Robin Williams is coming back to television this fall with CBS’ The Crazy Ones. During the network’s Television Critics Association Press Tour panel on Monday, the Oscar winner provided plenty of laughs for the media.
“It's great to have a steady gig again after so long,” he told reporters, notes The New York Daily News. “It's wonderful.”
In The Crazy Ones, Williams plays an outrageous ad executive who runs a firm with his daughter, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar. The show is executive produced by David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, The Practice), who said he hatched the idea for the show a few years ago.
“When we were talking about casting, someone said Robin Williams. And we said, yeah, right. But we made the call and he was interested,” Kelley recalled.
“You have to establish a character that people buy into,” Williams said about his character, reports Reuters. “I think people will buy into not just my character but the relationship with everybody else. He has good ideas and bad ones.”
Kelley said that Williams has been able to add his own lines, but “He says my words perfectly.” Kelley explained, “Then he uses his. He manages inside the box, then we give him a few takes where he gets to take out of it.”
Williams’ new show premiered on Thursday, Sept. 26. CBS announced a scheduling change for that night, scheduling a second new episode of The Big Bang Theory as its lead-in that night. According to The Wrap, that means that Will Arnett’s new comedy The Millers will not premiere until Oct. 3.
image: NBC