When I was first starting to cover this Housebroken, FOX turned down a headline I gave the first interview we did for the series entitled “Exclusive Interview: FOX Readying To Drown Viewers In Pussy Cats With New Series Housebroken” and instead had me change the title to the story to this because they felt like the other headline was too edgy despite the fact that the interview was getting a good amount of traffic. I changed the headline to keep the peace, but it had me thinking this series was doomed from the start, not so much because of the series, but definitely because of the network. Two seasons and an incongruent schedule later and now we get word that FOX’s Housebroken is in fact canceled after long wondering the status of the series that hadn’t a new episode air since August of last year when it was buried on a Summer Animation Domination lineup among reruns of the other series that you can also get on any FX Network.
The news comes as we hear that Bedrock has a solid shot at a pickup and the network is slated to premiere new series Universal Basic Guys coming from creators Adam and Craig Malamut who recently signed a new overall deal with Sony TV.
Synopsis:
Featuring the voices of Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte, Clea DuVall, Nat Faxon, Sharon Horgan, Tony Hale, Sam Richardson and Jason Mantzoukas, animated comedy HOUSEBROKEN follows a group of neighborhood animals as they work through their issues, inside and outside their therapy group.
HONEY (Emmy Award winner Lisa Kudrow), a poodle mix, is the self-appointed leader of the group who often gets caught up in her own drama and is not always as helpful as she thinks she is. She struggles with her own problems, such as her relationship with her partner CHIEF (Academy Award winner Nat Faxon), a goofy St. Bernard who is less interested in personal growth and more interested in licking himself.
The group includes SHEL (Emmy Award nominee Will Forte), a sex-positive tortoise with a knack for choosing unconventional partners; TABITHA (Emmy Award nominee Sharon Horgan), an aging Persian cat beauty queen, trying to adjust to life off the cat show circuit; THE GRAY ONE (Jason Mantzoukas), a street-smart cat who lives with about 30 other cats and just wants to be loved; CHICO (Screen Actors Guild Award winner Sam Richardson), a chonky cat who has a very one-sided relationship with his human; MAX (Emmy Award winner Tony Hale), a Hollywood pig who may or may not have lived with George Clooney; ELSA (Screen Actors Guild Award winner Clea DuVall), a Corgi with a lot of opinions; and DIABLO (Hale), an anxious, sweater-wearing terrier.
Among the group’s other members are NIBBLES (guest voice Bresha Webb), a psychopathic hamster; BUBBLES (guest voice Greta Lee), a horny goldfish who lives with Honey and Chief, and heckles the animals any chance she gets; and TCHOTCHKE, a silent, and possibly magical, slow loris with a mysterious past, who uses a tiny cocktail umbrella to express his emotions. And then there’s JILL (Maria Bamford), the human who has no idea any of this is going on under her roof.
HOUSEBROKEN is an irreverent look at human behavior told through the filter of a quirky group of neighborhood animals. Throughout the series, the show centers on the pets’ dysfunctional relationships and their skewed world view, while exploring relevant societal issues in fun and unique ways.
HOUSEBROKEN is produced by Kapital Entertainment and FOX Entertainment. It is created and executive-produced by Gabrielle Allan, Jennifer Crittenden and Clea DuVall. Sharon Horgan, Clelia Mountford, Melanie Frankel, Aaron Kaplan, Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein also serve as executive producers. The series is animated by Bento Box Entertainment.