Stephen Fry is set to co-star in comedy pilot The Great Indoors for CBS. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d write, but you just never know what will happen on Super Tuesday.
The legendary British comedian/actor/host has appeared on less than a handful of US shows including Bones and 24: Live Another Day, as well as his only US pilot, Super Clyde for CBS in 2013. But he’s one of Britain’s most popular stars dating back to the 1970s when he met Hugh Laurie (House) at Cambridge and formed a comedy partnership. In recent years he’s been especially active in public broadcasting and educational efforts for networks like the BBC, hosting and narrating documentaries and specials. For 12 years he served as host of the comedy game show QI, winning Best Game Show Host from the Eurovision awards.
Many American viewers may know Fry from his roles in A Fish Called Wanda, Gosford Park, or I.Q. while others will recognize him from Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows or as the master of Laketown in The Hobbit trilogy.
Most impressive however is Fry’s lengthy list of honorary awards and degrees from Universities across the UK, as well as ranking sixth on the BBC’s Top Living Icons list in 2006 and being voted Most Intelligent Man on Television by readers of British publication Radio Times. For his 50th birthday in 2007 the BBC dedicated four nights of programming to Fry’s work.
After all that, Fry has still signed on to star opposite Joel McHale in the multi-camera pilot, appearing as Antonio, the charismatic founder of “The Great Outdoors” magazine and a world traveler and explorer. McHale is his employee, an adventure reporter who has to adapt to overseeing millennials and the changes of digital publishing. (Cue Joel McHale playing crusty, grumpy guy.)
Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad), Shawn Brown (The Newsroom), Chris Williams (Dodgeball) and Christine Ko are also cast, according to Deadline. Andy Ackerman (Seinfeld, The New Adventures of Old Christine) is directing from a script by Mike Gibbons (Tosh.0, The Late Late Show with James Corden).