'Battle Creek,' New CBS Series Set in Michigan Cereal Capital, Premieres

Dean Winters, left, and Josh Duhamel star in “Battle Creek,” which premieres Sunday on CBS. (Photo via CBS)

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A new Michigan-centric drama CBS is adding to its Sunday night lineup may be what Kellogg’s mascot Tony the Tiger would call “Grrrrreat.”

“Battle Creek,” a quirky drama set in the Michigan’s cereal city, premieres at 10 p.m., joining fan favorites “Madam Secretary” and “The Good Wife.”

The cop drama from “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan and “House” creator David Shore is based on a script Gilligan wrote more than a decade ago. CBS passed on it, but gave it a second look after “Breaking Bad’s” phenomenal success.

Set in the town made famous by the Kellogg’s cereal company, “Battle Creek” is the story of the awkward relationship between a rumpled town cop, Russ Agnew (played by Dean Winters of “Oz” and “30 Rock”), and a and sauve FBI agent from the Detroit bureau, Milt Chamberlain (“Transformers” star Josh Duhamel).

In one scene, the protagonists discuss human nature.

“In my experience, when you trust people, they trust you,” the FBI guy says.

“Have you actually met people?” the local detective mocks.

Shore is in charge of the show as Giligan focuses on the “Breaking Bad” spin-off, “Better Call Saul.”

”(Gilligan) gave me smart, clever, funny characters to work with. I’m having fun with that. It’s a CBS show, though, and I don’t mean that pejoratively,” Shore told the Detroit Free Press. “I just mean it’s different from what you can see, might see, on cable. ... But it has that same badge of intelligence and fun that you find in Vince’s other work.”

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Some of the episodes offer delicious wordplay, like one titled “Cereal Killer” in which someone wearing a Tom Cat mascot costume is shot. (No worries. It’s not, Tony the Tiger, a beloved Kellogg’s mascot embroiled in some real-life trouble.)

Other episodes feature the crime fighters trying to crack a maple syrup cartel, or attending a citywide breakfast that looks a lot like Kellogg’s annual breakfast celebration in the real Battle Creek.

“Part of my attraction to this (project) was my attraction to the Midwest and the values you see there,” said Shore, who grew up about two hours from metro Detroit in London, Ontario. “I don’t think London ... is that much different than Battle Creek, in a sense.”

He said the show will reflect the values that helped Michiganers and the Midwesterners pull through economic hardship.

“You’ve gone through some real economic hardships, real bad economic down times, and yet I find that the people who live there, there’s this hope at the core and there’s this sense of community and connection and loyalty and decency,” he said.

“They don’t get beaten down. I think I’m trying to put that at the core of this, too. It’s not just about crime and stuff like that. It’s about community.”