Fox aims to bolster its animation lineup with
a comedy about a down-and-outlandish Southern fam-
ily voiced by Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig, Jillian Bell, and
Ike Barinholtz. The Harts have “a tendency to make the
wrong choice at a lot of turns,” warns creator Emily
Spivey (Up All Night), who describes matriarch Betty
(Rudolph) as “a bad-choice buffet.” BTH will even serve
up a side of Jesus (Kumail Nanjiani)—as in, the Son of God—
who’s tight with Betty’s daughter, Jenny (Wiig). This isn’t
exactly divine intervention, though: “He is more like Jen-
ny’s best girlfriend,” explains Spivey. Speaking of deities,
she reveals that the Halloween episode pays tribute to a
departed rock god: “It’s got a Ronnie James Dio song
parody, a ghost, and it’s very sweet.” —DAN SNIERSON
New Comedy � SEPT—29 � 8:30 pm � FOX
BLESS THE
HARTS
At the end of season 1,
Jeff Pickles (Jim Carrey)
finally showed the world
there’s a real human
being who lives behind
the mask of an always
cheery kids’-show host,
but will it be bad for
business? “For the first
time in Jeff’s life, people
won’t like him, and he has
to come to terms with
that,” teases creator
Returning Drama
Season 2 � NOV—3
10 pm � SHOWTIME
Dave Holstein. “Jeff Pick-
les doesn’t lie. Season 2
sees a Jeff who con-
stantly doubles down on
the truth, hoping it will
set him free.” Is that how
he plans to get away with
hitting his estranged
wife Jill’s (Judy Greer)
boyfriend Peter (Justin
Kirk) with his car? “We’ll
be taking a deep dive
into Jeff and Jill’s love
story,” says Holstein.
“How the Dalai Lama
came to officiate their
wedding, complications in
the present after Peter’s
accident, and what hope
they have for a future.”
—ROSY CORDERO
KIDDING
In a career spanning
more than 20 years,
British actress Daisy
Haggard has gone
from playing the
disembodied voice
of the Ministry of
Magic’s elevators
in the Harry Potter
movies to deadpan-
ning opposite Matt
LeBlanc in five sea-
sons of Showtime’s
Episodes. “I just
kept replaying ‘How
you doin’?’ in my
head,” she says
of scenes with the
Friends alum.
Now Haggard
is helming her
own dark comedy,
which centers on a
small-town woman
trying to get her
life back on track
after 18 years of
incarceration. “I’m
really interested in
how we treat women
who have done
something bad,”
Haggard explains of
the premise. Rather
than dwelling on her
lost youth, Miri (Hag-
gard) relishes the
small joys of free-
dom, like gnashing
on a crunchy piece
of fresh celery—an
insight Haggard
took from a real-life
ex-convict she
interviewed while
researching the
series. “It felt really
important that Miri
had this warmth and
positivity,” says the
actress. “She’s an
adult beginner who
has an incredibly
dark past, but she’s
going to start her
new life and is deter-
mined not to waste
New Comedy � 10—6 � 8:30 pm � SHOWTIME
Back to Life
any more of it.”
Haggard knows
that comparisons
between Back to
Life and another
female-led British
dark comedy,
Phoebe Waller-
Bridge’s wildly suc-
cessful Fleabag, are
inevitable. (The two
shows even share
some of the same
producers.) But Hag-
gard has a proactive
perspective: “What
an honor. Phoebe is
an excellent brain,”
she says. “But, at
the same time,
I look forward to a
time when we do
not think of ‘female’
as a genre.”
—RUTH KINANE
↑ Daisy Haggard blossoms
↓ Jenny (Kristen Wiig) and Wayne (Ike Barinholtz) go for a ride
fall
tv pre
view
2019
EW ● COM OCTOBER 2019 55
BACK TO LIFE
: LUKE VARLEY/SHOWTIME;
BLESS THE HARTS
: FOX
