Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells To Adapt Cult John Ritter Film for Hulu

In the days of old, when a giant tube television babysat my brothers and me, I was exposed to lots of entertainment that I would never see again. Hell, sometimes, I didn’t even know the name of what I was watching. My viewing habits were at the mercy of whoever programmed afternoon movies. There was no streaming, searching, or even an on-TV channel guide (we would occasionally receive TV Guides, but I didn’t spend a moment of my childhood using them for their intended purpose). Instead, some movies or shows would wash right over me, and others would stick in my brain for years, like a vague nightmare.

I knew some of the more impactful movies. Jeff Goldblum snapping a bar patron’s wrist in David Cronenberg’s The Fly was burned into my psyche, but my dad was there to tell me what the movie was. One movie saw a jock boyfriend get melted(?) into the floor of a basement while calling out to his menacing girlfriend for help to no avail. That was imprinted in my brain for decades until I could finally string the right combination of words together and realize it happens in the sixth Amityville Horror movie, subtitled It’s About Time. I finally got to revisit it, which took away some of its trauma-inducing power. A John Ritter movie from 1992 gave me a similar experience.

This was another movie that I only saw once but remembered vividly. Ritter played a run-of-the-mill husband who was trapped with his wife in some sort of hellish series of sketches. Jeffery Jones was chasing them and/or trying to kill them. At one point, Ritter is stuck talking to a demonic Wayne and Garth. I thought about it for years, but never thought to seek it out. Then, my wife and I were locked in our apartment like (mostly) everybody else, scrolling through Amazon, and there it was: Stay Tuned.

We watched the movie about Ritter and his family receiving a demonic satellite dish (muahahaha) that ends up sucking them into their beloved television. They become closer, or something, as Jeffery Jones’ devil tries to claim their souls, I think. Ironically, I remember it less since rewatching it, because it was okay at best. It makes sense that it stuck in the brain of a five or six-year-old, but, as an adult staring down a potentially world-ending scenario, it kind of washed over me, and I didn’t think about it again until I opened Deadline this morning.

Stay Tuned is getting a television remake starring Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells. The friends have co-starred in two Broadway shows and are now bringing their friendship and partnership to Hulu. The loose adaptation of the show was created by Akiva Goldsman, Jordan Cahan, and Greg Lessans. Cahan will be the showrunner. If the inclusion of Akiva Goldsman makes you nervous, don’t worry, it’s not just you. Just take a look at his work if you don’t know what I’m talking about, and don’t get distracted by the Oscar.

Rannells and Gad both gave television-related statements on the project. “For over a decade, Andrew and I have been the Laverne & Shirley of our generation (according to our mothers),” Gad said. “It only makes sense to now do a TV series where we can literally do an episode as Laverne & Shirley (assuming the rights to those characters aren’t prohibitively expensive and that the algorithm rewards Laverne & Shirley viewership).” Rannells joined in, saying, “Personally, Josh and I have always reminded me more of a Sam and Diane or at times a Cagney and Lacey, but either way, I am thrilled we are reuniting once again! This time with Akiva, Greg and Jordan, who seem even more unhinged than we are.”

Goldsman aside, I think this adaptation has a lot of potential. Two people getting stuck in a nightmarish television landscape is a fun idea. It also helps that, since it’s through Hulu, it’s basically a Disney production, so they will have rights to all sorts of TV shows. Laverne & Shirley was on ABC! Gad’s mother’s wish could come true! But then the question becomes, what kind of TV landscape are they stuck in? Because reruns of ’70s sitcoms that were spinoffs of other ’70s sitcoms don’t exactly get a heavy rotation these days.