PASADENA, Calif. — For the anti-Trumpers who consider the president cartoonish, he soon will literally fit that description.
CBS Late Show host Stephen Colbert — who can thank Trump for vaulting him to the top-rated late-night host — is behind Our Cartoon President, an animated series due on Showtime Jan. 28. The half-hour series will open by anticipating Trump's first State of the Union address two days later. The show will then settle into its regular time slot Feb. 11, when Homeland also returns.
The comedy portrays Trump and the extended White House staff as a dysfunctional family, and Eric, Ivanka, Donald Jr., Ted Cruz, Mike Pence have their own storylines. Members of Congress.
Even the hosts of Fox and Friends, appear. "They're very much part of the White House, we believe," says executive producer R.J. Fried. "Hannity, Maddow, Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper appear, but none more than Fox and Friends, which appears to be the president's favorite show."
"The show is the interpersonal relationships of people you don't see; the relationships you imagine they have," Colbert told the Television Critics Association Saturday. "What we're trying to capture with this show is how stable his genius is."
Referring to Fire and Fury, the blockbuster book released Friday, he said, "I think Michael Wolff stole our 10 episodes. Everything that's in his book is in our show, and we just guessed."
Though produced several weeks in advance, each episode will feature about five minutes of topical material that can be inserted just days before it airs. But mostly, and unlike his talk show, "It's not jokes about what he did today; it's a character comedy."