Television

'A.P. Bio' Isn't Canceled After All, Will Be Moving To NBCUniversal Streaming Service

AP Bio Not Canceled
By Ethan Anderton

Back in May, NBC handed down the unfortunate order of cancellation to their midseason comedy series A.P. Bio. The show starred It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Glenn Howerton as a disgraced Harvard philosophy professor-turned-high school A.P. biology teacher, and tracked the lengths he went to in order to avoid teaching biology, opting to use his smart students to get revenge on a rival professor instead. The show lasted for two seasons and aired what was intended to be its final episodes last month, but thankfully, NBC has changed its mind about cancellation.

The Hollywood Reporter has learned that NBC will be reviving A.P. Bio for a third season through their forthcoming NBCUniversal subscription streaming service. That's the same service that will be taking The Office away from Netflix, and probably several other shows away from other streamers by the time it debuts.A.P. Bio is probably the best comedy you're not watching. It has the spirit of Community with the wit of 30 Rock, which makes sense when you know it comes from Saturday Night Live writer and cast member Mike O'Brien, as well as SNL mastermind Lorne Michaels. Not only is Glenn Howerton great on the show, but Patton Oswalt adds even more laughs as the school's principal, not to mention SNL veteran Paula Pell as the school secretary.

However, the show's secret weapon is the ensemble cast that brings the students to life. Aparna Brielle, Allisyn Ashley Arm, Jacob McCarthy, Miguel Chavez, Tucker Albrizzi, Spence Moore, Jacob Houston, Eddie Leavey, and more are all incredible in a variety of ways. The latter in that list especially has the gift of cracking me up with just a single facial expression.

NBC Universal will strike new deals with the cast since all their options expired in June when the last episode aired. But it sounds like all the key producers and writers of A.P. Bio will be back to get this show back on track. I couldn't be more happy about this since Mike O'Brien was particularly sad about losing the show back in May, and he knew, much like fans of the show, that the series was just coming into its stride.

Now with this good news, Mike O'Brien is singing a much different tune on social media:

This is the first time a show has been revived after cancellation by a streaming service under the same corporation. It remains to be seen what kind of success the show will need in streaming in order to make it worth NBC Universal paying for, but if they thought the network ratings were good enough to revive it, then hopefully it will have time to simmer and convince people to sign up for this streaming service. It would be a shame if few people subscribed and the show ended again because of it.

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