Fox Buys Animated Western Comedy ‘Saloon’ From ‘Daily Show’ & ‘Rugrats’ Writers, SideCar

Fox is developing Saloon, an animated comedy from writers Elliot Kalan (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), Jenny Jaffe (Big Hero 6: The Series, Rugrats reboot), and Fox Entertainment-owned SideCar Content Accelerator, run by Gail Berman. If the project goes to production, it likely will be done in partnership with animated house Bento Box, which Fox Entertainment recently acquired.

Written by Kalan and Jaffe, Saloon, which has a script commitment, is set in the frontier outpost of Timmy’s Town. Kevin (a woman) runs the local saloon, McClanahan’s, where she functions as the townspeople’s unofficial leader/therapist/protector. At the other side of Timmy’s Town is do-gooder Sheriff Stacey Leslie (a man) whose only mission is to close Kevin’s “sinful” bar and run her out of town for good.

Kalan and Jaffe executive produce with Berman for Sidecar, which co-produces with Fox Entertainment.

While the comedy won’t be topical, it will have some teeth, tackling provocative topics through satire.

Kalan and Jaffe brought the idea for Saloon to SideCar. It was developed there into a pitch tailor-made for Fox where the project sold right away.

Kalan was a writer on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart from 2003-2015, where he shared in four Emmys for outstanding writing. He also ran The Fake News with Ted Nelms for Comedy Central, which recently won the WGA Award for Best Comedy/Variety Special, and also served as showrunner for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 revival for Netflix. Kalan, who also was nominated for a Daytime Emmy as a writer on the Netflix series The Who Was? Show, is co-host of the comedy podcast The Flop House. He is repped by Verve, Artists First, and Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham.

Jaffe most recently wrote on the Rugrats reboot for Nickelodeon. Prior to that, she was a staff writer on Disney’s animated show Big Hero 6. Jaffe is repped by Mosaic, Gersh and Gray Krauss Sandler Des Rochers.