With Last Vegas grossing nearly $20 million already at the box office since its release last weekend, it seems there's an audience for comedies centered on an older generation of characters. Of course, the all-star cast for the film probably didn’t hurt. Still, how would a concept like that translate to television? ABC may be looking to find out, as the network has put a ensemble comedy into development that would center on people in retirement age. If you’re thinking The Golden Girls, you may be on the right track, though this one would look at the male side of things.
Deadline reports that The Neighbors creator Dan Fogelman and The George Lopez Show co-creator Robert Borden are teaming up for an ABC comedy that revolves around three long-lost basketball teammates who reconnect in their 60s and find out they still have a lot to learn about love and friendship. Perhaps some unresolved issues between these three? That’s always good for a bit of conflict to get things going.
Deadline lists a number of recent examples of TV shows and movies featuring stars over 60 and the success they've had finding an audience, but I’m skeptical on the concept, at least on paper. For one thing, it's set up at ABC, a network that has seen notable success among their family-focused comedies, but not so much with their friends-focused comedies. In fact, most of the comedies the network airs now center on family (The Middle, Modern Family, The Goldbergs, etc) while the lone friends-focused comedy Super Fun Night is struggling. With that said, the over-60 twist to this concept could change the game there.
But then I think about CBS’ We Are Men, which was one of the first new series to be cancelled this year. Granted, only one of the titular men was older (Tony Shalhoub, 60) but the group-of-men scenario didn’t work out in that case. Still, for every example of a show that didn’t work, there’s an example of a show that does. A lot of it comes down to good writing, good casting and chemistry. And that’s something that can be achieved no matter the age of the cast members. With that said, Deadline’s not wrong in pointing out that the baby boomer generation is retiring and there may very well be a growing audience for entertainment featuring more mature stars. It’s also well worth noting that the audience for NBC’s beloved Golden Girls series wasn’t all seniors. People of all ages loved that show because it was funny and the cast was charming. It doesn’t really take much more than that for a TV show to hit.
It sounds like this comedy is still in the early stages of development, but it’ll be interesting to see who’s cast in it, should it go to pilot.
