CBS TV Studios power couple Robert and Michelle King are turning their true-to-life podcast about a teenage girl who finds out her father was a serial killer, into a TV series for CBS All Access. “The Good Fight” creators will develop a drama based on the 2019 “Happy Face” podcast. Jennifer Cacicio, who previously worked with the Kings on their forthcoming Showtime drama “Your Honor,” will collaborate with the Kings as writer of the series.
Based on the iHeartMedia podcast, the drama is inspired by the story of Melissa Moore, who discovered at age 15 that her father was the prolific serial killer known as Happy Face, according to a story in The Hollywood Reporter. As an adult, Moore changed her name, kept her history a secret and cut off ties to her father, who is serving life in prison. But when he contacted her to take credit for more victims, “she is pulled into an extraordinary investigation into her father’s crimes, the impact they had on his victims’ families and into a reckoning with her own identity,” the report notes.
CBS All Access—which is rebranding as Paramount+ next year—has launched a “writers’ room” for Happy Face. Cacicio will oversee this and executive produce the series with the Kings and their CBS TV Studios-based King Size Productions head Liz Glotzer. Moore, who created the podcast, will also executive produce alongside iHeartMedia Chairman/CEO Bob Pittman and Conal Byrne, President, iHeartPodcast Network.
“Happy Face” is the latest TV project the Kings have in the works amid an ongoing deal with CBS TV Studios. The married couple is also behind CBS All Access’ “The Good Fight,” Showtime's upcoming limited series “Your Honor” and CBS’ “Evil.”