Remember “Jefferson County Probation,” the TV pilot Roy Wood Jr. filmed in Birmingham in 2019?

The comedian was set to star as a probation officer in the sitcom, which was in the works at Comedy Central. Wood, who grew up in Birmingham, maintains strong ties to his hometown, and he wanted the show to be set in Alabama and filmed here.

“I want, at the end of the day, for people to consider Birmingham the same as they would consider Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York and Vancouver,” Wood said during a press conference in April 2019 at Birmingham City Hall.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Jefferson County Probation” was part of a first-look deal Wood had signed with Comedy Central, as he developed new projects for television and digital platforms.

“Co-written by Wood and ‘The Boondocks’ creator Aaron McGruder, the show will star Wood as a probation officer who bends the rules to help the clients he monitors, to the chagrin of his partner and everyone else in his life,” the report said. “Wood, McGruder, ‘Daily Show’ host/exec producer Trevor Noah and Mainstay Entertainment’s Norman Aladjem and Derek Van Pelt executive produce. Millicent Shelton (’Black-ish,’ ‘30 Rock’) will direct.”

Location scouting and casting were underway in May 2019, and Goleman Casting posted a Facebook notice for background actors and extras. Shooting was set for May 20-24, the Facebook post said.

But what happened after that? The pilot was filmed, Wood told AL.com, but Comedy Central shelved the project.

“Comedy Central wouldn’t let me do it, because they started having turnover with the Viacom merger,” Wood said during a recent phone interview. “The pilot we shot in Birmingham, they never liked, so they wanted us to reshoot it. So they gave me a new writer and we were working on a new script, and during the script, the merger with Viacom happened, with Comedy Central and Viacom.

“So everyone who was working on my project was essentially let go. And ultimately, the people that they brought in behind them, while in the process of trying to figure out what to do with ‘Jefferson County Probation,’ COVID hit, and they just killed all scripted projects altogether, to cut costs.”

Reviving “Jefferson County Probation” would be difficult, Wood said, but he hasn’t given up on the concept of the series.

“The idea of bringing that show back would require some degree of a miracle, because I know Comedy Central, generally, when a network spends money to develop a show, and the show doesn’t go, to take the show somewhere else, that network has to be reimbursed for the costs that they spent on that idea,” Wood said. “And so, until somebody’s willing to give Comedy Central $9.5 million, which was the production costs of the episode, I don’t know if it sees the light of day.

“I do think the world of recidivism is relevant and it needs to be spoken to, so if I can’t get them to give me the show back, then it probably turns into something that I just have to remix in a way that doesn’t step on creatively what I did with Comedy Central,” Wood said.

The comedian said “Jefferson County Probation” was a passion project for him, and its demise at Comedy Central was disappointing.

“You know, in hindsight, I would have never been able to predict the market, and what the market was going to turn into, the merger, and their intentions on changing and getting out of scripted concepts,” Wood said. “But if I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t have done that idea with Comedy Central. I would have done something else. Because that idea, the world of probation, is very very special to me. It’s probably one of the things that I’m extremely disappointed about.”

There is a silver lining, however, and Wood was quick to mention it.

“What I’m thankful for, though, is that we came to Birmingham and proved that you could shoot a cable network comedy there,” Wood said. “We have the infrastructure, we have the people, we have the crew. We have more than competent enough people to help grow the TV industry in the state. And I met a ton of people, surprisingly down in Montgomery as well, who are open and understanding of the workforce development aspect of film and television.

“A lot of TV in Atlanta is getting run out of town, because movies are taking up the studio space. So there just isn’t real estate. And so, I saw that back in 2018, and Alabama could pick up a lot of that work, we just need the infrastructure in place for crew training, so we can create more crew. So there’s a ton of people that I met, on both sides of the aisle, who were very understanding about this from an employment standpoint, from workforce development, and things like that.”

Wood also emphasized his determination to bring projects to Birmingham.

“We’re not done developing ideas in Birmingham,” Wood said. “I just gotta make sure the next one I do is something that has, that really is ironclad with the creative and producing partner, and a network that is committed to scripted content.

“The other thing that we proved is that you can produce film and television in Alabama. It still costs a little bit more than it would have for Atlanta; I don’t know how the economics have changed over the last five years. But dollar for dollar, close enough to be able to take that hit.”

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Wood also lauded Birmingham as a place with lots of talent.

“Birmingham itself, as a city, is its own character, the people,” Wood continued. “That’s the thing that really makes me sad, is that we didn’t really get to showcase — we just had so many people that were regular people. They are the city. We didn’t bring in out-of-towners. We had 13 speaking roles in the show; nine of them were Alabamians. One of the others was Sheryl Lee Ralph, now on ‘Abbot Elementary.’ So yeah, we had to go out of town to get someone of Sheryl’s magnitude.”

Wood has been in the national spotlight in recent weeks, guest-hosting “The Daily Show,” appearing as the featured entertainer at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and more. He’s set to host the Webby Awards on May 15, and he’ll tour with his standup show later this year.

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