HBO Picks Up Danny McBride Televangelist Comedy The Righteous Gemstones

After the beloved Eastbound and Down and Vice Principals, Danny McBride is back at HBO with The Righteous Gemstones, as the network has given the televangelist comedy a series order, per THR.

McBride’s third series for HBO, The Righteous Gemstones will follow the Gemstones, a world-famous televangelist family dealing with a legacy of deviance, greed and shifting loyalties, as well as a bit of the Lord’s work.

John Goodman, also on ABC’s Roseanne-free The Conners, premiering later this month, plays patriarch Eli, a televangelist who has built a global empire via his ministry and weekly TV show. McBride plays oldest son and presumed heir Jesse, who wants to shape the family business for a more modern audience.

We learned that McBride and Goodman would star when HBO made a pilot order back in June, but with the series order comes more cast details. HBO shared a first-look picture on Twitter revealing the rest of the main Gemstone family.

Also starring as Eli’s other children, Judy and Kelvin, are Edi Patterson (Vice Principals) and Adam Devine (Workaholics).

The televangelist game will never be the same.
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John Goodman and Danny McBride are The Righteous Gemstones. pic.twitter.com/eHh7cuWISF
— HBO (@HBO) October 2, 2018

Filling out the rest of the cast are Cassidy Freeman as Jesse’s loyal wife, Amber; Tony Cavalero as Keefe Chambers, an ex-Satanist who was saved by Kevin; Tim Baltz as BJ, Judy’s fiancé; and GregAlan Williams as Martin Imari, Eli’s trusted counsel.

McBride created the series, and will executive produce with Rough House Pictures partners Jody Hill and David Gordon Green, with all three directing episodes. McBride, Hill and Green have had a long partnership on HBO, with McBride and Hill both being credited as co-creators on Eastbound and Down and Vice Principals, and Green directing multiple episodes of both shows.

The morally corrupt world of televangelism seems like a promising target for McBride, who’s won a loyal fanbase with his brilliant, profane takes on sports culture and the American education system on his previous shows. We should expect more details once production wraps for Goodman on The Conners, which frees him up to start filming on this new project.