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HBO is back in business with the creators of Eastbound & Down.
The premium cabler has handed out a straight-to-series pickup of 18 episodes for comedy series Vice Principals. It’s unclear how many episodes each season will consist of, with HBO noting additional details — including a premiere date — will be announced at a later date.
Created by Danny McBride and Jody Hill, Vice Principals tells the story of a high school and the people who almost run it, the vice principals. McBride will star and exec produce alongside Hill, David Gordon Green and Stephanie Laing, who all exec produced Eastbound & Down. The series has been in the works for nearly a year; HBO first teased a high-school-set comedy from the duo at TCA last July.
The new series comes after Eastbound & Down ended its four-season run on HBO last year with a season high. The comedy that starred McBride as a former major league pitcher was never a huge hit in same-day returns but had a loyal audience that helped keep the cult comedy on the network’s schedule for a fourth and final run after McBride announced the series would end after season three.
In announcing that Eastbound was coming to an end in June 2013, HBO noted it was the stars and producers’ decision to close out the series. For McBride’s part, the new series comes a week after FX canceled animated comedy Chozen, which McBride exec produced.
“Danny McBride and Jody Hill have created a smart, rowdy and unpredictable style of comedy that we can’t get enough of,” HBO programming president Michael Lombardo said in a release announcing Vice Principals. “The idea of them setting their minds on high school was irresistible.”
For HBO, Vice Principals joins a rapidly growing slate of original comedy series including Girls, Getting On, Looking, Silicon Valley, Veep and upcoming half-hours Togetherness, The Brink, Ballers and the recently revived The Comeback.
Hill and McBride are repped by CAA.
Email: Lesley.Goldberg@THR.com
Twitter: @Snoodit
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