Fox Entertainment Is Developing A ‘Bloom County” Series

Bloom County, the satirical newspaper comic strip that pilloried the culture and politics of the Eighties, is headed for a comeback.

Here are the details:

• Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Entertainment will develop the strip as an animated series, in partnership with its subsidiary Bento Box Entertainment, Miramax, Spyglass Media Group, and Project X Entertainment.
• The series will be co-written and executive-produced by the strip’s creator Berkeley Breathed, 64. The show’s general premise will be familiar to fans of the strip: “Bloom County centers on a collapsed lawyer, a lobotomized cat and a penguin in briefs and fruit headwear living in the world’s last boarding house in the world’s most forgotten place deep in the dandelion wilds of FlyWayWayOver country.”
• Bento Box will serve as the animation studio for the series.
• Bloom County debuted in 1980, and at the height of its popularity, appeared in over 1,200 newspapers. The strip ended in 1989, but Breathed has since launched new strips like Outland and Opus that feature the same characters.
• Of the new animated series, Breathed said in a statement, “At the end of Alien, we watched cuddly Sigourney Weaver go down for a long peaceful snooze in cryogenic hyper-sleep after getting chased around by a saliva-spewing maniac, only to be wakened decades later into a world STUFFED with far worse.  Fox and I have done the identical thing to Opus and the rest of the Bloom County gang, may they forgive us.”
• Added Michael Thorn, president of entertainment, Fox Entertainment, “I was introduced to the brilliance of Berkeley Breathed and Bloom County as a teenager. His signature blend of satire, politics and sentiment hooked me. Plus, I love Opus. Today, Berkeley’s smart and hilarious take on American culture is more relevant than ever. And, together with Bento Box, we’re thrilled to bring his unique ensemble of characters and social commentary to broadcast television.”