Puppet News: Robert Smigel Producing Les Guignols Puppet Series : “Ron Burgundy” Debuts a Ventriloquist Act

FOX is working on a satirical puppet series with Robert Smigel, an adaptation of the canceled French series Les Guignols. Variety says Propagate has teamed up with French media giant Vivendi on the project, with David Javerbaum (“The Daily Show With Jon Stewart”) tapped to write and executive produce what will be a 30-minute series for the network. FOX’s Michael Thorn tells Deadline that “they are really excited” about the series

This would be part of FOX’s push for alternative comedy which is certainly behind why the network is ordering so much adult animation as of late. A puppet series would steal some thunder from NBC who has been introducing ventriloquists left and right all over their reality/variety series. For example, here’s (below) Ron Burgundy performing a standup routine with a hipster dummy from Brooklyn named J.J. on Late Night with Seth Meyers on NBC.

Smigel would be a natural fit for a comedic/political puppet series having produced and created the Emmy-nominated Triumph the Insult Comic Dog election specials that streamed on Hulu years back.