morgan. Key & Peele’s Jordan Peele is creating the show, and will also executive produce.TBS is apparently so confident in the combination of Morgan and Peele that it’s foregoing a pilot and ordering this project straight to series.
So what should fans expect? A press release from TBS gives a plot summary that makes the show sound kind of like Son Of Zorn, minus the sword-and-sorcery fantasy elements:
After being released on good behavior from a 15-year prison stint, Tracy is shocked to see just how much the world has changed in his absence. Returning to his newly gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood, Tracy discovers that his former girlfriend has married an affable, successful white man, who is helping raise his twin sons he never knew existed. Wanting nothing more than to connect with his kids, but having neither the money to support them nor himself, Tracy falls back on the skills he learned in prison to make ends meet while treading on unfamiliar territory.
Following the highly publicized 2010 launch of Conan, TBS has been building a stable of humorous original series, including Angie Tribeca and Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, hoping to establish the network as a hub for new comedy and not just a repository of Big Bang Theory reruns. The channel promises that Morgan and Peele’s show “looks to capture the rawness of Tracy’s stand-up persona while also commenting on race relations, the Gen X/Millennial gap, and the American penal system.” That’s a tall order, but this looks promising.