'The Post Guard' Animated Series In The Works From 'Reno 911!' Co-Creator Thomas Lennon

Actor, screenwriter, director, and all-around goofball comedian Thomas Lennon is in the process of developing an animated show for Fox called The Post Guard. The Reno 911! co-creator (seen above) is utilizing animation to create another workforce comedy, but this time he's hitting the beach.

Variety announced a new series written and executive produced by Thomas Lennon. The animated show entitled The Post Guard is described as "a workplace adventure comedy following the rag tag crew of humans, turtles, seals and mermaids at the secretive, and often overlooked mashup of the Coast Guard and Post Office, as they scour the high seas to find and deliver messages in bottles, while settling who among them is in charge of the ship's menial tasks, like resetting the WiFi."

Sounds pretty funny, right? Fox has ordered a presentation for the series, and Peter Principato is set to executive produce alongside Lennon. Principato worked alongside Lennon as executive producer for 26 episodes of Reno 911! from 2004 to 2009. He has also executive produced other television shows such as Hit & Run, Awkwafina is Nora from Queens and Black-ish.

Ever since Lennon's starring role in the 2018 comedy pilot Dan the Weatherman, he has been in demand for projects at Fox. He also starred in the Fox pilot Richard Lovely and had a recurring role in the Fox series adaptation of Lethal Weapon which ran for three seasons from 2016 to 2019.

Fox has also had a long run of success with animated shows over the past few decades. The Simpsons has been on the air since 1989 and Family Guy has been on the network since 1999. Currently, Fox is seeing success with Bob's Burgers and the addition of 2021 shows like The Great North and Housebroken. It will be interesting to have another animal-centric animation series run alongside Housebroken in the future. While it takes place in a domestic setting, Post Guard will provide more comedic punches through the workforce narrative. I also wonder about the show's characters and if more serious subjects like microplastics, pollution, and climate change will be written into the series. It's hard for me to imagine much else in terms of plot aside from a story like Finding Nemo so I'm pretty intrigued.

Come to think of it, there aren't a lot of ocean-related shows these days outside of documentary-style films or series like Blue Planet. There are a couple of animated kid shows but nothing particularly made for adults with mature content. So, I think the combination of location, sea creatures interacting with humans, and workplace culture is actually pretty great in terms of timing. Even finding messages in bottles is still relevant, because that somehow keeps happening, which is both cool and disturbing in its own right.

This also seems like a creative opportunity to comedically explore how the ocean is being neglected in the fight against combatting climate change. This isn't a political statement, mind you. I just enjoy the opportunity to spotlight some science whenever possible, and there could be an opportunity to satirize it with a show like this. Either way, I look forward to more information on the series as time goes on.