Report: "Coach" Kills Off Shelley Fabares

[JamesG]

"Coach" Shocker: NBC Revival Poised to Kill Off Shelley Fabares' Christine
by Michael Ausiello
July 28, 2015


It appears Hayden Fox’s wife will be warming the big bench in the sky when "Coach" returns to TV next season on NBC.

Barring an 11th-hour plot tweak, viewers will learn that the character of Christine, played by Shelley Fabares during the original sitcom’s nine-year run on ABC, passed away at some point during the intervening 18 years.



The new "Coach" series finds Craig T. Nelson’s Hayden being called out of retirement to serve as assistant coach to his and late wife Christine’s grown son, Tim, who is starting up a new team as the head coach at an Ivy League school in Pennsylvania.

Aside from Nelson, Bill Fagerbakke — AKA special teams coach Michael “Dauber” Dybinski — is the only other series vet currently attached to the new series.



NBC declined to comment on this story..

http://tvline.com/2015/07/28/coach-c...s-nbc-revival/

[Mr. Television]

Disgusting. This has flop written all over it. I can't stand when shows destroy their own legacy's.

[TMC]

http://www.tvinsider.com/article/397...-coach-reboot/

A Coach revival? The idea hadn't even crossed Barry Kemp’s mind.

Kemp, who created the Craig T. Nelson comedy (and earlier in his career, Newhart), was busy last year developing a new pilot, Sonny Young, for CBS through Warner Bros. Television. NBC executives, disappointed that they didn’t get a shot at Sonny Young, called Kemp last November with another idea: Would he consider updating Coach?

After getting a “yes,” NBC made a commitment to the revival–only to pull the plug several months later.

The sports comedy originally aired on ABC from 1989 to 1997, and although it continues to run in syndication, it hadn’t remained top-of-mind in the popular culture.

“It sort of made me laugh,” Kemp tells TV Insider of the idea. “Revisiting a show 20 years later was not on my radar. Seriously? And then I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

Kemp and Nelson, who starred as college football coach Hayden Fox in the original series, began meeting monthly to kick around ideas and discuss whether they really wanted to pursue a revival. “We didn’t want to tamper or hurt the original Coach,” he says.

Eventually, Kemp’s pilot was pushed, and NBC opted to end Nelson’s drama Parenthood, freeing both of them up to take an actual swing at the revival.

The goal: Stay loyal to the show’s original audience (now 20 years older) while also attracting new viewers who were too young to see the original. “The thing that made it problematic also made it creatively exciting,” Kemp says.

Nelson, who had mostly appeared on dramas in his post-Coach career, was also eager to get back in front of a studio audience. “He had the natural question, ‘Can I get back into this character?’ I told him, as I started writing Coach again, that part of it came fairly easy. I just heard his voice again. And [Nelson] didn’t have any trouble finding it as soon as he read it.”

By March, Kemp and Nelson were ready to pitch all four networks. NBC heard the idea first, and immediately promised a 13-episode production commitment. “[NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt] said, ‘I would put this on right now,’ and they took it off the table,” Kemp says. “We didn’t go anywhere else.”

Coach was part of a wave of revivals in the works, including Netflix’s Fuller House. In an age of too much TV, dusting off classic titles a familiar title makes it easier to promote and cut through the clutter. Having aired nearly 200 episodes in its original run, Coach is still familiar to viewers who watched it in the 1990s.

For NBC, the show seemed like a good fit: The network has been eager to get back into the multi-cam sitcom (complete with studio audience) business. And because the show is produced by NBC’s Universal TV arm, it revives a franchise that it owns in-house.

And then there’s the football element. “NBC has Sunday Night Football and I think they saw an opportunity to market it that way,” Kemp says of the network’s top-rated program. “If there’s anything different about Coach this time, the fear during the first run was that it would be a show about football and not have any female appeal. This time, they were very interested in having it have something to do with football. The world had changed since we began the series.”

