Adam Scott’s New Weed Sitcom: “Buds”

With the wildly popular NBC comedy “Parks and Recreation” finishing up its final season, many adoring viewers are left wondering where their next comedic fix will come from.

Fear not fellow fans, for Adam Scott is coming to the rescue.

According to Deadline, Scott, who played the role of Mr. Leslie Knope on Parks & Rec, is teaming up with his wife Naomi to produce a new cannabis-themed comedy sitcom on NBC called “Buds.” The couple have partnered up with NBC comedy writer Joe Mande, who has written for Parks & Rec and other popular Adult Swim shows like “The Kroll Show” and “Delocated.” The cannabis-centric show will be set in Denver, Colorado and will follow the life of a medical marijuana dispensary owner including the day-to-day operations of the business itself.

The team is working together through Naomi Scott’s production company, Gettin’ Rad Productions. With NBC buying the script commitment to Buds, this marks the very first television sale for the company since they agreed upon a first-look deal with Universal TV last fall. The show has been approved and will join the 2015-2016 development cycle for the network.

With such big names in comedy working on the show, fans of Parks and Recreation and medical marijuana all have something to look forward to in the coming year. But aside from the undeniable acting/writing talent and comedic prowess of those working on the new sitcom, this could act as a big step forward for the quickly growing medical marijuana industry.

Assuming that the show will be creative enough to avoid the usual comedic clichés of the average recreational marijuana smoker, the show has the potential to bring an educated and well-informed portrayal of the industry and the culture that surrounds it.

This is certainly not the first television program to feature aspects of marijuana culture. The popular Showtime series Weeds portrayed one side of the marijuana culture but, while it did show some aspects of how cannabis is seen by some Americans, it seemed to be more focused on the ‘black-market/dealer’ side of the culture that could possibly shrink in the coming years due to the expansive growth of the legal cannabis industry.

Last October TruTV put out a pilot for a documentary series called “Medicine Man,” which gave viewers an educated look at Colorado’s largest cannabis dispensary. While the show was informative and helped viewers understand more about how the industry worked on a large-scale level, the documentary format isn’t as enjoyable to some as it is to others.

Scott’s new project will be the first to mold the legal cannabis culture into a scripted, ‘family-friendly’ format that can be enjoyed by thousands of people at the same time. Buds has the potential to bring an informed and well-researched portrayal of a hotbed topic being discussed throughout the country.

While it’s still unsure if Adam Scott will be featured onscreen during the new sitcom, it wouldn’t be the first time he has been portrayed as a marijuana user. Gettin’ Rad Productions recently teamed up with the Duplass Brothers to produce the indie film “The Overnight,” which recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was then sold to Orchard Films. Scott reportedly plays a character who is drunk and stoned throughout the film, and apparently played it so well that he had to reassure the Huffington Post that “No, I don’t drink and we certainly weren’t smoking pot on set.”

Buds has only received a script commitment from NBC at this point, so there will be a little bit of time before the public sees any episodes for the show. Regardless of the timeline, it’s an enormous step up towards bringing cannabis culture to a mass audience and has the potential to inform many viewers about the positive and helpful ways that cannabis can be used to help those who are sick or ailing. Plus, with the current comedic team that is spearheading the project, it can be certain that, if anything, the show will be downright hilarious to watch.

Will you be tuning in to watch? Tell us in the comments.