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King Of Comedy

Detroit native is over Fox's 'Hill'
and exploring further funny business.

SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News

A

former Detroiter would like
you to meet an Everglades
crocodile hunter hired as a
TV talk show host and a
Hollywood-savvy orangutan who can
speak.
Alan Freedland, who spent the past
five years on the team bringing audi-
ences the animated family in the King
of the Hill series, is developing these
characters for a live-action show he
hopes will debut in the fall. ,
Working on this new sitcom is part
of a prize, multiyear development deal
just negotiated for Freedland and his
writing partner, Alan Cohen. The
two, who met in a writing workshop
shortly after Freedland moved to
California in 1993, are taking on new
projects for 20th Century Fox
Television, the studio that makes King
of the Hill.
"The theme of the new series is that
the animal — who speaks [as a result
of] a government gene-splicing pro-
gram -- is more human than the
human, who knows more about how
to operate in the animal world," says
i Freedland. "It's a buddy comedy in
which each can learn from We other."
Freedland currently is exploring the
technology that will make the animal's
mouth move appropriately.
Because the 24 episodes for this sea-
son's King of the Hill have been com-
pleted, Freedland's name will appear
on the cr.,‘clits through May, when he
ends his association with the show as
writer and co-executive producer.
"I've been heavily involved in every
program that ever aired for King of the
Hill, says Freedland, 36. "Whether an
episode is my story line or not, I help
shape it and see how it flows. All the
writers meet to go over each script
and make it better. It's a very collabo-
rative effort.
"I like that the main characters in
King of the Hill seem like a real family.
Most of the characi:crs are offshoots of
-people who exist. I also like that the
comedy comes from the characters
and is honest and real to them. We
wanted to tell stories that are not just

Alan Freedland: 'All my experiences in
Detroit color my writing."

funny but have some meaning and are
relatable to the audience. Something
similar could have happened to our
viewers."
Although Freedland always seemed
drawn to entertainment, first by
1, orking on the radio station at
/Andover High School in Bloomfield
Hills, he decided to direct himself
toward a more stable profession and
majored in business at the University
of Michigan.
After working in investment bank-
ing in New York and Chicago, he
earned his master's degree at the
Kellogg School of Business at
Northwestern University. Along the
way to changing his career focus to
advertising, he took comedy classes at
Second City in Chicago and per-
formed in a show.
"As I started to work as a copy-
writer, I knew that what I really want-
ed to write was comedy," Freedland
recalls. "I got books and wrote sample
scripts. I didn't have many contacts in
Hollywood, but I tried to get feed-
back on what I wrote. Eventually, I