TJ
09-04-2002, 01:57 AM
Fox plows "Green Acres" idea for reality show
Fri Aug 30, 5:27 PM ET
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Heehaw, prime-time TV season is turning into what showbiz bible Daily Variety calls a "hickfest."
Days after CBS announced it was planning a new reality series inspired by "The Beverly Hillbillies" comes word that Fox is borrowing the concept of another classic rural sitcom, "Green Acres," for a show of its own.
A Fox spokesman said Friday that the network is developing a reality series that, like the original "Green Acres," turns the idea of the "The Beverly Hillbillies" on its head by transplanting upper-crust yuppie-types from the big city to a rural setting, surrounded by farm animals and plain folks with drawls and cute phrases like "Heehaw."
Cameras will follow members of an erstwhile high-society family, cut off from their luxury cars, health clubs and bank accounts, as they move into rustic new digs, go about finding work, buy groceries and generally hobnob with the hoi polloi.
Two days ago, CBS said its talent scouts were fanning out across the backwoods of America in search of a rural family willing to move into a Beverly Hills mansion for a separate show tentatively titled "The Real Beverly Hillbillies."
The "Green Acres" reality concept has been in development for several weeks by Bunim-Murray Productions, which makes MTV's "The Real World ( news - Y! TV)," Fox spokesman Scott Grogin said.
"I see a limo with a U-Haul attached," executive producer Jon Murray told Daily Variety. "There's going to be wonderful humor in this show, as there is with anyone who's a fish out of water. It's like when the first George Bush went to the supermarket and (apparently) didn't understand what a scanner was. It's a funny thing to watch."
Fox said the project was still in its early stages, with no time frame set for actual production or launch of the series.
Also unknown is whether the series will even use the name "Green Acres," as neither Fox nor Bunim-Murray owns rights to the title. Variety reported that the rights holders are represented by the Endeavor Agency.
"Green Acres," which aired from 1965 to 1971, starred Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a highly successful Manhattan lawyer and his glamorous wife who give up their cosmopolitan life and penthouse apartment to live on a farm near the fictional small town of Hooterville.
The show was closely intertwined with "Petticoat Junction," another rural sitcom spun off of "The Beverly Hillbillies," about a backwoods family from the Ozarks who strike oil and move their household -- farm animals and all -- into a BeverlyHills mansion next door to a greedy banker.
All three series aired on CBS during the 1960s.
Fox is owned by News Corp. Ltd. while CBS is a unit of Viacom Inc. Reuters/Variety
Fri Aug 30, 5:27 PM ET
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Heehaw, prime-time TV season is turning into what showbiz bible Daily Variety calls a "hickfest."
Days after CBS announced it was planning a new reality series inspired by "The Beverly Hillbillies" comes word that Fox is borrowing the concept of another classic rural sitcom, "Green Acres," for a show of its own.
A Fox spokesman said Friday that the network is developing a reality series that, like the original "Green Acres," turns the idea of the "The Beverly Hillbillies" on its head by transplanting upper-crust yuppie-types from the big city to a rural setting, surrounded by farm animals and plain folks with drawls and cute phrases like "Heehaw."
Cameras will follow members of an erstwhile high-society family, cut off from their luxury cars, health clubs and bank accounts, as they move into rustic new digs, go about finding work, buy groceries and generally hobnob with the hoi polloi.
Two days ago, CBS said its talent scouts were fanning out across the backwoods of America in search of a rural family willing to move into a Beverly Hills mansion for a separate show tentatively titled "The Real Beverly Hillbillies."
The "Green Acres" reality concept has been in development for several weeks by Bunim-Murray Productions, which makes MTV's "The Real World ( news - Y! TV)," Fox spokesman Scott Grogin said.
"I see a limo with a U-Haul attached," executive producer Jon Murray told Daily Variety. "There's going to be wonderful humor in this show, as there is with anyone who's a fish out of water. It's like when the first George Bush went to the supermarket and (apparently) didn't understand what a scanner was. It's a funny thing to watch."
Fox said the project was still in its early stages, with no time frame set for actual production or launch of the series.
Also unknown is whether the series will even use the name "Green Acres," as neither Fox nor Bunim-Murray owns rights to the title. Variety reported that the rights holders are represented by the Endeavor Agency.
"Green Acres," which aired from 1965 to 1971, starred Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a highly successful Manhattan lawyer and his glamorous wife who give up their cosmopolitan life and penthouse apartment to live on a farm near the fictional small town of Hooterville.
The show was closely intertwined with "Petticoat Junction," another rural sitcom spun off of "The Beverly Hillbillies," about a backwoods family from the Ozarks who strike oil and move their household -- farm animals and all -- into a BeverlyHills mansion next door to a greedy banker.
All three series aired on CBS during the 1960s.
Fox is owned by News Corp. Ltd. while CBS is a unit of Viacom Inc. Reuters/Variety