• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, September 4, 2024

The title of “Universal Basic Guys” aroused associations in my brain with Universal, as in NBCUniversal, and basic cable.  

But the show has nothing to do with either. Premiering on Fox this Sunday, “Universal Basic Guys” is the first new network show of the fall season.

Or should I say “SUN-dee”? That’s the way Sunday and all other days of the week are pronounced by the natives of Philadelphia and their brethren in South Jersey.

In fact, the animated “Universal Basic Guys” might be the first prime-time network series, animated or otherwise, in which the dialogue is entirely accented in Philly-speak.

The show gets its title from the “Universal Basic Income” movement which has been proposed by various government bodies in recent years (and tested by some) in which all residents would be provided with a monthly stipend with few or no strings or conditions attached.

As it happens, in “Universal Basic Guys,” the two guys in the show (pictured above with a woebegone pet chimp) are on one of these “Universal” stipends because they were recently laid off from their jobs at a hot dog factory.

So now, they basically do nothing while collecting $3,000 a month. As confirmed layabouts with time on their hands, they get themselves into ill-advised fixes.

They are two brothers named Mark and Hank Hoagies, an homage to the sandwiches for which Philadelphia is most famous (sorry, cheesesteaks).

The show is from two brothers -- Adam and Craig Malument -- who hail from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. It's a worthy suburb of Philadelphia, even though it’s in New Jersey. Adam provides the voices of both Hoagies brothers.

To the TV Blog’s amazement, the premiere episode of “Universal Basic Guys” centers on an aging, ailing chimp which one of the brothers buys from a sketchy zoo as a birthday present for his wife.

Readers of the TV Blog, if any, are well aware of my affection for any and all chimp-oriented TV shows, and lamented earlier this year that 2024 was experiencing a chimp drought until very recently.

In the chimp episode of “Universal Basic Guys,” this plan to buy a chimp as a birthday gift goes awry pretty quickly as the animal brutally attacks one of the brothers.

But the incident ultimately leads to the chimp opening up about his suffering as a lifelong, experimental lab animal.

Spoiler alert: The chimp won’t be back.

“Universal Basic Guys” is a worthy addition to Fox’s Animation Domination lineup on Sunday nights.

Although it is airing at 8 p.m., this is not a cartoon show for children. 

“Universal Basic Guys” premieres Sunday, September 8, at 8 p.m. Eastern on Fox.