Frank Langella (The Americans) has signed on as a series regular opposite Jim Carrey and Catherine Keener in the upcoming Showtime half-hour comedy Kidding.

Created by Dave Holstein and directed by Carrey’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind helmer Michel Gondry, the 10-episode Kidding centers on Jeff, aka Mr. Pickles (Carrey), an icon of children’s television, a beacon of kindness and wisdom to America’s impressionable young minds and the parents who grew up with him – who also anchors a multimillion dollar branding empire. But when this beloved personality’s family (wife, two sons, sister and father) begins to implode, Jeff finds no fairy tale or fable or puppet will guide him through this crisis, which advances faster than his means to cope. The result: A kind man in a cruel world faces a slow leak of sanity as hilarious as it is heartbreaking.

Langella will play Seb, the man who built Jeff’s show from a school project to a nationally syndicated cultural touchstone with a multimillion-dollar merchandising empire. He must balance a growing concern for Jeff with the need to keep his onscreen persona from radically changing.

Carrey executive produces with Gondry, Jason Bateman, Jim Garavente, Raffi Adlan, Michael Aguilar and Holstein who serves as showrunner.

Langella received Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA and SAG Award noms for his role as Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon. Emmy-nominated for I, Leonardo: A Journey of the Mind, Langella recurs as Russian handler Gabriel on The Americans, which returns in March for its sixth and final season on FX. He’s repped by ICM Partners and Circle of Confusion.