Lieutenant Jim Dangle will not die! Thomas Lennon’s microscopic shorts-loving head of the Reno Sheriff’s Department and the rest of the Reno 911! gang have been part of the pop culture fabric for nearly 20 years—and they’re not going anywhere. As Variety reports, viewers will get the chance to continue witnessing the utter ineptitude of Dangle, Deputy Trudy Wiegel (Kerri Kenney-Silver, who co-created the series with Lennon and Robert Ben Garant) and the rest of the gang thanks to Roku which, after acquiring the series from the ill-fated Quibi, has ordered four more half-hour episodes of the long-running Cops parody.
As Michael Schneider writes:
Quibi shut down in December, less than a year after its much-heralded launch. The Jeffrey Katzenberg-Meg Whitman startup and its promise of delivering “quick bite” content to users exclusively on their phones became a bit of a punchline in the industry. But the programming itself was rather solid, attracting top Hollywood producers and stars. Clearly TV Academy voters found it Emmy-worthy: Last year, Quibi won two Emmys (for “#FreeRayshawn”).
While Quibi no longer exists, three of its shows (including Reno 911!) are currently in contention for a total of eight Emmy Awards. While Emmy voters still see “Quibi” as the responsible network, Roku—which acquired 75 Quibi titles back in early January, then quickly rebranded them as Roku Originals—is congratulating itself for its first batch of Emmy nominations.
Reno 911! debuted on Comedy Central in 2003, where it ran for six seasons. In 2020, Quibi trotted it back out for 25 more (shorter) episodes. Where the series goes beyond the four new already-ordered episodes is yet to be decided. “We continue to evaluate things that make sense for us,” Colin Davis, Roku’s head of scripted content (who previously worked for Quibi) told Variety.
(Via Variety)