How Animal Control Is Revitalizing a Beloved Actor’s Career

Summary

• Animal Control
  represents a marked change in Fox Entertainment Studio’s production strategy, signaling their shift toward in-house production.
• Joel McHale shines in the leading role, due in large part to his authentic portrayal of Frank Shaw,
  Animal Control
  ‘s main character.
• The success of
  Animal Control
  has ushered in a new era for both Fox Entertainment and Joel McHale as the reinvent their former images.

Cancelations come quickly and easily in the world of contemporary TV, with many new shows only getting a season or two to make an impression before they disappear. This is even true of beloved shows with loud fanbases, and it can be a difficult thing to deal with for fans who get attached to a show. Thus, when Joel McHale-led workplace comedy Animal Control was greenlit for a third season before its second even aired, it was a surprising development.

Animal Control viewership numbers continue to grow, and it feels like Joel McHale and showrunners Bob Fisher, Rob Greenberg and Dan Sterling have something truly special on their hands. The show mimics the case-of-the-week format, but rather than investigating crimes, its characters pursue stray animals. As his most successful leading role since Community ended in 2015, Animal Control represents a fresh chapter for Joel McHale.

Animal Control Represents a New Age for Fox Entertainment

• Fox Entertainment Studios emerged after Disney acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019 and has signaled a change in Fox’s production approach.
• Since the creation of FES, Fox has started producing more content in-house, including the 2023 comedy series, Animal Control.

The story of Animal Control begins with some fascinating TV history. Fox Entertainment Studios (FES), the show’s production studio, is a fairly new division of Fox Entertainment, which was created in 2019 from the remnants of 21st Century Fox after Disney purchased much of Fox’s assets. FES was then created in 2022 as a successor to 21st Century’s scripted programs department, and they did something interesting with the company: when FES launched, they started making shows in-house, meaning they own the shows and don’t have to pay licensing to anyone.

The first show under the FES banner was the 2022 drama Monarch, and shortly after, Animal Control launched in 2023 as FES’ first fully-owned comedy. A fully-owned, in-house show generally lowers costs and opens up creative freedom, as fewer people need payment or a voice in creative matters (which is how they attracted Community creator Dan Harmon to make Krapopolis). This was certainly the case for Animal Control, creating the perfect storm for a successful start to the series.

Animal Control Found The Right People at the Right Time

• Animal Control creator Rob Greenberg has been nominated for four Emmys and two Writers Guild of America Awards.
• Cast member Gerry Dee is known for a popular segment for Canadian sports channel The Score where he interviews famous athletes, including people like Charles Barkley, Chris Bosh, Chris Chelios and many more.
• The AC cast told ATX TV that Ravi Patel would organize hangouts frequently after their shoots in Vancouver, helping them build chemistry.

The magic of a TV show with the potential for a long run is hard to quantify, but it begins with the people working on it. And in this regard, Animal Control’s story is an impressive blend of the right creators and cast coming together at the right time. It starts at the top, with showrunners Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg and writer Dan Sterling. Fisher and Greenberg have a large number of credits to their name: Fisher was a writer on Wedding Crashers and We’re the Miller, as well as a producer for Married…with Children, The Trouble with Normal, and, importantly, Sirens. Sirens is perhaps the show that Animal Control most resembles, with AC swapping the ambulance for animal control vehicles but retaining much of Sirens’ humor, style of shooting, and even its breakout star, Kevin Bigley.

For Greenberg’s part, he’s written for Meet Dave, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and Frasier, and he directed episodes for Scrubs, How I Met Your Mother, Happy Endings, and My Boys. Add in Dan Sterling’s talents, whose TV credits include South Park, King of the Hill, and The Office, and the result is an impressive mix of TV, film and comedy experience.

The cast of Animal Control is equally studded with up-and-comers and veterans. Beyond McHale, who is also executive producer, standouts include rising star Vella Lovell, TV and film ultra-veteran Ravi Patel, Canadian comedy legend Gerry Dee, underused Sirens breakout Kevin Bigley, and two talented newcomers in Grace Palmer and Michael Rowland.

Palmer and Rowland shine among their comedy veteran fellows, with Palmer powered by her background as New Zealand soap-opera royalty into a standout comedy turn, and true TV newbie Rowland utilizing a background in stand-up comedy to go toe-to-toe with show partner McHale. The show portrays a group of people with edge but heart: everyone’s a little broken or silly, but they’re clearly good people, fleshed out and with real chemistry.

Joel McHale Returns to a Leading Role for the First Time in Years

• Joel McHale’s first TV role was on the local Seattle sketch comedy show Almost Live! in 1996, and his second was a small part on a Bill Nye the Science Guy episode in 1998.
• Animal Control represents McHale’s first leading role in years, making it a milestone moment in his career.

