Premium linear channel and streaming service MGM+ announced an eight-episode series order for American Classic, a half-hour comedy series from co-creators Michael Hoffman and Bob Martin and we’re excited for this one! Ready?
Here we go!
The series, which will debut with eight episodes, from FIFTH SEASON as the studio with Mar-Key Pictures, Likely Story, and Anonymous Content producing. Kevin Kline (known for Disclaimer), who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in A Fish Called Wanda, will star as “Richard Bean.” Jon Tenney will co-star as “Jon Bean,” and Hoffman will direct the pilot episode.
Hoffman, Martin, and Ellen Fairey serve as executive producers alongside non-writing EPs Kline, Leslie Urdang, Anthony Bregman, Miriam Mintz, David Levine, and Garrett Kemble for Anonymous Content, and co-EP Tenney. Kevin Cotter will serve as co-producer. The series is scheduled to go into production in 2025 in New Jersey.
MORE: Do you like the shows about classic America? Take a look at our interview with Kim Coates about American Primeval!
American Classic centers on Broadway star and notorious narcissist Richard Bean, played by Kline, who suffers a spectacular public meltdown and returns to his hometown and the family-run theater where he first became aware of his own brilliance.
When he arrives, he is shocked to discover that his father, the former artistic director, has lost a step and that the once-respected theater, now run by his brother Jon, played by Tenney, and his wife (now the town’s mayor) has become, by necessity, a low-rent dinner theater serving roast beef and murder mysteries. He decides to save the town, the theater, and the world by presenting a great American classic on the dinner theater stage, directed by and starring, of course, Richard Bean.
“MGM+ is television for movie lovers—classic Hollywood storytelling through a contemporary lens. American Classic, with its sophisticated wit, adult characters, and unique cast, is an exciting addition to that brand,” said Michael Wright, head of MGM+. “In the capable hands of Michael Hoffman and Bob Martin, alongside stage and screen legend Kevin Kline, American Classic is a hilariously funny and deeply poignant comedy, and we can’t wait to share it with our MGM+ audience.”
MORE: We also talk with Derek Hinkey and Saura Lightfoot Leon about American Primeval!
“The two of us have been shaped from childhood by our love of the theater and those magical creatures that inhabit it: true actors,” said Hoffman and Martin. “To get to tell a story with new friends and longtime collaborators, among them that grand man of the theater, Kevin Kline (who happens also to be one of the world’s supreme comic talents), and a story about art, community, and family… for us, that’s about as good as it gets.”
American Classic will premiere on MGM+ soon.
