It has been WAY too long since we have seen a Christopher Guest directed mockumentary. He has hardly rested on his laurels since his last feature, 2006’s For Your Consideration; however, most of his work has been as an actor or on non-mockdocs. Back in August, HBO nabbed the rights to Guest’s return to the genre he helped popularize, an ongoing series called Family Tree.
The show revolves around a 30-year old man named Tom Chadwick, portrayed by The IT Crowd’s Chris O’Dowd, as he embarks on a study of his family history after inheriting an heirloom from an aunt he never met. Yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that several of Guest’s past collaborators have joined the cast. Ed Begley JR., Keith Lake, Michael McKean and Fred Willard will all portray either members or acquaintances of the Chadwick family. Could Harry Shearer be far behind? Let’s hope not.
Genealogy is a field that’s ripe for parody, so I have no doubt that this will be hilarious. I imagine O’Dowd, who’s quite brilliant on The IT Crowd, will have no trouble adapting to the Christopher Guest style.
Eight episodes of the series will air on HBO in the United States and on BBC2 in the UK simultaneously. The date of their premiere has yet to be announced.