While Animal Control is the definition of an ensemble comedy and gives nearly equal time to each of its characters, in the end, it’s still Joel McHale’s show. McHale plays Frank Shaw, a former cop turned Senior Animal Control Officer with, as one would expect from McHale, a sharp tongue and a chip on his shoulder. While this isn’t surprising for a McHale character, it’s what McHale and Animal Control do differently with Frank that separates him from McHale’s other work.

Nobody could accuse Joel McHale of not working. While he hasn’t had a leading role in a scripted comedy show since The Great Indoors was canceled in 2017, McHale’s continued to be a workhorse since Community ended, including many guest roles (The Bear, for instance), appearances on a huge number of variety and competition shows (including executive producing and hosting a few), a recurring role on Stargirl, and many film roles including the lead in Happily and a recurring part as the voice of Johnny Cage in the Mortal Kombat Legends animated films.

McHale clearly loves to work, but outside of The Soup, his starring role as Jeff Winger on TV comedy Community remains the character he’s most known for and the type of role that both fans and studios have been hoping to see him in again. There was, not surprisingly, an immediate attempt by CBS to parlay McHale’s success in Community into a starring role in the laugh track-style sitcom The Great Indoors in 2016. However, while that show had a stacked cast trying their best, audiences didn’t connect with the show in large numbers, and it was canceled after one season.

Fox Finds the Right Way to Use Joel McHale

• Unlike his starring roles in other series, Animal Control has given Joel McHale room to be himself, creating a more authentic character in the process.
• Joel McHale has stated to numerous sources that the only time he was worried during the animal scenes of Animal Control was with a sloth, as the handler told him it might bite.

The Great Indoors simply was not the right way to use Joel McHale. Setting aside the other issues the show had, it was not the right fit for its lead, as McHale’s improvisational skill couldn’t shine in the heavily written, endless-takes world of multicam sitcoms. That said, the more open, small-crew mode of single-cam sitcoms, like Animal Control, are the perfect situation for McHale to be himself.

And that’s Animal Control’s greatest strength: a Joel McHale character that feels authentic, both as a person and to who McHale is himself. This moves beyond the wit and the acid quips and shady behaviors of Jeff Winger, as while Jeff had his moments of vulnerability, the AC version of a Joel McHale character introduces a side of the actor that few have been aware of.

In recent interviews, McHale has been open about his life struggles, including ADHD, anxiety, imposter syndrome, and a late-life dyslexia diagnosis, and his comfort speaking about these topics perfectly parallels his role as Frank Shaw in Animal Control. Frank is certainly acerbic, to the point of having no problem making his coworkers’ lives more difficult if they annoy him, and McHale has lost none of his propensity for one-liners and clever insults. However, Animal Control wastes little time showing viewers that Frank is capable of being vulnerable as well. The series’ protagonist quickly shows this in conversations with his new coworker, Shred, and eventually, it’s revealed that his childhood was decidedly traumatic.

In fact, Frank goes on to have meaningful moments with several characters, and very rarely does a touch of sarcasm or insult go by without it being undercut by self-deprecation and an undercurrent of barely-hidden care for everyone else. Frank is not a bully; he’s a traumatized adult using sarcasm as a defense mechanism, and McHale’s real-world vulnerability and depth sit right beneath the humorous, hard surface.

Can Animal Control Pull a Parks and Recreation?

• Animal Control has drawn comparisons to other beloved sitcoms like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Parks and Recreation, leading to high expectations for the series.
• Animal Control still has a long way to go before becoming an all-time great sitcom, but it’s showing signs of growth that rival television’s most beloved shows.

All things considered, Fox launched Animal Control the right way, and the show has all the parts to become a sitcom classic in the vein of Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Parks and Recreation. Even the format is smart, taking the story-a-week format of a cop show and sidestepping all of the potential darkness and controversy by focusing on something everyone loves: animals.

Animal Control‘s creatures are endearing, the veteran comedy writing is clean and clever, and every member of the main and recurring cast, including Joel McHale, turns in a great performance. Above all, Animal Control is very funny, and it represents a point of intersection for Fox Entertainment’s new approach to television and Joel McHale’s career resurgence.

There’s much potential here for Animal Control to be a classic, and there’s hope that Fox sees the show as a good investment with room to grow, similar to what NBC did with The Office (which is still teasing a sequel) and Parks and Recreation. It appears that Fox might even be satisfied with its smaller audience, considering the cost-cutting method they’ve used to make the show. However, regardless of its long-term prospects, it’s safe to say that Animal Control has more than exceeded expectations and taken advantage of Joel McHale’s talents in hilarious fashion.