Relax Burn Notice fans, Matt Nix isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and his number one priority is still Burn Notice. The new series, which Fox just green-lit, is called Jack and Dan. The new series will be a procedural that will focus on the characters and their relationships and will have a comedic style similar to that of Burn Notice. The series is slated for 13 episodes and will center on Jack, an ambitious, by-the-book cop who is partnered with a drunken, lecherous, wild-card cop named Dan who keeps his job only because of a years past heroic act.
Nix explains, "it's not a comedic whodunit. It's an action comedy cop show that follows both the cops and the criminals and the ways they come together. The fun is seeing how they clash, and that doesn't happen in the conventional procedural ways."
The series idea was actually from a movie script that Nix wrote years ago, before Burn Notice, and that was presented to Fox Television Studios several years ago. The project has lied dormant there until Nix recently alerted them that he'd be interested in taking on another series. He then converted the script into something suitable as a television series, and Fox decided to utilize the same international template that they've been experimenting with this summer, and which has brought us shows such as Mental and Defying Gravity.
While both of those shows haven't been a ratings success here in the U.S., they have been successful at bringing U.S. and International networks affordable series that they can try out. But the template is in desperate need of a successful show, to prove to the networks that this is a model they should continue to consider going forward. But all of that is just insider shop-talk. For you and me, this just means we've got a potentially fantastic new series coming sometime next year to Fox, and written and produced by someone who we've already seen give us a great show and great characters. The other shows that were produced under this model were aired in the summer, and its still unclear when Fox plans to put this series on the air. If they do air it in the summer, it would give the broadcast networks at least a chance to start winning the summers back from the cable networks, but it would also mean that Nix could inevitably be competing with his own Burn Notice for ratings. While this seems unlikely it is a remote possibility. But I have a feeling we'll be seeing Jack and Dan before the summer cable series go full force next year.
Source: THR
