'Black-ish' Creator Producing 'Astronomy Club' Sketch Comedy Series for Netflix
Improv comedy group Astronomy Club has landed a self-titled variety sketch series at Netflix, which "Black-ish" creator Kenya Barris will executive produce.
It will be similar to the digital series the group currently has on Comedy Central, but will feature a "show within a show" in each episode that put different characters in the spotlight.
Head writer Jonathan Braylock told Variety, "Our interstitials will be kind of a heightened fake reality show with all of us living in one house together because Netflix doesn’t have money to give us a bigger house. So we kind of have all these wonderful characters that are heightened versions of ourselves. And we have very, very loose plot lines that take us through each episode. So that way people can have a break from the sketches, they get to know us.”
Netflix has ordered six half-hour episodes.
In 2013, the eight performers -- Braylock, Keisha Zollar, Caroline Martin, James III, Jerah Milligan, Monique Moses, Ray Cordova, and Shawtane Bowen — formed the first and only all-black house team at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles.
They became known for their recurring sketch show "A Journey Thru Black History," in which they satirized racial oppression in modern America.
Their self-titled Comedy Central series debuted last year, with episodes including "George Washington Carver -- Uncensored" and "Dookie's Funeral Home."
"There’s a cultural revolution happening right now where more women and people of color are getting the chance to tell stories based on their own experiences,” Milligan told Variety. "But also stories that just show them as human beings whereas these stories don’t have to be about the skin color or about their gender, it can just be about them as people. It feels really good to be able to impact society in that way and I think the show is going to do well because of that."
As part of his deal with Netflix, Barris will also write, executive produce, and star in the single-camera comedy "Black Excellence" opposite Rashida Jones.
[Via Variety]
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