Christmas is coming early for SYFY’s late-night adult animation block, TZGZ. The network made a list, checked it twice… and today announced that the irreverent and edgy animated comedy THE POLE, starring Bobby Moynihan and Jillian Bell, has been added to the “nice list” with a 6-episode series pickup.
THE POLE also added series regular Nicole Byer, and recurring cast members SungWon Cho, Colin Jost, Tim Simons and Sasheer Zamata.
In THE POLE, after a scandal involving “Saint” Nick (Moynihan) rocks the holly jolly foundations of the North Pole, all hell breaks loose as the future of Christmas turns into a twisted power struggle for the Red Suit. As Nick, the 20th to wear the Suit, struggles with the age-old question of naughty vs. nice, his wife Mrs. Claus, aka Gretchen (Bell), works to keep the political machine that is toy production afloat. It isn’t easy as they juggle the factory elves, including Nick’s head elf Matilda (Byer) and the political activist Helenor (Zamata), as well as parenting two sons – Nick’s mini-me Harry (Cho) and the crown prince, Jack (Simons), who’s not only next in line for the Suit, but also looking to rebrand it. Reporting on all the drama in THE POLE? Cocoa (Jost), host of the North Pole News Network Program, “Morning Cocoa.”
Expected to debut in TZGZ in 2021, THE POLE is from Yeti Farm Creative (“Hotel Transylvania” Season 2, “Pete the Cat” Season 2). The quarter-hour series is created and executive produced by Matthew Bass (Writer, “Future Man”) and Theodore Bressman (Writer, “Future Man,” Writer/EP, “Jungleland”), who also serve as showrunners. Mark Gordon (Producer, “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Ray Donovan”) also executive produces, as well as Frank Saperstein (EP, “Counterfeit Cat”, Producer, “Ren & Stimpy”) and Jay Surridge from Yeti Farm Creative.
Here’s an extended breakdown of each character:
Bobby Moynihan as NICK – Our hero and the 20th Santa Claus to wear the suit. On the surface he is jolly, super into pancakes and recreational drugs, but he struggles with the mounting discord in his own backyard. And so, the show follows him on a journey of introspection as he reconsiders traditional definitions of naughty and nice. In the series, Moynihan also voices CHILLY, Nick’s best friend who happens to be a snowman.
Jillian Bell as GRETCHEN – The backbone of the North Pole, Mrs. Claus a.k.a. Gretchen runs the political machine that has become the business of toy production. She is by far the smartest person on the North Pole and is the only thing keeping it together. In the series, Bell also voices the mysterious SNOW WHITE LADY.
Nicole Byer as MATILDA – Top of her class at the Elf on a Shelf program, Matilda does God’s work as Nick’s ride-or-die workaholic head elf.
SungWon Cho as HARRY, DASHER & LEN – Cho lends his voice to many characters in the series, including:
- Harry – Nick’s 14-year-old son, who’s as plump and jolly as he is
- Dasher – one of Nick’s reindeer, who’s quite frisky and ready to mingle, even with those who aren’t single
- Len – an elf who likes to party
Colin Jost as COCOA SCARBOROUGH – A send-up of the entire media in the form of a cute cocaine-snorting penguin anchorman, Cocoa wakes up The Pole in the morning with his cable news show, “Morning Cocoa.”
Tim Simons as JACK – The crown prince, a fitness obsessed, power-hungry 18-year-old with serious plans to rebrand the suit. Since he’s in line to become the 21st Santa, he also makes everyone call him Blackjack, which everyone thinks is lame and weird.
Sasheer Zamata as HELENOR – An activist who emerged as the voice of the Radical Naughty Party after coining the term “One Child: One Gift.”
Our Take
This may or may not spell the future of Comedy Central’s Loafy which also is created by/starring Bobby Moynihan, but a solid pickup for the network who gets a stellar cast and features Bobby who is quickly becoming an attractive name for lead voices. Santa is coming to town!
John is the Chief Editor and Founder of Bubbleblabber.com. While at first a part-time project, Bubbleblabber quickly grew into a full-fledged operation and officially became a company in 2014. When John isn't running a business full-time, he likes to go to concerts with your mother.
Hi Ashley, thank you so much for reading and we love the feedback. Note that on that day we had 14th posts go up and only ten posts show on the front page, so it's possible the preview had already been archived by the time you got to it. One recommendation would be to add our RSS feed to your favorite news aggregator service like Feedly, this way you get all of the latest posts!