Turner slates first primetime animation

Time Warner-owned Turner in the US has made a flurry of new drama, comedy and unscripted commissions for its cablenets TBS, TruTV and TNT.

TBS has greenlit two comedies: The Guest Book, which comes from Greg Garcia (My Name is Earl), and Tarantula, which is from Carson Mell (Silicon Valley) and marks TBS’s’ first primetime animated series,.

Ten-episode, single-camera anthology series The Guest Book will be produced by CBS Television Studios and is based on fictitious stories written by Garcia in the guest books of various rental cabins over the years.

Tarantula, meanwhile, will be produced by Rough House Pictures and is a half-hour comedy about a respected but uncertified tattoo artist living in the Tierra Chula Resident Hotel.

TBS has ordered an open-ended run for the series, which will join The Guest Book on the network’s line-up in 2017.

The network has also ordered a pilot for Jonathan Ames (Blunt Talk) comedy World’s End, starring Hamish Linklater and Wanda Sykes and executive produced by Ben Silverman.

The series follows a charismatic high-school English teacher who has a breakdown and is committed to a mental institution – and ultimately becomes the leader of an inmate revolt.

“Our new projects, from some of the best creators and producers in the industry, will fit perfectly with the new direction we’ve been taking the TBS brand,” said Brett Weitz, executive VP of programming for TBS.

Meanwhile, TruTV has ordered comedy series Bobcat Goldthwait’s Messed Up Stories (working title), which marks the network’s second foray into scripted after Those Who Can’t.

The eight-episode series will premiere on truTV in 2017 and is made up of morality tales from the dark mind of indie film director Bobcat Goldthwait.

Each episode will tell a different story in a different genre – including 1970s science fiction, psychological thriller, romantic comedy and reality – and will parody pop-culture norms and exploit the awkwardness of its flawed characters.

The series is produced by Left/Right, with Goldthwait, Banks Tarver, Ken Druckerman and Olivia Wingate serving as executive producers.

TruTV has also ordered a 16-episode second season of comedy competition series Comedy Knockout, 12 additional episodes of Fameless and 10 episodes of Greatest Ever.

Elsewhere, fellow Turner-owned network TNT has added The Race Card (working title), an unscripted series from NBA legend Charles Barkley, to its line-up.

The series will follow Barkley as he goes on a personal journey to explore and understand social divisions across the US.

“I see this project as a way to talk about race, class and cultural differences and challenge everyone’s status quo,” said Barkley.

TNT’s original programming slate continues to grow following the debut of Animal Kingdom earlier this year, with the addition of a pilot for Rod Lurie’s post-Civil War drama Monsters of God, from Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment.

The series follows Colonel ‘Terrible’ Bill Lancaster’s holy war against the Comanche in post-Civil War Texas.

Good Behavior, starring Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery, is due to arrive in November, while TNT has also ordered a fourth season of action-adventure drama The Last Ship.