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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - TV veteran Richard L. Bare, who directed all 168 episodes of CBS' 1960s sitcom "Green Acres," said he has acquired the rights to remake the series for TV from the widow of "Acres" creator Jay Sommers.
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Bare hopes the classic TV series will appeal to the networks, which are short of original material as the Writers Guild of America enters its third week Monday.
"Studios are going to be searching for properties that have been written and ready to go into production without upsetting WGA in any way," Bare said.
The pilot script, written by veteran scribe William Justice Forbes, takes place a month after the 1971 finale of the series, which starred Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a New York attorney and his wife who try to live as genteel farmers in the bizarre community of Hooterville.
Bare also has scouted locations and has hired a casting director to find "lookalikes" for the remake.
The "Green Acres" concept has been revisited several times over the years, most recently as a reality project developed for Fox in 2002 by Bunim-Murray, the producers of MTV's "Real World" series. The syndication rights to the original series are owned by MGM.
Considering the show hasn't been on the air for a decade, even on TV Land, those syndication rights are worth slightly less than a half-eaten Snickers bar.
When told of this news, an unidentified young boy said that it smelled "goddamned gay." This reporter is inclined to agree, as she is sure you all will.
