TV Talk: Pitt grad powers Glen Powell football comedy ‘Chad Powers’

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

Given his recent run on the big screen starring in commercial hits (“Top Gun: Maverick,” “Twisters,” “Anyone But You”) and critical darlings (“Hit Man”), it’s impressive that streamer Hulu got Glen Powell to lead the six-episode, first-season comedy “Chad Powers,” premiering Tuesday with its first two episodes. (Additional episodes premiere weekly on Tuesday through Oct. 28.)

More impressive still, “Chad Powers” offers a welcome mix of cringe comedy, raunchy humor and even some sweet, odd couple moments.

Taking a page from Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso,” which was also based on an existing TV short, “Chad Powers” began life as a comedic sketch on Eli Manning’s “Eli’s Place,” where Manning, covered in prosthetics, used the name Chad Powers to try out for the Penn State football team.

In Hulu’s series, Powell stars as Russ Holliday, a jerky, hotshot quarterback who ruined his football career in humiliating fashion, knocking over a Make-A-Wish kid in a wheelchair.

Eight years later, when Russ’ attempted comeback falls apart, he decides to go undercover as Chad Powers with the help of prosthetics that change the appearance of his face. He borrows a makeup kit from his father (Toby Huss, “King of the Hill”), a Hollywood makeup effects artist.

“I’m gonna do a ‘Mrs. Doubtfire,’ ” Russ says, “just with football.”

But Russ can’t do it on his own. He enlists the help of Danny (Frankie A. Rodriguez, “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”), a gay college student who plays the mascot for the South Georgia University Catfish.

Danny applies the makeup that turns Russ into Chad and Danny encourages Russ’ redemption efforts.

“Chad Powers” gets a lot of mileage out of cringe comedy that comes from Russ having to make up Chad’s background on the fly, including in an ESPN interview where Chad claims his inspiration for playing football is … Benjamin Franklin.

Created by Powell and writer Michael Waldron (“Loki”), “Chad Powers” takes surprising twists later in a story that begins with a lot of what you’d expect in early episodes as Chad becomes a star under Coach Jake Hudson (Steve Zahn, “The Righteous Gemstones”). There’s also the potential for romance with Hudson’s daughter, Coach Ricky (Perry Mattfeld, “In the Dark”).

“Chad Powers” is at its best when the show surprises, particularly in its fourth episode, when Chad and Danny visit a Spirit Halloween store, bond over lyrics from “Aladdin,” and end up working together to construct Chad’s prosthetics to the tune of “All I Ask of You” from “Phantom of the Opera.” There’s a sweet novelty to their jock-gay kid team-up that elevates “Chad Powers” above the “fake football player” logline or second coming of “Blue Mountain State” expectations. The season finale even engages in some real, earned emotional moments.

“Chad Powers” is produced by Anomaly Pictures, a production company founded by Waldron and 2011 University of Pittsburgh grad Adam Fasullo (“Midnight Mass”).

“I graduated with a degree in marketing, which, much to the chagrin of the Hulu marketing department, I have started to apply to the ‘Chad Powers’ release campaign for the first time in 14 years,” Fasullo in a Zoom interview earlier this month.

As for whether any of his Pitt experience made it into “Chad Powers,” Fasullo pointed to the color of the Catfish uniforms, which are blue and gold, just like the Pitt Panthers.

“I know what it’s like to root for a team that’s perennially 7-5, so there’s a lot of Pitt DNA in the South Georgia Catfish,” said Fasullo, a non-writing executive producer on “Chad Powers” who is a Bucks County native. “In episode three, some of the shots of the crowd may or may not have been lifted from Pitt games. Some students may recognize themselves.”

Regarding the adaptation of Manning’s sketch, Waldron said he’d been friends with Powell when their shared agency, CAA, told them Manning’s company wanted to pursue a series adaptation of the Chad Powers sketch.

“Is it gonna be a show about just a weirdo who happens to be inspired by the character Eli played? Or, I said to Glen, you couldn’t possibly do ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ with football, could you?” Waldron recalled. “And Glen said, ‘Yeah, but what if you did?’ I was like, wow, that’s the show, the impossibility of pulling that off. I think I was drawn to it because it’s such a crazy premise. And the prospect of making it human, making it feel real, making it feel heartfelt, was just too enticing to pass up. Also, crazy stuff happens in the world of college football all the time, so ultimately I was like, I could see this occurring.”