“Hope Cafe” is a multi-camera comedy that Mayim Bialik and Damon Wayans Jr. are developing with NBC, Sad Clown Productions and Two Shakes Entertainment.
If you didn’t know, Bialik is one of the minds behind Sad Clown Productions just like how Wayans is with Two Shakes Entertainment.
“Hope Cafe” will be written by Linda Videtti Figueiredo, whom is one of the people responsible for creating the “Fuller House.”
The Hope Cafe is inspired by Chicago’s Hope For the Day‘s Sip of Hope. It’s the world’s first coffee place where “It’s OK Not to Be OK” and all of the profit go to educating the public about mental health.
Imagine this, the friendships you make in the Hope Cafe, the lives and loves of the people who work their are all intertwined with customer that step through the door. Where baristas are trained mental health counselors.
Imagine a counseling session for the price of a cup of coffee!
“When we learned of Hope For the Day’s incredible work through their coffee shop Sip of Hope, we KNEW the collective partnership between Two Shakes, Sad Clown, Linda and Hope For the Day could lead to a show that mainstreams the conversation around mental health with an honest, but lighthearted touch,” Two Shakes and Sad Clown said in a joint statement. “Hope For the Day’s slogan ‘It’s ok not to be ok’ isn’t just an incredible motto, it’s our show’s theme and characters’ way of life. Thematically, this is about the universal journey to find happiness, fulfillment and connection, and the friends and community we lean on for support when times get tough.”
Figueiredo was also a part of “Rules of Engagement” and “Cougar Town.” She also developed and ran three seasons of Disney Channel’s “Stuck in the Middle.”
Two Shakes, founded by Wayans and Tarlow, has several other series projects in the works.
Sad Clown, founded by Bialik, gravitates towards highlighting women’s issues, mental health challenges and all things geeky and smart. The company has comedy series Call Me Kat, starring and exec produced by Bialik, at Fox with Jim Parsons’ That’s Wonderful and Warner Bros TV producing. It is set to premiere in 2021.
Hope For the Day is a non-profit organization focused on empowering the conversation on proactive suicide prevention and mental health education. It was founded in 2011 by Boucher, the CEO, and is overseen by Kunicki, the executive director.