A “Young Frankenstein” TV series is in the works, and I’ve never needed anything more.
Jewish comedy legend Mel Brooks may be 94, but he is currently on a rampage, giving all his biggest hits a second life. In 2023, he gave us “A History of the World, Part II,” and Josh Gad recently shared a first teaser of his and Brooks’ “Spaceballs” sequel. And now, it seems a spin-off of another crowd favorite might be coming, if all goes well, pu, pu, pu, kinehora.
The 1974 hit “Young Frankenstein,” a delightful spoof of classic horror movies, was co-written by Brooks and Gene Wilder, the latter of whom starred as Dr. Fredrick Frankenstein (Jewishly pronounced as Fronk-en-steen), the grandson of the infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein. He inherits his grandfather’s Transylvanian castle and, unbeknownst to him, the monster inside. It starred the hilarious Marty Feldman as hunchback servant Igor, Madeline Kahn as Frederick’s fiancé, Cloris Leachman as Frau Blücher, the estate’s housekeeper and Peter Boyle as the Monster. Brooks himself appeared in it as, among other things, the voice of Victor Frankenstein.
The new series, called “Very Young Frankenstein,” with Brooks as an executive producer, is currently under development at FX. According to The Hollywood Reporter, details about the show are currently being kept under wraps, but it is “close to scoring a pilot order at the Disney-owned outlet.” We are assuming it will follow the descendant of the late and great Wilder’s character, but there’s not much we know about it yet.
What we do know is that there’s an exciting team behind this project. Aside from Brooks, Michael Gruskoff, who was an executive producer on the original movie, is currently signed on, as is Jewish Maori director Taika Waititi, Garrett Basch and Stefani Robinson, who is set to take on the mantle of showrunner. Waititi, Basch and Robinson previously worked together on the brilliant vampire comedy series “What We Do in the Shadows,” which is based on the 2014 cult hit movie of the same name that Waititi and Jemaine Clement created.
There’s absolutely no better team to work on this project, as they already have a critically acclaimed oh-so-funny show about supernatural beings under their belt. If this new show moves forward, I bet it will be truly sensational. Here’s hoping!
