Fox sells to ABC… a TV show called The Dogwood. In a world where studios seem to be merging left and right, it’s rare to see two doing good old-fashioned business. According to Deadline, ABC acquired the multi-camera comedy from Mom co-creator Gemma Baker (Happy Place, Two And A Half Men), Fox Entertainment Studios, the production arm of Fox.
This appears to be the next iteration of Fox after the March 2019 sale of its assets to Disney. Since then, Fox has slowly but steadily rebuilt its production capabilities with the acquisition of MarVista Entertainment and animation studio Bento Box.
Best Medicine, Animal Control, and the animated series Krapopolis currently headline Fox’s fully owned properties. The Dogwood is not the first series to be sold out of house, as Hazbin Hotel on Prime Video is made in tandem with Bento Box, and Gordon Ramsay-produced series Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars and Being Gordon Ramsey air on Apple TV+ and Netflix, respectively.
Although Fox has been seeking to return to a multi-camera format, its current slate did not match The Dogwood. Two of its current shows, Animal Control and Going Dutch, skew male; thus, The Dogwood was a better match for ABC’s more female-driven audience.
The Dogwood follows a work-obsessed recent divorcee and mom who discovers that she falls more into the stereotype of a divorced dad. Baker created the series Mom with Chuck Lorre (Two And A Half Men, The Big Bang Theory) and Eddie Gordetesky (Two And A Half Men, The Big Bang Theory). She served as co-showrunner on the last three seasons of the series with Nick Bakay (Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2). In addition to her work as creator and showrunner of the aforementioned comedy, she has also worked on Two And A Half Men and Happy Place. She is repped by UTA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.