The new show follows Hayden’s adopted son, Tim (seen at the end of the original series as a toddler), who has been tasked with launching a football program at the fictional Penn Institute (think M.I.T.). He’s talked into hiring his father as his head assistant, giving Hayden*–still living in a Minnesota cabin, and back to his old, gruff habits**–something to do a year after his wife Christine (played by Shelley Fabares in the original series) died.

“The more I thought about it, if Christine was still in his life, he wouldn't have a reason to slide back,” Kemp says of killing the character off. As for Fabares, “after I made the decision, unfortunately, the news of that got out faster than I could get to Shelley. We had a long and nice conversation. She was disappointed, but I think she was disappointed in the way she found out the news.”

Besides Nelson, Bill Fagerbakke was returning to the show as special teams coach Michael “Dauber” Dybinski, now married to another character from the original Coach, Judy Watkins, played by Pam Stone. Both Tim’s wife and Judy couldn't stand Hayden, setting up much conflict.

Kemp said he and Nelson also discussed inviting another original Coach star, Jerry Van Dyke (who played defensive coordinator Luther Van Dam), back as a guest in a holiday episode, had the show gone on to a second season.

The new Coach was set in Pennsylvania’s Brandywine Valley, which Kemp said he liked for the “whole American history aspect of it. The East Coast is hotbed of football but there are schools like MIT and Carnegie Mellon that have high academics and are not thought of as football factories. There is the reality of how much money is being made on college football now.”

Kemp shot the pilot twice in one day, once in the afternoon and once in the evening, with different audiences. “The evening filming was very much a Coach crowd and the show played great, with especially strong responses to Craig, Bill, and Pam, who were obviously all from the original cast,” Kemp says. “Craig received a standing ovation on his introduction and again at the end of the episode. It was a fun night.”

Season 1 of Coach, slated to air in midseason, would have followed the characters as they put the team together; Kemp had plans to use social media to determine a team name, colors and fight song. “It was designed to arc back and gear us up for a second season in the fall,” when the games would begin, Kemp says. Season 2 would see the games.

But then, in late summer, Kemp got the call that NBC decided not to move forward. According to network insiders, executives felt Kemp made the show that he wanted to make, and they were frustrated that he didn't pay attention to their notes. Ultimately they felt the show didn't feel like it was the right fit on NBC, and pulled the plug.

“We did have some creative differences, that is true,” Kemp says. “But by the same token, they also admitted that we delivered exactly what we said we would deliver. I think there were comments about it skewing older, although they knew it would. It wasn’t casting. Some millennials said it felt a little dated. It doesn't have the rhythm of shows on now, but it wasn't designed that way. It was designed to be a continuation of a show that was on earlier.”

Coach may still live on, however. As of press time, Kemp says there are three options still being explored for the revival. “I don't know if I’d say it’s ‘very much alive,’” he says, “but there seems to be some interest.” Other insiders, however, say it’s not looking likely. Stay tuned.

[king of comedy]

Good thing they didn't try to bring it back.

[Jamey Greek]

Originally Posted by TMC

http://www.tvinsider.com/article/397...-coach-reboot/

If I was head of ABC I would have snagged Coach and put it on at its old time slot 9:30 on Tuesday nights and have an I love the 90s block.

8:00 Goldbergs spinoff
8:30 Fresh off the boat
9:00 Roseanne reboot
9:30 Coach reboot

[JMidnight_99]

Originally Posted by Mr. Television

Disgusting. This has flop written all over it. I can't stand when shows destroy their own legacy's.

Out of curiosity, how would you know this? Your narrow mindedness is nauseating.

"Psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane returns to his home town of Seattle, Washington, following the end of his marriage and his life in Boston. His plans for a new life as a bachelor are challenged when he is obliged to take in his father, Martin who has mobility problems after being shot in the line of duty during a robbery.

Reading this as plans for a spin-off of Cheers, one could argue that this has "FLOP" written all over it. Instead it was one of the most successful, well written, critically acclaimed, award winning TV shows ever produced.

[Mr. Television]

Originally Posted by JMidnight_99

Out of curiosity, how would you know this? Your narrow mindedness is nauseating.

"Psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane returns to his home town of Seattle, Washington, following the end of his marriage and his life in Boston. His plans for a new life as a bachelor are challenged when he is obliged to take in his father, Martin who has mobility problems after being shot in the line of duty during a robbery.

Reading this as plans for a spin-off of Cheers, one could argue that this has "FLOP" written all over it. Instead it was one of the most successful, well written, critically acclaimed, award winning TV shows ever produced.

What does one have to do with the other? I knew Frasier was going to be a hit from the get go. Nobody knew anything about his family except he had told the gang from Cheers his father was dead. On the other hand everyone that was a Coach fan knew the characters and Shelley Fabares was a big reason the show was successful. To even consider killer her off was stupid. Luckily this Coach revival is dead. And thanks for bumping up a 2 year old thread to call me narrow minded. I'm honored

[JMidnight_99]

Originally Posted by Mr. Television

What does one have to do with the other? I knew Frasier was going to be a hit from the get go. Nobody knew anything about his family except he had told the gang from Cheers his father was dead. On the other hand everyone that was a Coach fan knew the characters and Shelley Fabares was a big reason the show was successful. To even consider killer her off was stupid. Luckily this Coach revival is dead. And thanks for bumping up a 2 year old thread to call me narrow minded. I'm honored

You don't know what will work, and what won't. Anyone can look at anything, and decide it "won't work", but the fact is, you don't know. Even the people who create shows for a living just take their shot and hope for the best.

I used "Frasier" to illustrate that (without the benefit of hindsight) one could read that series "pitch" and decide that formula would "never work". Frasier's gonna be divorced, live in Seattle, be a radio psychiatrist, live with his cranky, disabled father and wisecracking Hispanic housekeeper. Sounds like a variation of about 50 different crappy programs.

My initial response wasn't about Christine, it was to challenge your assertion that 'you' know what will succeed and what won't.

Not my original point, but perhaps the absence of Christine might have set up the entire situation for the new show. Older coach's wife dies so he moves in with his adult son. A lot more freedom for the characters to get into interesting situations, don't you agree? Replacing the chemistry with Jerry van Dyke would have been the real challenge.

In my opinion the Christine character was like the Roz character on Frasier. There for balance, but not a major contributing factor. I watched Coach to see him interact with Luther, insult Judy, referee everyone else's crazy antics, bang on the ceiling to summon Howard, be disgusted by his nerdy son-in-law... and even though Christine had her moments, she was there for balance, and... I'm sorry... like Roz, she really could have been anybody..

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by Mr. Television

What does one have to do with the other? I knew Frasier was going to be a hit from the get go. Nobody knew anything about his family except he had told the gang from Cheers his father was dead. On the other hand everyone that was a Coach fan knew the characters and Shelley Fabares was a big reason the show was successful. To even consider killer her off was stupid. Luckily this Coach revival is dead. And thanks for bumping up a 2 year old thread to call me narrow minded. I'm honored

There was just no excuse to shun both Shelley Fabares and Jerry Van Dyke in the proposed remake, since at that type they were alive and would no doubt have loved t be involved.

I have a hunch that some at NBC felt the same way, and the pilot just didn't hit the mark.

[PaperClips]

Originally Posted by Will Dockery

There was just no excuse to shun both Shelley Fabares and Jerry Van Dyke in the proposed remake, since at that type they were alive and would no doubt have loved t be involved.

I have a hunch that some at NBC felt the same way, and the pilot just didn't hit the mark.

Killing off Christine was a ridiculous idea. Jerry Van Dyke appeared in a few episodes of The Middle and physically, there was no way he was going to be able do to another show full-time, or even part-time.

[Will Dockery]

Originally Posted by PaperClips

Killing off Christine was a ridiculous idea. Jerry Van Dyke appeared in a few episodes of The Middle and physically, there was no way he was going to be able do to another show full-time, or even part-time.

Sorry to hear that Jerry Van Dyke had become too frail for the reunion, but I need to realize I'm in a time warp, watching 1989 episodes every night.

In real life, though, Christine is almost exactly the same age as Coach (two months older, I think it is) and killing her od was just crude.

Probably wanted to free Coach up so he could hook up with a younger woman later in the series, or something.