Fox has ordered its first new live-action comedy series in more than two years, giving the green light to Mammoth, a show built around a gym teacher who gets buried in an avalanche in 1983 and wakes up four decades later convinced nothing needed to change.
According to Variety, the series comes from Modern Family co-creator Christopher Lloyd and fellow Modern Family writer and executive producer Danny Zuker. It is based on Mike Bubbins' British sitcom of the same name, which aired on BBC Two.
Lloyd holds the record for the most Emmy Awards won by a comedy or drama series producer, with 12 across Modern Family and Frasier, where he served as showrunner. Zuker also served as an executive producer on Modern Family. Together, they will serve as writers, showrunners, and executive producers on Mammoth.
The show's premise follows Coach Tony Mammoth, a high school gym teacher whose life is frozen in 1983 when a freak ski avalanche buries him. Forty years later, he thaws out and heads back to work, still fully committed to his 1980s worldview, his Burt Reynolds mustache, and his Trans-Am. According to the synopsis, he returns to the job he loves, only to find that today's rules, relationships, and realities bear little resemblance to the world he once knew.
Lloyd described the character in a statement. "Tony Mammoth genuinely believes he mastered manhood the first time around, making his new reality the ultimate wakeup call and greatest challenge in an otherwise flawless life," he said. "He's charming, wildly self-assured, hopelessly out of step and, despite his many blind spots, impossible not to root for."
Zuker added his own take on the character. "Tony gets the second chance so many people wish for, only to find that his bravado doesn't quite match his new reality," he said. "We love his shameless confidence, his fascination with a world he barely recognizes, and the big heart underneath it all. He's a lot. We can't wait to bring him to Fox."
Michael Thorn, President of Fox Television Network, also weighed in on the pickup. "The world moved on. Tony Mammoth didn't," Thorn said, per Screen Rant. "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."
Mammoth is produced by Fox Entertainment Studios. Mark Linsey and Angie Stephenson of BBC Studios Los Angeles, along with Bubbins himself, are also executive producers on the project. The series is slated to debut during the 2027-28 broadcast season.
