PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A nationally-syndicated Philadelphia cartoonist is taking his talents to Tinseltown, where one of his comic strips that features the City of Brotherly Love just got greenlit for a live-action TV pilot.
The show deals with some hard truths, with a Philly flair, and gives the city yet another chance to shine on prime time network television.
For Robb Armstrong, getting his comic strip JumpStart a comedy pilot on CBS is the culmination of a lifetime’s worth of work.
“I’ve been an artist going back to when I was three years old,” Armstrong said. “I had a very supportive mom. She just felt like I was the next big thing.”
Her support pushed him to do the unimaginable.
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“When I was 10 years old, she put me into this thing at the Philadelphia College of Art. I was the only child in the program,” he said.
But life was not all oil paintings and sketches for Armstrong.
“I’m talking about an upbringing in Philadelphia that was just brutal,” Armstrong admits.
“My brother was killed.”
He says he saw his other brother taken to the hospital after being beaten by the police.
“They ridiculed him. They stripped him naked first,” said Armstrong. “He never really recovered from that.”
He also lost his mother to cancer.
But through it all, he persevered and in 1989 created JumpStart. The comedy centers around Joe Cobb, a Black Philadelphia police officer, his wife Marcy who is a nurse, their daughter Sunny, son JoJo, and twins Teddy and Tommi.
Armstrong was worried when CBS had second thoughts on ordering a pilot earlier this year after the deadly beating of Tyre Nichols, a Black man, in Memphis. Five Black police officers were fired and charged with murder.
“They’re not going to do this. We can’t uplift a Black cop like this,” said Armstrong about his concerns.
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“My producer Aaron Kaplan said, ‘Rob. you’ve got to write the president of CBS a letter. Just explain your upbringing, everything. How can they not do this? This is the time. This is the moment,’” said Armstrong.
Armstrong said he knew he could bring humanity to officers behind the badge, something he learned years ago from a kid at a school in Philly who identified with his main character.
“[Someone] walked up to me and said ‘I used to hate cops until I met Joe. I like him. He’s like family," said Armstrong. "At that time there was no TV deal or anything. Joe was essentially a drawing on a piece of paper, and it touched this guy’s heart.”
He said they are currently casting for the pilot of the show.