The Puppets Pull All the Strings on ‘Greg the Bunny’

It was bound to happen sooner or later. After a plethora of sitcoms populated by single Manhattan twenty- and thirtysomethings looking for love in the worst of places, there had to be a series just waiting to get on the air that didn’t subscribe to that same old guys-and-girls, sex-and-a-city formula.

Enter “Greg the Bunny,” Fox’s rambunctious single-camera comedy that hopes to give a fresh take on the buddies-in-the-big-city vibe. In this case, the friends aren’t just women and men, but humans and puppets, or Fabricated Americans, as they are called in the show.

In the pilot episode, Greg the Bunny (credited as “himself” in Fox’s press materials), a struggling puppet actor, has just landed his dream job as the star of the popular children’s TV show “Sweetknuckle Junction.” Greg’s good fortune brings together the show’s bungling director and producer, Gil Bender (Eugene Levy of “American Pie” and “SCTV”) and his wayward son, Jimmy (Seth Green, formerly of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), who is the hare’s hapless human roommate.

With a “Larry Sanders Show”- esque spin, the series explores a world where people and puppets coexist. It includes Greg’s puppet co-stars Warren “The Ape” Demontague, a self-absorbed pill popper; and Count Blah, a roguish vampire bearing a close resemblance to that caped character from another, real-life children’s series. (Executives at the Sesame Workshop had no comment on the resemblance.)

“Greg the Bunny” is the brainchild of Dan Milano and Spencer Chinoy, alums of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The two created the character for a low-budget New York City public-access cable show, “Junktape,” in 1997, later moving to the Independent Film Channel, where Greg performed comedy skits and film parodies between the indie flicks.

The 10-inch-tall, floppy-eared fur ball caught the attention of producer Steven Levitan, who was “looking for something different. And this is certainly not like any show I’ve ever done before,” said Levitan, whose credits include “Just Shoot Me” and “The Larry Sanders Show.”

“The hook should be that if you read the script, you shouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the humans and the puppets,” Milano said. “This could be a sitcom about the making of a show with an entirely human cast. It just so happens that our show is 50% puppets.”

While wacky gimmicks appear to be the rage in the sitcom trade these days (including another Fox newcomer, the fantasy-laden “Andy Richter Controls the Universe,” and the talking baby on CBS’ “Baby Bob”), producers on “Greg the Bunny” contend their show is character-driven and does not rely on high-concept devices to draw laughs.

“They don’t have to be silly and flying out of cannons--and I love that stuff,” Milano said. “But in trying to do something different, we just want to play it straight, and that becomes the joke....

“When I was a kid, I was fascinated by the Muppets,” Milano continued. “I knew they were worked by puppeteers. But I could completely accept them as living and breathing. We’re just trying to support that here, to blur the reality and fantasy line.”

The show’s mature subject matter, meanwhile, sets “Greg the Bunny” apart from the likes of that family-friendly alien, “ALF” (although producers hope he’ll make a guest appearance). Parents of small children should take heed that the show is not for kids.

“We need to make sure that people know that by scheduling the show at 9:30 p.m., we have indeed considered this more of an adult comedy,” cautioned Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman. “If we were scheduling it at 8 p.m. and saying, ‘Oh no, this is adult fare,’ that would be problematic.”

“That’s this comedic minefield that everybody’s [walking] right now, trying to figure out where that line is,” Levy said. “We’re trying to figure out how much of an edge we can put into the show, how much we can prod and probe into the relationships of humans to puppets, and even humans to humans. It’s very tricky.”

There are logistical concerns as well, especially for the human performers. “Everybody’s got neck trouble,” Green said of working with his miniature co-stars. “But you make concessions. You squat, or they stand on a box. You get used to it.”

“The problem with puppets is that they have very big egos for small people. They have a bit of a Napoleon complex,” Levy quipped. “The nice thing is that if you stand right over them, they’re easily intimidated.”

Fox officials are trying to distance the show from other Hollywood-oriented series that have proven to be ratings disappointments, among them Fox’s “Action” and ABC’s “Sports Night” and “Hiller and Diller,” which also co-starred Levy.

“This really is a relationship show that happens to take place backstage of a puppet show,” Berman noted, “so I think it’s very different from the cynical view of show-biz kinds of stories.”

While the show’s characters represent a departure from the puppets viewers are accustomed to seeing, its fate is also being monitored by Jim Henson Television U.S., which recently signed a development deal with Fox for a new series featuring the Muppets. “I would love nothing more than for ‘Greg the Bunny’ to be a huge hit,” said Henson Television President Juliet Blake. “I think their success can only help us.”

“Greg the Bunny” premieres Wednesday night at 9:30 on Fox. The network has rated it TV-14-L (may be unsuitable for children under 14, with a special advisory for coarse language).