FX Grabs 'South Park' Writer's 'Testees'

By Rick Porter, Zap2It.com | July 15, 2008

Kenny Hotz

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Comedy will pair with 'It's Always Sunny' in the fall

FX has found a comedy that it thinks will pair nicely with the twisted sensibility of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Its title? "Testees."

The cable network announced Tuesday that it has ordered 13 episodes of "Testees" (sadly, that's just a working title at the moment) from Kenny Hotz, a writer for "South Park" and the creator and star of "Kenny vs. Spenny." It's scheduled to premiere Oct. 9, joining "It's Always Sunny" to form a one-hour comedy block on Thursday nights.

"We've had a desire for some time to expand our comedy presence and use 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' as a springboard to launch a second comedy series," network head John Landgraf says. It believes it has the right show in "Testees."

The series centers on Peter (Steve Markle) and Ron (Jeff Kassel), two roommates who earn their living as test subjects for a company called TESTICO. Each episode will find them ingesting or being otherwise exposed to a new product and then waiting for the (nearly always) negative side effects to kick in while trying to lead some semblance of a normal life.

Hotz wrote the pilot episode with Derek Harvie and will serve as an executive producer with John Morayniss and Michael Rosenberg. Samir Rehem, who worked with Hotz on "Kenny vs. Spenny," directed the pilot.