Jimmy Fallon has teamed up with producers Charlie Grandy and Amy Ozols for NBC’s upcoming comedy, “Guys With Kids.”
The new TV show follows three dads (played by Anthony Anderson, Jesse Bradford and Zach Cregger) who are dealing with fatherhood, while trying to hold on to their youth. Although it seems been-there-done-that, Anderson insists they aren’t following the usual formula.
“You can go for the quick and easy laugh all the time, but that’s short-lived,” he said. “I applaud [the writers] for allowing us to find the humor in the situations of just parenthood and not, you know, just fart jokes and pee jokes and diaper jokes, and all of that.”
The idea for the show came together after Fallon noticed fathers were becoming more involved in their children’s lives.
“Jimmy said, ‘There’s no show about this,’” Grandy said. “There’s no show about, you know, parenthood improving the life of a dad. It always is sort of encumbered; it changes your life for the negative.”
After filming the show’s first few episodes, Grandy, who has three children, hopes to recreate the experience he had while watching TV with his family as a kid.
“I just want it to be a fun place viewers can come with their families,” he said. “It’s trying to recreate that feeling I had with my family growing up and watching television, those family comedies, you know, NBC ones, but also, ‘Roseanne,’ ‘Growing Pains,’ what have you.”
Anderson agrees with Grandy’s vision.
“It sounds kind of cliché and corny and hokey-dokey, but to bring the family back together again, that’s what I hope for,” he said.