A Netflix cancellation won’t keep our fave loud-mouth toucan and anxious song thrush apart. The streamer announced that “Tuca & Bertie” wouldn’t be picked up for a second run back in July of 2019, but the critically acclaimed animated comedy about bird BFFs voiced by Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong is now being revived at Adult Swim. Variety confirmed the news.
Created by Lisa Hanawalt (“BoJack Horseman”), “Tuca & Bertie” tells the story of 30-year-old former roommates who now live in the same apartment building. Besides offering hilarious “Broad City”-esque shenanigans, the series also covers more serious subject matter including trauma, sexual harassment, and sobriety.
Adult Swim has ordered 10 episodes for the show’s second season, and is aiming for it to return next year.
“I’ve been a fan of Adult Swim shows since my teens, so I’m thrilled to bring my beloved fowl to the party and be a new voice for a fresh decade of absurd, irreverent, yet heartwarming adult animation,” said Hanawalt.
“’Broad City’ opened so many doors,” Hanawalt emphasized in a 2019 interview with Entertainment Weekly. “Abbi [Jacobson] and Ilana [Glazer] are such geniuses and watching it was maybe the first time I felt fully represented by a TV show. It’s like this very silly, raunchy show, but it’s like, yes, women are f—ing gross and sexual and horny and stupid, and it just felt so good to see that on screen, so that’s absolutely a huge influence.” She added, “‘Tuca & Bertie’ is about women in their 30s and what that tension is going to look like as they part ways. I wanted a bit more conflict and tension between the characters.”
Hanawalt went on to tell EW that while she “didn’t have much trouble bringing [‘Tuca & Bertie’] to fruition” and “it seemed like the stars were aligned and it felt like the right circumstances for a woman to finally be at the helm of an adult animation,” it remains “kind of horrifying” that “it took that long.” She continued, “There’ve been other women — ‘Daria’ was co-created by woman, and there’ve been pilots everywhere and one or two seasons here or there of shows — but there’s very, very few created by women, especially for adults. I think there’s just a lot of misogyny in the industry, there’s a lot of gatekeepers who just don’t think women can create [these shows].”
