With The Cleveland Show cancelled and American Dad heading for TBS, it was looking like Fox might be down to just three Seth MacFarlane-produced shows on their schedule: Family Guy, Dads, and the upcoming Cosmos reboot. Luckily, Fox immediately sprang into action and greenlit his latest cartoon (his fourth for the network), thus maintaining their quota:
Fox has given a 13-episode order to Bordertown, from MacFarlane and Family Guy‘s Mark Hentemann. Set in a fictitious desert town near the U.S.-Mexico border, Bordertown centers on the intertwining daily lives of neighbors Bud Buckwald and Ernesto Gonzales. Bud, a married father of three, is a Border Patrol agent who feels threatened by the cultural changes that have transformed his neighborhood. Living next door is Ernesto, an industrious Mexican immigrant and father of four, who is proud to be making it in America. As Bud and Ernesto’s paths begin to cross, their families become bound by friendship, romance and conflict.
Surely the Gonzales family will be portrayed with the same cultural sensitivity as Family Guy‘s Conseula, a Hispanic maid who appears to exist so multi-millionaire Seth MacFarlane can blow off some steam about his hired help (“Oh yeah, you mean like when your lazy butler washes your sock garters, and they’re still covered with schmutz?”).
It remains to be seen which thing-that-doesn’t-normally-talk will talk, if any. A sentient pinata, mayhaps? A horny taco? This dog with an afro?
Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
The news was announced Friday night by Fox’s Chairman of Entertainment Kevin Reilly, who once said “our plan is not all Seth, all the time.” Just three nights a week.
[Deadline]