Oldies but goodies

New series The Cool Kids serves a long-ignored aging demographic

TORONTO Actor David Alan Grier has a quippy sound bite to sum up his new sitcom The Cool Kids, about a raucous group of friends living in a retirement community.

“It’s like Mean Girls and Breakfast Club had a baby and made that ( baby) real old,” the veteran comedy star said in an interview.

Debuting Wednesday on City in Canada and Friday on Fox in the U.S., the show stars Grier as the grumpy, outspoken leader of the senior citizen squad.

Veteran funnyman Martin Mull plays the bumbling wanderer of the greying group alongside Leslie Jordan as the genial hedonist and Vicki Lawrence as the clan’s newest member who proves to be a sassy troublemaker.

Grier said he first met Mull in high school and stayed in touch with him over the years, even buying some of his paintings. And he was a huge fan of Lawrence’s, having watched her on The Carol Burnett Show.

He’s excited to work with them on a project that represents an older demographic.

“There’s an audience that hasn’t been served,” Grier said.

“Also, I’m at a point in my life where I really love where I’m at — I love my age, I’m comfortable in it. One of the great things about doing this show is that everybody shows up on time. We’ve all been doing this for 100 billion years, so there’s no hassle.

The 62-year-old Grier has been playing aging characters since his days on the sketch comedy series In Living Color in the 1990s, where his memorable roles included old bluesman Calhoun Tubbs.

But producers of The Cool Kids initially deemed him too young to be on the show.

“They put a little something under my eyes that makes your skin crinkle up and I didn’t shave for like a month, so I posted it on my Instagram and people were like, ‘Oh my God, what’s happened to you?”’ Grier said.

“The internet has no chill.”