Feb 5 2010Next Up on Nick: Jessica Simpson's Dad

Doug Funny. Pete Wrigley (Big & Little). iCarly. Joe Simpson, fame-whoring father of Jessica and Ashlee Simpson. What do they have in common? They're all popular (or soon to be!) Nickelodeon characters:

Joe Simpson, father and manager of pop stars Jessica and Ashlee Simpson, has teamed with veteran tween and teen series producer Tommy Lynch for a comedy series project set up at Nickelodeon.

The untitled show will be loosely based on Simpson's real-life experience as a psychologist raising two daughters in Texas.

The story in the comedy project centers on one of the daughters who begins imitating her father and giving life advice to other kids in her school.

Kids are going to love this. Not because of the premise of combining the short-lived WB sitcom Raising Dad, Alan Thicke's dad character from Growing Pains, and Lucy from Peanuts (which in itself makes a hit cocktail) but simply because kids love Joe Simpson. Kids love all greedy celebrity dads.

If Nickelodeon were smart, they'd relaunch GUTS with Michael Lohan as host and the Culkin dad as Mo. Instead of the Aggo Crag, the exciting finale would feature kids joyously racing to scale a foam replica of Billy Ray Cyrus's head, while doing their best to concentrate as the blaring speakers that line his glitter-spraying mullet shout his fatherly demands. "Make more money! Show more skin! Transform into Hannah Montana now!" It's a surefire hit.