Fox Developing BLOOM COUNTY as Animated TV Series

Time to pull those old Billy and the Boingers t-shirts out of storage.

The Hollywood Reporter has word that Fox is developing Berkeley Breathed's classic comic strip Bloom County into a primetime animated series.

According to the article, the show is described as "Bloom County centers on a collapsed lawyer, a lobotomized cat and a penguin in briefs and fruit headwear living in the world’s last boarding house in the world’s most forgotten place deep in the dandelion wilds of FlyWayWayOver country. To wit, today’s America at a glance."

Breathed said in a statement, "At the end of Alien, we watched cuddly Sigourney Weaver go down for a long peaceful snooze in cryogenic hyper-sleep after getting chased around by a saliva-spewing maniac, only to be wakened decades later into a world STUFFED with far worse. Fox and I have done the identical thing to Opus and the rest of the Bloom County gang, may they forgive us."

The show will be produced by Fox Entertainment, Bento Box Entertainment, Miramax, Spyglass Media Group and Project X Entertainment, with Breathed co-writing and executive producing. "I was introduced to the brilliance of Berkeley Breathed and Bloom County as a teenager," said Michael Thorn, president of Fox Entertainment. "His signature blend of satire, politics and sentiment hooked me. Plus, I love Opus. Today, Berkeley’s smart and hilarious take on American culture is more relevant than ever. And, together with Bento Box, we’re thrilled to bring his unique ensemble of characters and social commentary to broadcast television."

Debuting on December 8, 1980, the Bloom County comic strip examined politics and pop culture, featuring such characters as Opus, Bill the Cat, Steve Dallas, Michael Binkley, and Oliver Wendell Jones before the strip ended on August 6, 1989. A Sunday-only spinoff strip called Outland ran from September 3, 1989, to March 26, 1995, and was later followed by another Sunday-only strip, Opus, which ran from November 23, 2003, to November 2, 2008. Bloom County returned via Facebook on July 13, 2015 and continues to this day.

This will be the second animated project based on Bloom County, after Opus 'n Bill: A Wish for Wings That Work, a CBS animated special that aired on December 18, 1991 and featured Michael Bell as Opus, John Byner as Bill, Alexaundria Simmons as Ronald-Ann, and Dustin Hoffman (uncredited) as Milquetoast the Cross-Dressing Cockroach.