Molly Ringwald

DHX Television’s Family Channel has greenlit 26 half-hour episodes of The Wonderful Wayneys, a live-action comedy series produced by Aircraft Pictures and Florida-based Dolphin Entertainment.

The Wonderful Wayneys stars Molly Ringwald and Jason Priestley as a seemingly flawless married couple aiming to raise five exceptional children. Their fifth child Emmett, however, is not following in the footsteps his four older siblings. The series focuses on misadventures of Emmett as he celebrates his relatively mediocre status within the family. Simon Cadel will play Emmet, with Luke Bilyk, Katie Douglas, Matthew Tissi and Jake Sim filling out the rest of the fictional Wayney brood. Production will start on July 27 in Toronto.

For Aircraft Pictures, the series gives the prodco a chance to work with family-targeted content, said co-president Anthony Leo. In the past, the prodco’s projects have skewed younger or solely towards an adult market, as was the case with Todd and the Book of Pure Evil.

“The Wonderful Wayneys is a bit of a departure, in that it is not categorically a kids show – it’s much more geared towards a family audience. Really, it’s not something we see as being limited to what was historically Family Channel – a six-to-eleven year old network,” Leo told Playback Daily. “They (Family) are certainly aging up certain blocks of programming, which is really great, because it gives us an opportunity to go for more of than family audience and hopefully sell it internationally.”

Jason Priestley

The series was created by Tom Saunders (Arrested Development, The Larry Saunders Show), who also serves as executive producer. Leo and Andrew Rosen serve as producers, with Bill O’Dowd, Steve Skrovan and Garry Campbell executive producing along with Saunders. Writers on the inaugural season of The Wonderful Wayneys are Tia Ayers, Barbara Haynes, Skander Halim, Max Reid, Josh Gal and Emer Connon.

DHX Television has released a spate of original programming announcements recently, as it rebuilds its programming pipeline following the loss of its liscening deal for Disney content in April of this year.  Earlier this month, the kids broadcaster announced it had commissioned Fresh TV’s Backstage for Family, with the first season of Temple Street’s The Music Room and a fresh season of The Next Step set to air on the channel in the coming months.