A comedy about four old people in a retirement home who can’t seem to act their age. While it might seem like a typical trope in TV; Fox’s The Cool Kids takes a bold chance not seen since The Golden Girls. A funny ensemble cast made up of elderly TV veterans without the crux of a young character to shoehorned in to appeal to audiences. This is strictly about things like old people retirement home sex, relationships, drugs, and acting like you’re in high school all over again.
On the panel: Martin Mull (Charlie), Leslie Jordan (Sid), David Alan Grier (Hank), Vicki Lawrence (Margaret), executive producer Charlie Day (It’s ALways SUnny…) and showrunner Patrick Walsh.
The show came from Charlie Day’s love of multi-cam shows and writing for older crew and Devito on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Day talked about how The Cool Kids will be a comedic take on old people meant for young people. The secret is to just tell jokes, not specifically old people jokes but allow the comedy to wrap around these characters.
The cast comprised of all seasoned actors relates to getting old. Each has been on television for hit shows like Roseanne, In Living Color, and Will&Grace; they’ve grown old on television and can now bring that to these roles. David Alan Grier’s character “Hank” isn’t simply the old guy version of his stand up routines or previous characters. Grier stated, “Each of the actors came into a role already written and made it their own.”
Charlie Day himself makes an appearance in the pilot despite being too big of a movie star for television.
Vicki Lawrence dished on her experience performing at retirement homes and was blown away by the various frat house activity going on at these places. The cast and producers take this show as more of joining a fraternity rather than looking at a retirement home as a prison.
The Cool Kids premieres on FOX September 28 @ 8:30PM
