Fox will debut on Saturday with Denis Leary's "Dogs Playing Poker"

Starting tomorrow during pre-game coverage of FOX NFL, FOX Entertainment and Emmy Awards and Golden Globe nominee Denis Leary (The Moodys, Rescue Me) will debut with two football-oriented animated shorts based on the Icebox series Poker Night, inspired by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge's iconic 1900 art series, "Dogs Playing Poker". Leary will co-write, executive produce and voice the main character of each short film, was announced today by Michael Thorn, President of Entertainment, FOX Entertainment.

Created, co-written and executive produced by Emmy-winning writer and producer Jim Margolis (Veep, The daily show) and produced by FOX animation studio Bento Box Entertainment, Dogs playing poker centers on five dog friends: Brownie (Leary), Daphne (Elaine Hendrix, Sex, drugs and rock and roll), Ditka (Roy Wood, Jr., The daily show), Froyo (Bobby Kelly, Sex, drugs and rock and roll) and Stan (Adam Ferrara, Save me) - while joking about football and other timely sports topics.

The first Dogs playing poker short will air tomorrow, Saturday, January 9, during FOX NFL Pregame, a special edition of FOX NFL Sunday, starting at 16pm. ET. Coverage of the NFC Wild Card matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks begins at 00:16 PM. ET. The second short will debut on Sunday, January 30, when coverage of the FOX NFL playoffs continues.

Dogs playing poker is part of Leary's recent direct-broadcast agreement with FOX to create, develop and produce comic, dramatic and animated content for the network. Jack Leary (Sex, drugs and rock and roll), Rob Greenberg (The Moodys, Frasier) and Howard Gordon (24, Homeland) will also be executive producer.

"If only FOX thought about generating a new animated series from cartoons like this 30+ years ago… imagine the possibilities!" Thorn joked. “With mating Dogs playing poker and FOX NFL, we have a unique opportunity to incubate content from top-tier talent such as Denis, Jim, Jack, Rob and Howard and introduce new characters of what could become the next building block of our iconic animation brand in an intelligent and strategic way. "

Leary added: “FOX is finally allowing America to find out what we dogs think about football. Spoiler alert: We are very sorry that there is not a single NFL team that has a dog's name. Cats, horses, birds - even dolphins - all have their own team. Not a dog! Give us a bone, guys. Literally and figuratively. "

After the linear telecast during FOX NFL, longer versions of each Dogs playing poker short will be available on digital platforms owned and operated by FOX, as well as on select social platforms.

Dogs playing poker is produced by FOX Entertainment and Bento Box Entertainment. Denis Leary and Jack Leary, via their production company, Amoeba, executive producers, along with Jim Margolis, Rob Greenberg and Howard Gordon.