‘Bless the Harts’ Star Jillian Bell Calls New FOX Show ‘Cool, New Take’ on Family Comedy

Bless the Harts is putting a unique spin on the classic story of a family desperately chasing after the American dream. Actress Jillian Bell plays daughter Violet Hart on the Emily Spivey-created animated series coming to FOX this fall, and opened up to PopCulture.com’s Anna Rumer at San Diego Comic-Con about what drew her to the project — other than working hand-in-hand with Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Ike Barinholtz.

Of the former Saturday Night Live writer, Bell gushed, “She is so talented, and her writing is so specific, that if you gave me a million scripts, I could pull out the one that is her.”

“Her voice is just so funny and unique, and I wrote with her at SNL for a year … but she always took me under her wing and looked after me, and we just had the best time together,” the Workaholics actress recalled. “So anything that she wants to do with me, I feel very lucky to be a part of.”

Playing 13-year-old Violet on the new FOX show, Bell jokes she’s in the position of being “the voice of reason” amid her wacky family.

“But she is 13 years old and kind of angsty and a little gothic and very into B horror movies,” the comedian continued. “She’s cool. … She’s cooler than me, for sure.”

Bringing a show about a family in the south to network TV in 2019 feels like a switch when it comes to the classic set-up of similar comedies, Bell added.

“I just feel like it’s good to show all different families, and I just feel like this family isn’t quite on TV,” she told PopCulture. “They talk about being broke as a joke in this, but then doing anything they can to live the American dream, but the thing that I think makes this show really stand out is the fact — they’re going about it in backwards ways to try to make their lives better, but they’re doing it because they love each other so much, they’re doing it cause this family wants to see each other win.”

“All the family members love each other so much,” Bell added, “and I think it’s such a cool, new take on that kind of a show.”

Bless the Harts premieres Sept. 29 on FOX.

Photo credit: Matthew Simmons / Contributor