EXCLUSIVE: Hulu is developing Stay Tuned, a comedy series headlined and executive produced by Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells.
Loosely based on the 1992 cult classic film of the same name starring John Ritter and Pam Dawber, Stay Tuned was created by Akiva Goldsman, Jordan Cahan, and Greg Lessans, with Cahan set as showrunner. in the TV series take, Rannells and Gad will find themselves trapped on the wrong side of the screen and forced to navigate their way through TV’s most binge-worthy obsessions.
Gad and Rannells executive produce alongside Goldsman and Lessans via Weed Road Productions, Morgan Creek’s James G. Robinson & David Robinson, and Aaron Semmel.
Morgan Creek produced the movie, directed by Peter Hyams, which stars Ritter and Dawber as a suburban couple who are unwittingly transported into their television by a Satan emissary and must survive 24 hours of being bounced from one dangerous situation to another inside various films and TV shows.
Tony-nominated actors Gad and Rannells have been close friends since starring together on Broadway in the 2011 hit musical The Book of Mormon. They reunited for the 2023 musical Gutenberg! The Musical. This marks their first on-screen collaboration beyond their cameos in History of the World, Part II alongside about 100 other actors.
“For over a decade Andrew and I have been the Laverne and Shirley of our generation (according to our mothers.),” Gad said. “It only makes sense to now do a TV series where we can literally do an episode as ‘Laverne and Shirley’ (assuming the rights to those characters aren’t prohibitively expensive and that the algorithm rewards ‘Laverne and Shirley’ viewership.)”
Added Rannells, “Personally, Josh and I have always reminded me more of a Sam and Diane or at times a Cagney and Lacey, but either way, I am thrilled we are reuniting once again! This time with Akiva, Greg and Jordan, who seem even more unhinged than we are.”
This also marks a reunion between Cahan and Rannells after working together on Showtime’s Black Monday. Cahan co-created and executive produced the series, in which Rannells starred opposite Don Cheadle and Regina Hall, earning a Critics Choice Award nomination.
Known for his role in HBO’s Girls opposite Lena Dunham, Rannells recently reunited with her in her Netflix comedy series Too Much. On Hulu, he previously recurred on limited series Welcome to Chippendales. In features, Rannells most recently starred in I Don’t Understand You with Nick Kroll, and in Paul Feig’s Another Simple Favor on Prime Video opposite Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively. He will next be seen in Jim Rash’s film Miss You, Love You opposite Allison Janney, and co-hosting The Great American Baking Show for Roku. Rannells is repped by UTA, Rise Management, and Hansen Jacobsen Teller.
Gad, best known for voicing Olaf in Disney’s blockbuster Frozen animated franchise, will next be seen in the Marvel limited series for Disney+ Wonder Man. He has several features coming up, Nora Kirkpatrick’s A Tree Fell In the Woods, in which he stars opposite Alexandra Daddario, Daveed Diggs and Ashley Park, Alex Winter’s Adulthood, which is slated to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, as well as the third movie in The Angry Birds animated franchise, in which he reprises his voice role as Chuck. Gad is repped by CAA, Range, and Johnson Shapiro Slewett and Kole.
Goldsman, Oscar winner for A Beautiful Mind, has written/co-written such features as Batman Forever, Practical Magic, I Am Legend, The Da Vinci Code and I, Robot. His upcoming films include Brilliance, Major Matt Mason, and the sequels to Constantine, which his company Weed Road Pictures produced, and Practical Magic, now filming. In TV, he has been working on the Star Trek franchise for Paramount+, including Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which he co-created. He also created and executive produced the Apple limited series The Crowded Room starring Tom Holland. Series in the works include Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants, and The Time Tunnel. Goldsman is repped by CAA, TFC Management, and Hansen Jacobsen Teller.
Lessans has been President of Production of Goldsman’s Weed Road pictures since 2015. The company’s recent credits include Peacock’s Meet Cute, starring Pete Davidson and Kaley Cuoco, Netflix’s animated hit Back to the Outback, and Amma Asante’s upcoming Billion Dollar Spy, starring Russell Crowe and Harry Lawtey. He also moonlights as a writer, penning the story for Outback and co-writing two episodes of The Crowded Room with Goldsman.
Cahan also co-created and ran Champaign ILL for YouTube Premium starring Adam Palley and Sam Richardson. Through Goldsman’s Weed Road Productions, he also is writing an animated feature for Michael B Jordan through Warner Brothers on the feature side. Cahan is repped by Rise Management, UTA, and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols.
Morgan Creek previously set up a Stay Tuned TV series adaptation at AMC Studios in 2020 with different creative auspices. The company is repped by Uri Fleming.
