In a competitive situation, Showtime has landed Dice, a single-camera scripted comedy starring controversial actor-comedian Andrew Dice Clay, with a six-episode straight-to-series order.

Created and written by Scot Armstrong (Old School, The Hangover Part II), Dice, from Fox 21 TV Studios, chronicles “the semi-true stories of Andrew Dice Clay, one of the most polarizing men on the planet.” It follows the comedian as he works in Las Vegas to resurrect his career while supporting his family. And his girlfriend. And his ex-fiancée. And his ex-wife. And his mother-in-law. And his son’s band. Sean Furst, Bryan Furst, Richard Shepard, Bruce Rubenstein, Clay and Armstrong serve as executive producers. Production is slated to begin this year for a 2016 premiere.

“We realized there was a lot of humor and heart in the story of a once-superstar comedian having to crawl back to have a career — a true second act,” said Fox 21 TV Studios President Bert Salke.

Added Showtime’s EVP Original Programming Gary Levine: “Love him or hate him, Dice is a true original, and Dice is always funny. Plus, we were looking to do a semi-autobiographical comedy about a one-named icon and Cher was busy.”

Dice expands Fox 21’s relationship with Showtime, where the studio has flagship drama Homeland. The company funded a presentation for Dice, which was taken out, garnering interest from multiple networks. In addition to Dice, Showtime also has picked up a comedy special, Andrew Dice Clay Presents the Blue Show, set to debut April 25.

Clay’s acting career has picked up in the past couple of years. He was in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, on the final season of HBO’s Entourage and appeared in NBC’s The Blacklist. Clay also is slated to co-star on the upcoming Martin Scorsese/Mick Jagger/Terence Winter Rock ‘n’ Roll drama series for Showtime rival HBO, which I hear also pursued Dice. Sources indicate that Clay is legally clear to do both shows, though time will tell if that will be the case. A few years back, HBO suspended Liev Schreiber as the voice of its sports documentaries when he signed on as the lead in the Showtime drama pilot Ray Donovan. He subsequently was reinstated.

Adding more half-hour comedies has been a priority for Showtime, which has new half-hour series Happyish coming out this year.

In the late 1980s and early ’90s, Clay was banned from MTV, radio and TV shows after women’s rights groups objected to his use of explicit language and sexist humor. He is repped by Gersh, manager Bruce Rubenstein and attorney Karl Austen. Armstrong is repped by CAA and attorney Ken Richman.