Christopher Guest’s ‘Family Tree’ Debuting This Spring

Christopher Guest Family Tree
Chris O’Dowd, Christopher Guest, and Jim Piddock on the set of ‘Family Tree’ (Photo: Suzanne Tenner/HBO)

Frankie Go Boom! and Bridesmaids star Chris O’Dowd will star in the new HBO comedy series Family Tree from filmmaker Christopher Guest (Best in Show, A Mighty Wind) and Jim Piddock. The new show, written and created by Guest and Piddock, will debut on HBO this spring.

Per the network, Family Tree is a “single-camera, documentary-style” series starring O’Dowd, Tom Bennett, Nina Conti and featuring Carrie Aizley, Bob Balaban, Ed Begley, Jr., Maria Blasucci, Matt Griesser, Christopher Guest, Don Lake, Michael McKean, Lisa Palfrey, Jim Piddock, Kevin Pollak, Amy Seimetz, Meera Syal, Ashley Walters, and Fred Willard.

Guest says he was looking for someone who was both funny and that audiences could relate to when he cast O’Dowd in the lead role. And because the story doesn’t seem to have an end, he opted to make Family Tree a series rather than a feature film. Says Guest: “The first four episodes of the show take place in England, where Tom Chadwick, our hero, lives. I wanted to show him moving around to different areas in his search. The next four shows take place in the United States. It can go anywhere from there.”

The Plot:

Having recently lost his job and his girlfriend, 30-year-old Tom Chadwick has a rather unsure sense of his own identity. But when he inherits a mysterious box of belongings from a great aunt he never met, Tom starts investigating his lineage and uncovers a whole world of unusual stories and characters, acquiring a growing sense of who he and his real family are.