‘Groundhog Day’ TV Series In Development, According To Stephen Tobolowsky
OK campers, rise and shine: aGroundhog DayTV show is evidently in the works.
ActorStephen Tobolowsky, who played Ned Ryerson in Harold Ramis’s 1993 time loop classic film, revealed in a new interview that aGroundhog Dayseries is in development. Not only that, but Tobolowsky has agreed to reprise the role of Ned Ryerson (AKA Needlenose Ned, AKA Ned the Head) should the series actually make it into production. Read his quotes below.
On the new episode ofThe Production Meeting Podcast(viaComingSoon), Tobolowsky – the famous character actor, author, and podcaster who has appeared in well over 250 films and TV shows – revealed the news about a potentialGroundhog Dayshow.
“There’s talk about aGroundhog Dayseries in the works,” he said. “One of the producers – I was working onThe Goldbergsor [the spin-off series]Schooled, one of those shows over on the Sony lot, and one of the producers saw me and goes, ‘Oh, Stephen! Stephen! We’re working on aGroundhog DayTV show. Could you be Ned for the TV show?’ I go, ‘Sure. Yeah. No problem.’…But it’s Ned thirty years later. What has his life become?”
It seems incredibly unlikely that Bill Murray, who starred in the movie version, would return to star in aGroundhog Dayshow. I could maybe see him making a cameo, if he likes the people involved behind the scenes. (By the way, we have no idea which producers are involved in this sequel series, who would be creating the show, writing it, showrunning it, etc.)
If Murray is not involved in a major capacity, that means a different character will get caught in a time loop instead…because aGroundhog Dayseries without the time loop premise just wouldn’t beGroundhog Day. Let’s go ahead and assume that Ned Ryerson won’t be the main character of the show, and that Punxsutawney is once again the center of a time vortex. Last year, aGroundhog Daysequelwas released as a virtual reality game. It was calledGroundhog Day: Like Father Like Son, and in it, Murray’s character’s son is the one who’s caught in a time loop. Might the series be taking that approach?
Meanwhile, whatdoesNed Ryerson’s life look like thirty years later? What kind of impact did that encounter with Phil Connors have on him and the rest of the people of Punxsutawney? I suspect we’ll find out. While the movie popularized the idea of living in the same day over and over again, this show will have to contend with the impact the movie has had on pop culture – it won’t be the only thing on the block to have that format. The upcoming Hulu moviePalm Springsfeatures a similar concept, and Netflix’sRussian Dollbrilliantly used that construct for its own storytelling, just to name a few. AGroundhog DayTV show has a higher bar to clear now than if it had come out immediately in the wake of the movie, so let’s hope whoever is behind this series is up to the task of clearing it.
