Viola Davis is winning right now! Not only is she killing things on her hit ABC show, How to Get Away with Murder, she is starring in Fences, which comes out on Christmas Day. Earlier this year, we learned that Davis signed an overall deal with ABC Studios through her production company, JuVee Productions, to develop new projects. A spy show is in development as the first project for the network, and now we know what the second project will be! It’s a black, musical family-comedy called The Zipcorders!
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show is about “a divorced mother of three in 1968 who moves her family to the east side of Austin, Texas, soon after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., in an effort to be closer to her estranged sister. Once there, her teenage son forms a rock ‘n’ roll band to the utter bewilderment of friends, family and the community at large.”
Davis and her husband/JuVee partner, Julius Tennon were inspired to tell a story about a group of black teens with “feathered hair and bell-bottoms in the middle of the Deep South.”
Marshall Todd, who is writing the series, created the show as he found parallels in today’s political, racial and musical issues. “This project gives me the opportunity to tell a story that, while specific to the African-American experience, doesn’t travel in the usual tropes. As a parent, I was inspired to tell a story from the dual perspective of parents and children in a world where the rules are constantly changing. Music has always been a passion of mine, and to be able to use it to inform this particular narrative was a provocative challenge. I have found in Viola and the squad at JuVee the perfect co-conspirators dedicated to telling the types of stories that entertain while contributing to the larger cultural conversation,” said Todd.
“In the tradition of ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat and Black-ish, The Zipcoders offers a compelling and comical take on a family dealing with rapidly changing cultural attitudes. This is a show about following your own path, and it’s a love letter to all the musical and artistic trailblazers who dared to be different and shifted the paradigm,” said Andrew Wang, head of TV at JuVee.
This sounds super interesting! Can’t wait to see it, Viola!
