Green Acres Seizes Opportunity Amidst Writers Strike

LOS ANGELES, November 19:
After acquiring the rights to remake the 1960s sitcom Green Acres, Richard L. Bare, who directed all 168 episodes of
the original series, believes the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike
will increase demand for the updated version of the comedy.

As the WGA strike enters
its third week today, the networks are short of original programming. Bare
hopes this opens a door for the new series. “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 was quoted in The Hollywood Reporter.

Bare picked up the rights
to remake the series for TV from the widow of Green Acres’ creator Jay Sommers. The pilot script takes place
a month after the 1971 finale of the series, and is written by William Justice
Forbes. The original Green Acres starred
Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a New York attorney and his wife who try to live
as farmers in a town called Hooterville. Bare has hired a casting director to find “look-alikes” for the
remake and has also sought out shooting locations.

The Green Acres concept was most recently developed as a reality
project for Fox in 2002 by Bunim-Murray, the producers of MTV's Real World series. MGM owns the syndication rights to the
original series.

—By Ned Berke