Last year, online retailer Amazon began developing six comedy pilots to be released streaming a la Netflix’s recent push to produce its own original programming, and beloved comedic actor Jeffrey Tambor has just been cast in one of Amazon’s new pilots, Deadline reports. Tambor will star in The Onion Presents: The News, a comedy that takes place behind the scenes of The Onion News Network. His character is David Everett, the network’s oldest and most respected anchor who fears his job is being threatened by a younger journalist named Cameron, whom he hates. The show is created by Will Graham & Dan Mirk (The Onion News Network, The Onion Sportsdome), and the pilot will be directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson (Harold & Kumar 3). Jeffrey Tambor reportedly turned down a big network pilot to join the Amazon show, which seems to be a decision based on his experience filming the new season of Arrested Development for Netflix and how his last two shows were mistreated by NBC. This season, he had a supporting role on Dane Cook’s series Next Caller, which was canceled before it aired, and last season, he had another supporting role on NBC’s Bent, which was given a late premiere and quickly canceled. Here’s hoping Amazon doesn’t dick around the man who played Hank Kingsley like NBC did.
