Tim Long (The Simpsons) has signed on to co-write and showrun Bloom County, the upcoming FOX animated series based on the acclaimed comic strip of the same name created and written by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, screenwriter, producer and children’s book author Berkeley Breathed.
Breathed, who is co-writing and executive producing the series, created a special new piece of artwork featuring Bloom County’s beloved Opus the Penguin to mark the announcement.
Bloom County centers on a collapsed lawyer, a lobotomized cat and an overly-carbonated penguin immigrant living in the world’s last boarding house in the world’s most forgotten place deep in the dandelion wilds of FlyWayThe@%!#OVER country. To wit, today’s America at a glance.
FOX Entertainment, its Emmy Award-winning animation studio Bento Box Entertainment, Miramax, Spyglass Media Group and Project X Entertainment will produce the project; Bento Box, Miramax, Spyglass and Project X are also exec producers.
Long is a longtime writer and producer for The Simpsons. He has won five Emmys and been nominated 14 times. His TV animation credits also include serving as a producer on the Napoleon Dynamite cartoon and a consulting producer on China, IL. On the feature film side, he wrote The Exchange (2020), directed by Dan Mazer. Off the screen, Long’s writing has been featured in The New York Times and The New Yorker. He hails from Exeter, Ontario, Canada.
Long is represented by CAA and Artists First.
Bloom County originated from Breathed’s first published comic strip, The Academia Waltz, which appeared in his student newspaper, The Daily Texan. The comic strip soon got the attention of editors at The Washington Post, who recruited Breathed to do a nationally syndicated strip. Bloom County made its debut in 1980, appearing in more than 1,200 newspapers worldwide until its end in 1989. Shortly after, Breathed started strips Outland and Opus, which both featured Bloom County characters. In 2015, Breathed started posting new Bloom County strips via Facebook on an almost daily basis.
