‘The Great North’ television’s next great animated series
“The Flintstones” seems prehistoric.
When Bedrock landed in prime time in the 1960s, cartoons were primarily directed at kids with occasional winks to grown-ups. They were a yabba-dabba-doo time for the entire family. Then came Cartman. After “South Park” debuted on Comedy Central in 1997, animated series began competing to see who could deliver the greatest shocks to the system. “BoJack Horseman” and “Family Guy” patriarch Peter Griffin made Homer Simpson look as harmless as Barney Rubble.
“The Great North” bucks the trend.
The series, airing at 7:30 p.m. Sundays on Fox, features an off-the-grid clan in Alaska who do everything together — inhale pancakes, go curling, hunt moose — without ever whining about needing space. They’re so tight that the father (Nick Offerman, offering a kinder and gentler version of his “Parks and Recreation” character) balks when his oldest son plans to move out of the main house and into a cabin in the backyard. The most offensive thing they do in each other’s presence is pass gas.
Jenny Slate is well acquainted with more adult cartoons. For several seasons, she provided a voice for “Big Mouth,” a brilliant but disturbing Netflix series about conflicted kids who spend every free moment searching for novel ways to pleasure themselves.
“There’s this edgy thing where you can end up trying to come up with the grossest thing you can imagine,” said Slate, who plays Judy on “The Great North,” a teenager whose idea of a rebellious act is getting a part-time job at the mall.
“There’s still major stuff that happens on our show,” said Slate in a recent virtual news conference. “The mom has left the whole family and they’re kind of traumatized by it. They live in an inhospitable environment. But there’s no bitterness.”
Other voice contributors include “Saturday Night Live” veteran Will Forte, “Will & Grace” star Megan Mullally and comedian Aparna Nancherla. Paul Rust plays Judy’s twin brother, an openly gay worrywart who panics when he takes on the challenge of baking a cake for the entire village.
“One of the benefits of this show is that there are no celebrity potshot lines,” said Rust, who previously starred in Netflix’s “Love.” “I don’t have to worry about bumping into Ray Liotta and having him be mad at me.”