“The Great Indoors” executive producer Mike Gibbons had some fun during the show’s Television Critics Association summer press tour panel on Wednesday.
When asked if the show was going to ultimately be a middle aged white man complaining about the current state of the world, Gibbons said, “Our show is going to make America great again. … Irony comes through in print right?”
Joel McHale leads the CBS multi-camera sitcom as the longtime star reporter for “The Great Outdoors” magazine, who has climbed mountains, confronted bears and just generally led a life of excitement and adventure.
But when he’s sidelined by an injury, he’s forced to take a desk job in the publication’s digital and social media department, surrounded by a team of millennials who view him as an exotic and ancient oddity from another place and time.
The series also stars Stephen Fry, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Christine Ko, Shaun Brown, Chris Williams, and Susannah Fielding.
“The millennial generation is very smart and intelligent, and we have that in the show in spades,” Gibbons said in response to questions about the show’s portrayal of millennials as coddled and overly sensitive. “But they also have an inability to resist taking like four photos of themselves every day.”
“And also, it really is an equal fight in this workplace,” he continued. “It was born out of me feeling so out of place and all the faults the Gen-X generation has in the workplace.”
Gibbons will write the series in addition to executive producing with Chris Harris and Andy Ackerman. It is produced by CBS Television Studios.
“The Great Indoors” will premiere on Oct. 27 on CBS.