"Cupid" lasted only 15 episodes during the 1998-99 season, but it attracted a cult aud and helped establish series creator-exec producer Thomas as a TV player. Scribe said he didn't intentionally decide to resurrect his first big series.
"For the last couple years, I've been talking to ABC about how to do an anthological romantic comedy a la 'Cupid' or 'Love Boat,' " Thomas said. "We kept beating around ideas and kept coming back to 'Cupid' as the best of the group. So they said to me, 'Why not go back and do 'Cupid' again?"
Thomas said he was "shocked" by the request -- in a good way.
"I'm getting a chance to do what writers never get the chance to do, which is to go back and try" to improve a work, he added.
Scribe said that while he'll write a completely new pilot, "I'm not going to reinvent it. What they're buying is the show."
There will be changes, of course.
For one thing, Piven, busy on "Entourage," won't be reprising his role. Thomas also wants to come up with a main title sequence that captures the show's conceit so he doesn't have to explain it every week.
New "Cupid" will also relocate from Chicago to Los Angeles, allowing for more high-profile stunt casting.
"The plan is to try to hook some really good guest stars every week," Thomas said.
Original skein also starred Paula Marshall as a court-appointed shrink trying to help Piven's character work through his Cupid issues. That doctor character will also return, though Thomas still isn't revealing the answer to one of the skein's enduring mysteries: Whether Piven's character really is Cupid or is just a bit nuts.
"If we make it into syndication, this time I promise that I'll answer the question," Thomas said.
Crazy.
Cupid was/is an awesome show, but...wow.
We are just...
I have...
Wow. Just wow.
5 comments:
Geez. Well, maybe we'll finally get a DVD Of the original.
BTW, this brings up the opportunity for me to dredge up my favorite Cupid-related usenet post from series writer Ron Osborn, explaining why he wasn't upset that the show had been canceled (emphasis mine):
Appreciate the concern, but we have been off Cupid since the 9th episode, due to..."creative differences" with its pathological star. In fact, Jeff and I couldn't hear the phone ringing yesterday for all the partying going on in our offices upon hearing the news.
I quite liked Cupid the first time but never had any idea when it was going to be on air.
So much for that Fitzgerald chestnut about there being no second acts in American lives. Very unusual.
Um, yeah. I'm trying to think of something crazier, but off the top of my head, not managing it.
I've been aware of this for a couple days...due to the WTF-ing of several diehard Cupid fans of my acquaintance.
It's particularly bizarre at the top of a season where you can't turn around without bumping into a column or blog post about "Hey, remember when these were called Quantum Leap and Jake 2.0 and Brimstone?"
Remakes/"reimaginings" are invariably about recycling just the bits of the original that someone liked anyway. Just do that in a new show, for heaven's sake. It's not like anyone's going to stop you. (Well, maybe if you're involved with New Amsterdam, but that's a whole different can o'worms...)
Didn't someone say something about there be only a certain amount of original stories, anyway? All the rest of them are different executions of those original stories.
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