Amazon is adding to its animation roster with a two-season order for an adult comedy from the studio behind Netflix’s Big Mouth.
The tech giant’s Prime Video streaming platform has ordered two eight-episode seasons of Fairfax, a series about four middle school best friends on a never-ending quest for clout along Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles’ pulsing heart of hypebeast culture. Animation studio Titmouse (Big Mouth, Amazon’s upcoming The Legend of Vox Machina) is producing along with Amazon Studios and Serious Business (@midnight); Matt Hausfater (Undateable), Aaron Buchsbaum and Teddy Riley created the show.
“Fairfax is smart, weird and hilarious, and we’re excited to work with Matt, Aaron, Teddy and the teams at Serious Business and Titmouse so our Prime Video customers around the world can see this unique new series,” Albert Cheng, COO and co-head of television at Amazon Studios, said Wednesday in a statement.
Fairfax will feature characters designed by artist Somehoodlum, who will also serve as a consulting producer. Pizzaslime, a “brand and idea laboratory”/merch store that sells, among other things, pillows emblazoned with random celebrity tweets, is also a consulting producer and will oversee the show’s connection to hype culture in the real world.
Said creators Hausfater, Buchsbaum and Riley: “This show is a love letter to kids today — the generation that will most definitely save the world from global warming, if they don’t die from eating Tide Pods first. It’s a modern look at the timeless struggle to be cooler than you are, to fit in while standing out, and what it feels like to wait in line for a pair of sneakers you’re never going to cop. We’re incredibly excited to be working with Serious Business, Somehoodlum, Pizzaslime, Titmouse and Amazon Studios. We couldn’t have asked for a better team.”
Hausfater, Buchsbaum and Riley will executive produce with BoJack Horseman veteran Peter A. Knight, Jon Zimelis and Jason U. Nadler for Serious Business, and Chris Prynoski, Shannon Prynoski and Ben Kalina for Titmouse.
Fairfax joins a roster of adult-targeted animated shows at Amazon that includes Undone and the forthcoming Legend of Vox Machina (based on the Critical Role web series) and Invincible, based on The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman’s comic. Amazon is also developing an animated sci-fi project called The Hospital from Maya Rudolph and Natasha Lyonne’s Animal Pictures.
Animated series (both originals and library shows) are among the most-watched content on several streaming platforms, and their relatively low price tag compared to live-action shows has led to a boom in the business as providers like Netflix, Hulu and now Amazon ramp up.
Netflix has its own in-house animation studio and recently signed an overall deal with Titmouse which includes a first-look option on all adult animated series created and developed by the company.
