Apple, Bob’s Burgers creator visit Park

Apple has ordered two seasons of an animated musical comedy from the creator of Bob’s Burgers, Loren Bouchard, for its TV platform.

Central Park will be written by Bouchard alongside Josh Gad and Nora Smith and produced by 20th Century Fox Television. Bouchard and Gad will executive produce alongside Brillstein Entertainment Partners, with Smith serving as consulting producer. The order is for two 13-episode seasons.

Gad also joins the series’ voice cast, which includes Leslie Odom Jr, Titus Burgess, Kristen Bell, Stanley Tucci, Daveed Diggs and Kathryn Hahn.

The show is set in New York’s Central Park. Fox is also behind animated series such as The Simpson’s, Family Guy, American Dad! and King of the Hill.

Tech giant Apple has pledged to spend around US$1bn on content in 2018 and has been unveiling commissions steadily for the past few months. Most recently, it revealed a straight-to-series drama from M Night Shyamalan, the director of hit movies including The Sixth Sense and Split.

Other programming on the way includes Are You Sleeping, an original series based on a novel by Kathleen Barber, to be produced by Reese Witherspoon’s prodco Hello Sunshine and Chernin Entertainment/Endeavor Content. It has also commissioned a straight-to-series drama from La La Land director Damien Chazelle and futuristic drama See from Peaky Blinders writer Steven Knight.