Carrey plays Rogers-like TV show host on ‘Kidding’

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The year of Mister Rogers isn’t only ushering in remembrances of the real man in the red cardigan: Showtime also has “Kidding” (10 p.m. Sept. 9), a half-hour dramedy starring Jim Carrey as a Mister Rogers-like children’s show host.

Like Fred Rogers, Mr. Carrey’s Jeff Pickles is kind and soft-spoken. He eschews profanity. He lives in the middle of the country (Columbus, Ohio, instead of Pittsburgh). He’s had a 30-year career in television, and his show, “Mr. Pickles’ Puppet Time,” airs on PBS stations. He sings about feelings. Children ask Mr. Pickles how he got “out of the television.” Mr. Pickles is saintly and insists on doing the right thing. A future episode will address rumors that Mr. Pickles was a wartime sniper (like the untrue internet rumor about Fred Rogers being an ex-Navy Seal).

But Mr. Pickles also strays from Mister Rogers’ image and biography in significant ways. Mr. Pickles doesn’tcontrol his own TV show, instead he’s under the thumb of his overbearing executive producer father (Frank Langella); Mr. Pickles is separated from his wife (Judy Greer) following the death of their son in a traffic accident.

Mr. Carrey said he was drawn to the series because of its themes, which somewhat echo those of “The Truman Show.”

“The idea of identity, the search for identity, who we are and what’s an authentic person is a theme that’s always been attractive to me,” Mr. Carrey said at a press conference during the Television Critics Associationsummer 2018 press tour.

The death of Mr. Pickles’ son is the inciting event, and Mr. Pickles’ state of being a year after that tragedy is where the story begins.

“There’s definitely something in this piece that calls [to] me as far as the idea of being hit by a freight