EXCLUSIVE: Apple TV is plotting a return to the mystery comedy genre. The streamer is developing Bad News Dads, a half-hour comedy starring and executive produced by James Marsden. It comes from You’re the Worst creator Stephen Falk, Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television where Greg Berlanti is under an overall deal.
Based on the upcoming novel by Adam Frost, Bad News Dads is about an inept men’s baseball rec league team where one of the players’ wives dies in a suspicious accident, and the friendship-starved Ben (Marsden) leads two of his teammates in an impromptu and often misguided investigation into what they increasingly come to think was murder.
While the title and baseball team setting are clearly a wink to Bad News Bears, the book is an original idea in a different genre that has no connection to the classic sports movie.
Falk, Marsden and Frost executive produce alongside Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Leigh London Redman and Robbie Rogers for Berlanti Productions.
Frost’s Bad News Dads will be published April 6, 2027 by Simon Schuster/Atria/Emily Bestler Books.
Along with Hulu’s Only Murders In the Building, Apple TV’s 2022 series The Afterparty helped usher in a wave of mystery comedy shows.
Bad News Dads would extend Marsden’s streak at Apple TV. He is coming off his memorable season-long arc on Your Friends & Neighbors and stars in and executive produces the streamer’s upcoming action thriller Disavowed.
As illustrated by Marsden following Your Friends & Neighbors and Disavowed up with Bad News Dads, he has been alternating between drama and comedy throughout his career, earning both drama an comedy acting Emmy nominations for Paradise and Jury Duty, respectively. Marsden next reprises his Cyclops role in Avengers: Doomsday. He is repped by CAA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
Falk also has Hit Man, a series inspired by the 2024 Glen Powell feature, in the works at Netflix. He is known for being the creator, executive producer and showrunner of the FXX series You’re the Worst. Falk’s series credits also include Apple TV’s Hello Tomorrow!, Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black and Showtime’s Weeds. He is repped by UTA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
Berlanti Productions recently received series green lights at Amazon MGM Studios for Stillwater, a horror drama from Berlanti and Carly Wray based on the Skybound graphic novel, and at Disney+ for Afterlife With Archie, also based on a horror comic book. The company and WBTV have the upcoming Scooby-Doo! live-action series at Netflix, the HBO drama pilot How To Survive Without Me, as well as All American, which is airing its eighth and final season on the CW.
Frost is repped by CAA, Meridian Artists, Sterling Lord Literastic and Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum Matlof.
