Netflix has ordered 16 episodes of a new Latinx comedy series from creators Mario Lopez and Seth Kurland. According to Deadline, the series, titled The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia, will be formatted like a conventional, multi-camera sitcom.
The series will center on Ashley Garcia (newcomer Paulina Chavez), the world’s only 15-and-a-half-year-old robotics engineer and rocket scientist, who’s offered a position to work for NASA. After hearing the news, she moves across the country to live with her fun-loving Uncle Victor (Jencarlos Canela), a pro football player-turned-high school coach who’s not known as the most responsible guardian.
Kurland will serve as showrunner, and is writing the series along with David Kendall. The two previously worked together on Melissa & Joey. Lopez will executive produce along with Kurland and Kendall.
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The news comes suspiciously close to their announcement that they’d canceled the reboot One Day at a Time, another sitcom that focused on a Latinx family. The series was based on Norman Lear’s 70s-era sitcom of the same name.
Lopez is best known from playing A.C. Slater on the beloved teen comedy Saved by the Bell. He’s since gone on to host entertainment news programs like Extra, as well as competition shows like The X Factor and America’s Best Dance Crew. Kurland was recently a writer on the series Speechless, which was recently canceled after its third season by ABC.
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