Fox has been creating an animated series based on Bloom County, a popular comic strip from the 1980s created by comic writer and cartoonist Berkeley Breathed, who gained global notoriety for his work thanks to the show. The project has not provided any more updates since then. Alongside Breathed, who will be intimately involved in the on-screen treatment, the project has enlisted Tim Long to serve in numerous positions, including as a co-writer, co-showrunner, and executive producer. Long, a seasoned writer who has won many Emmys is best known for his considerable contributions to The Simpson, a Fox animated programme that deals with much of the same topics as Bloom County. Mr Tim Long was introduced to the project as a “professional” by Breathed himself in the form of a Bloom County-themed piece of art.
Twenty years and counting later, he is still working at The Simpsons as the consultant writer for The Simpsons Movie and as executive producer for the family cartoon series (2007). In addition to his work on Politically Incorrect and The Late Show with David Letterman, Long has also contributed to other late-night talk shows. He wrote the screenplay for the upcoming 2020 film The Exchange, and his writing has also appeared in print publications including The New York Times and The New Yorker.
Long will juggle his new role with his work on the Broadway production of Steven Spielberg’s The Goonies and the already in development HBO series starring Molly Shannon. The Bloom County animated series will, like the original, include talking animals and parody aspects of American society and lifestyle impacted by politics and cultural standards. A “collapsed lawyer,” “a lobotomized cat,” and “an overly-carbonated penguin immigrant,” all wearing briefs and residing in the final boarding house in the world in a city named “FlyWayThe@%!#OVER,” will narrate the tales. The Bloom County comic strip, on which the new show will be based, ran for nine fruitful years, from 1980 to 1989.
When Breathed was a student at the University of Texas, he began writing the strip The Academia Waltz for the school newspaper. Later, The Washington Post saw potential in the work and recruited Breathed to expand the comic into national distribution. After its initial broadcast run ended, Breathed brought the show back in 2015, but this time it aired online, with new episodes being posted every day on Facebook. Adaptations of Breathed’s works have been done before, therefore this is nothing new.
His works, such as A Wish for Wings That Work, Edward Fudwupper Fibbed Big, and Mars Needs Moms, have all been adapted for the big screen. He has a fanbase for his other comic strips, Opus and Outland, as well. Fox’s Bloom County animated series is still in the works, so there is no official release date just yet. Nevertheless, it is likely that the show will air on Sundays, among Fox’s other animated hits like The Simpsons and Family Guy.