Animated show Grimsburg premieres on Fox Sunday, January 7. Jon Hamm gives voice to Marvin Flute, a pot-bellied detective with a mustache. Flute has solved a lot of mysteries in his career, but can’t quite figure out who he truly is. He returns to Grimsburg to redeem himself in the eyes of his fellow detectives, his ex-wife and his son. The town has some secrets it would like to remain secret.
Hamm — who, of course, played Don Draper on Mad Men — got on board with Grimsburg when executive producer Gail Berman reached out to his manager, Connie Tavel. Tavel and Berman are old friends, and Berman said
she’d never once pitched Tavel on a project.
Until she read the Grimsburg script.
“I was like Con, it’s really funny,” she said. “It’s so perfect for Jon. He will make this character shine.”
Hamm loved the script too, and signed up to voice the main character and executive produce.
After its January preview, Grimsburg slides into its regular time slot Sunday, February 18. Fox has committed to a second season.
“I’m really, really excited to be on [Fox’s] Sunday-night lineup,” Berman said. “I think it’s a perfect place for the show. I think the show deserves that kind of quality lineup around us.”
Berman was Fox president of entertainment from 2000 to 2005, then president of Paramount Pictures. She’s now chairman and CEO of The Jackal Group.
Also in the Grimsburg cast are Erinn Hayes as Marvin’s wife Harmony, Rachel Dratch as his son Stan and Alan Tudyk as Dr. Rufis Pentos and Mr. Flesh.
Catlan McClelland and Matthew Schlissel created the show.
Hamm is also on the new season of FX drama Fargo, where he plays ill-tempered North Dakota sheriff Roy Tillman. “I wouldn’t draw too many parallels between my animated character and [Tillman],” he told B+C. “When people get a chance to see Grimsburg they’ll know what I’m talking about.”
Across her long career, Berman said there’s only been a few times when a script that landed on her desk truly blew her and her colleagues away. “I think the only other time I had that happen to me was Malcolm in the Middle, where something came across the desk that was just kind of undeniable,” she said. “This was like that.”
