More women are finally joining Adult Swim’s ranks. “Three Busy Debras,” a surreal, women-created comedy pilot from producer Amy Poehler has been ordered at the network, Deadline confirms. The “absurdist” half-hour project centers on three disturbed housewives (Sandy Honig, Mitra Jouhari, and Alyssa Stonoha) who live in a yuppie Connecticut suburb — one that exists outside of our reality.
Stars Honig, Jouhari, and Stonoha wrote and created the pilot. Anna Dokoza is directing and Poehler will produce via her company, Paper Kite Productions.
“Paper Kite is thrilled to help amplify the bold and bloody voices of the ‘Three Busy Debras.’ We hope this show makes you feel strange in all the right ways,” Poehler commented.
Honig will appear in 2019’s “Isn’t It Romantic” a meta rom-com toplined by Priyanka Chopra (“Quantico”). Jouhari has written for “The President Show” and acted in projects such as “The Big Sick” and “Broad City.” “Rules of Cool” is among Stonoha’s screen credits. All three of the Busy Debras have guested on series “The Special Without Brett Davis” as well.
Dokoza has previously directed episodes of “American Treasures” and “Lady Dynamite.” She’s a producer on many series, including “Insecure” and “Divorce.”
Poehler is set to make her feature directorial debut with Netflix’s “Wine Country,” a comedy about group of friends on a 50th birthday trip to Napa. The “Parks and Rec” alumna will star alongside Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Paula Pell, and Emily Spivey. Poehler has several other TV projects in the works including an untitled Netflix series starring Natasha Lyonne (“Orange Is the New Black”) and an NBC pilot from Aseem Batra. The former is set at a party where Lyonne’s characters is the guest of honor, and the latter follows one woman’s disastrous attempts to have it all.
In 2016 BuzzFeed reported on the massive gender disparity at Adult Swim. Known for its late-night, alternative comedy programming, the network has shown “an apparent indifference toward female creatives and female audiences.” Not much seems to have changed in the intervening time: none of Adult Swim’s current lineup is created solely by women, and just one is woman-co-created, “Tender Touches” from David Bonawits, Lauren Payne, and Maxime Simonet. A parody of soap operas, “Tender Touches” appears to be at least partially marketed to women. The only current female-driven Adult Swim series is “Ballmastrz: 9009,” which centers on a party girl trying to survive a post-apocalyptic world.
Clearly Adult Swim needs “Three Busy Debras.” Let’s hope the network keeps the momentum going and orders more women-created, -helmed, and -centric projects.
