EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has assembled the cast opposite Dennis Quaid in holiday-themed multi-camera comedy series Merry Happy Whatever. Former Undateable co-stars Bridgit Mendler and Brent Morin will play leads in the series, joined by Ashley Tisdale, Adam Rose (Santa Clarita Diet) and former Angie Tribeca co-star Hayes MacArthur. The eight-episode series hails from former Everybody Loves Raymond executive producer Tucker Cawley, Aaron Kaplan’s Kapital Entertainment and Wendi Trilling’s TrillTV.
In Merry Happy Whatever, written by Cawley and directed by Pam Fryman, Dennis Quaid plays Don Quinn, a strong-willed patriarch who must balance the demands of his complicated family with the stress of the Christmas season when his youngest daughter comes home for the holidays with a new boyfriend.
Mendler plays Emmy Quinn, the independent-minded daughter home for the holidays and hoping her over-protective father will accept her musician boyfriend Matt (Morin), or at least not kill him.
Morin’s Matt is a struggling musician from LA who will have his hands full as he meets his girlfriend’s imposing father and close-knit family over a stressful and emotional Christmas break.
Tisdale plays Kayla, recently separated from her husband, desperately trying to figure out what’s next, and making everyone in the Quinn household as miserable as she is.
Rose plays Todd, a beleaguered son-in-law who is perpetually frustrated by the close-knit family he married into and copes by venting and drinking with his fellow in-laws.
MacArthur plays Sean, the only son of the Quinn family, a working-class family man who’s just trying to keep his head above water so he can watch the Eagles game in peace.
Mendler and Morin’s background of portraying a couple on NBC’s multi-camera comedy series Undateable played a role in their casting as a couple onMerry Happy Whatever. It was a scene of the two of them from the NBC sitcom submitted by Morin that led to the Netflix series producers also reaching out to Mendler, who had been working on a graduate degree from MIT and was not pursuing acting work at the moment.
Cawley serves as showrunner and executive produces Merry Happy Whatever with Quaid, Fryman, Kapital Entertainment’s Kaplan and Dana Honor and TrillTV’s Trilling.
Mendler is repped by Gershand Felker Toczek. Actor-comedian Morin, who has two comedy specials on Netflix, is repped by CAA, 3 Arts and Felker Toczek.
Tisdale is repped by Gersh and Red Light. Rose is with BRS/Gage Talent Agency and The Cartel. MacArtur, recently seen in MGM’s digital series reboot of Mr. Mom, is repped by WME, Management 360 and Morris Yorn.
Source: Deadline
