Two members of the award-winning team behind ABC’s mid-2000’s hit series, Modern Family, are working together again on a new comedy project. Christopher Lloyd, one of the creators and producers of Modern Family, along with Danny Zuker, another of the show’s producers, have been handed the keys from Fox for a new live-action comedy series, Mammoth.
Mammoth is slated to hit airwaves during the 2027-28 TV season and is based on the BBC Two series of the same name. The show’s premise follows Coach Tony Mammoth, a larger-than-life high school gym teacher whose life is put on ice in 1983 when he’s buried in a freak ski avalanche. Forty years later, he thaws out to a world that has completely changed—but he remains convinced it really didn’t need to.
Still clinging to life in the ‘80s—complete with his Burt Reynolds moustache and treasured Trans-AM—Mammoth returns to the job he loves, only to discover that today’s rules, relationships, and realities bear little resemblance to the world he once knew. The original BBC version, written by Mike Bubbins and Paul Doolan, premiered in 2021 and has since been renewed for a third season.
Michael Thorn, the President of Fox Television Network, expressed his enthusiasm for the upcoming US adaptation. "The world moved on. Tony Mammoth didn’t. That’s an incredibly funny premise, but what Chris and Danny have developed is so much richer: a wildly original comedy with huge laughs, deep heart, and characters everyone will relate to, whether they like it or not," Thorn stated.
History certainly favors the pairing of Lloyd and Zuker. During their 11-season run on Modern Family, the duo helped the show secure 22 Primetime Emmy Awards, including five wins for Outstanding Comedy Series. With the series producing 250 episodes and consistently drawing massive viewership, expectations for their latest collaboration are high.