Never Mind “What About Bob?”, Here Comes “What About Barb?”

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In a time when gender fluidity seems to be more and more in the news, we see that it can happen with intellectual properties as well. NBC is planning gender reassignment for the premise of the 1991 Bill Murray hit movie, What About Bob? and the network plans on transitioning it not only from male to female, but also from movie to television with a new comedy TV series, What About Barb?.

If that wasn’t confusing enough. What About Bob? which just celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, is a property of ABC Studios which will produce the single-camera TV series for airing on NBC. According to the Hollywood Reporter, other than it becoming a “female-driven comedy” with women in the lead roles, the original idea will stay intact; “the comedy revolves around a psychotherapist who tries to cut ties with her most overbearing patient but is unsuccessful and gains an annoying family member in the process.”

The writing and producing team behind “Barb” , Joe Port and Joe Wiseman are no strangers to rebooting previously successful properties. They’re consulting producers on CBS’ The Odd Couple starring Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon. They were also part of the creative force behind The Crazy Ones starring Robin Williams, New Girl on FOX and 1600 Penn starring Josh Gad. As for NBC, they’re desire to get into the re-imagined comedy game was revealed when it was announced last week that the network was bringing back the hit sitcom Will & Grace for a 10 episode season. That series originally wrapped up 11 years ago.

It will be interesting to see how What About Barb? will be received considering how popular the Bill Murray – Richard Dreyfuss comedy directed by Frank Oz was over a quarter-of-a-century ago while also considering the online backlash that erupted when another popular Bill Murray comedy was rebooted with an all new female cast in last year’s Ghostbusters directed by Paul Feig. Baby steps people. Baby steps.

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Ernie Tripper

Ernie Tripper