Freeform No Longer Moving Forward On “While You Were Breeding” Comedy Series
Following the end of the writer’s strike, Disney’s Freeform has decided not to move forward on a new comedy series, “While You Were Breeding”, which follows Kacey, single for the first time in her 30s, as she escapes her fast-paced life in Los Angeles to see the world. From culture clash to vacation romances, this internationally set dramedy is a globetrotting journey of self-discovery that will inspire the wanderlust inside everyone.
The series stars Chelsea Frei (“Dollface”) as Kacey, whose discovery of the joys of solo travel causes her to eschew the marriage and kids route all of her friends have taken in their 30s. (Indeed, there is no one left to travel with her!) Kacey’s emotional journey starts with an epic trip with her fearless best friend from childhood, Sasha, played by Catherine Cohen (“What We Do in The Shadows”), a comedic force who owns every room she’s in. Alice Hunter (“Another Period”) is Hope, another of Kacey’s friends who is a former globetrotting wild child now happily working her face off, much to her party-boy husband’s dismay. And Kosha Patel (“Girlboss”) portrays Kacey’s friend Rikita, a salt-of-the-earth non-profit lawyer, happily married to her wife and pregnant with their first child.
According to Deadline, the show is being shopped around to other networks or buyers, so it’s possible the show will continue. However, with many of the studios also cutting back on how many shows they are creating, it’s difficult to predict if any other platforms will pick it up.
The series has been written by Kristin Newman (“Only Murders in the Building”), and the show is based on her best-selling memoir of the same name. She is an executive producer along with Susanna Fogel (“The Flight Attendant”) and Blair Breard (“Scenes from a Marriage”). The pilot is directed by Becca Gleason (“Summer ’03”).
Originally, the show was going to air on Freeform in August, but was pushed back to 2024 due to the delays caused by the strike. While filming had wrapped on the ten-episode series just before the writer’s strike started, post-production was paused just days into the strike, which, at the time, Kristin took to social media to explain the situation:
The hardest thing about being a showrunner during a strike is wondering if you’re the only schmuck furloughing all of your crew and potentially harming your career and/or show by halting work, so I wanted to say publicly that we shut down post production on the show that means more to me than anything I’ve ever made today. It uses voice over, which is generally straight from, like, my journal and/or soul, so it’s impossible to edit without writing. The air date is being pushed from this August to sometime in 2024 and it’s incredibly painful but I want this strike to be as short as humanly possible and that only happens if we really commit and all do this together.
I also want to acknowledge Freeform, who chose to do what this entire strike is about — value the voice of the writer/creator — and push pause until I can finish this thing we all care about and have worked so hard on properly. It was the right thing to do. #wgastrike #whileyouwerebreeding
During the strike, Disney has been doing a full review of its content pipeline as part of a wide cost-cutting exercise and to reduce the amount of general entertainment content, as Bob Iger wants better curation of content, and thus the show was deemed to no longer be a fit to the linear network’s programming strategy.
Many of the studios are currently reevaluating their lineups, with many cancellations being revealed this week, following the end of the writer’s strike. And with Freeform no longer being carried by Spectrum cable, the channel is going through some more changes. As with other original shows from Freeform, this series was expected to be released as a Star Original on Disney+ around the world.
What do you think of Disney cancelling “While You Were Breeding”? Let us know on social media!
Roger Palmer
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