Younger MacGyver Reinvented at the WB
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) – The man who can short-circuit a nuclear missile with a paper clip and stop an acid leak with a candy bar is back — but this time in the guise of “Young MacGyver.”
The WB has made a production commitment with producer Paramount Network Television to pick up a new version of the action drama “MacGyver.” But the new version of the series will focus on MacGyver’s nephew. The original series starred Richard Dean Anderson and ran from Sept. 1985 to Aug. 1992.
“Young MacGyver” will follow the twentysomething hero as he leaves school and winds up joining the Phoenix Foundation — the good-guy organization his uncle belonged to — on a lark. Once there, he discovers that he’s incredibly adept at stepping into Uncle MacGyver’s shoes.
“Our MacGyver will be a little more irreverent than the original,” said Carolyn Bernstein, senior VP of drama development at the WB. “It will have a lot in terms of the same elements of the original series, but with a brand-new cast of characters and updated for present day,”
WB and Paramount plan to start casting for the new “Young MacGyver” shortly. It is targeted for a 2003 bow.
The original “MacGyver” was the last show to pop a solid number for ABC in the pre-“Monday Night Football” time slot. Indeed, Paramount first approached ABC about the “Young MacGyver” project, but the network passed.
“Young MacGyver” comes on the heels of another franchise that the WB reinvented with a young slant — the teenage Superman of “Smallville.”
“We would never look a gift horse in the mouth, if given a familiar, adored franchise that came our way and we could age down to make it appealing to our audience,” Bernstein said.
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