There’s about to be a lot more Groundhog Day to watch over…and over…and over again. Appearing on The Production Meeting Podcast, Stephen Tobolowsky—who played Ned! Ryerson! aka Needlenose Ned aka Ned the Head—revealed that he’s said yes to reprising his role in a TV adaptation of Harold Ramis’ iconic 1993 film.
“There’s talk about a Groundhog Day series in the works,” he told the podcast. “One of the producers, I was working on Goldbergs or Schooled—one of the shows over on the Sony lot—and one of them saw me and goes, ‘Oh, Stephen! Stephen! We’re working on a Groundhog Day TV show, could you be Ned for the TV show?’ I go ‘Sure, yeah, no problem!’…But it’s Ned 30 years later. What has his life become?”
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While Tobolowsky didn’t share any more details about the series, it sounds like the TV Groundhog Day would be a sequel to the original film, rather than an adaptation. As for whether the actor will be returning in a starring capacity (or just in a fan-pleasing cameo), that remains to be seen. It’s also unknown, at this point, whether Bill Murray is involved at all, but considering Phil was trapped in Punxsutawney for 10 long years, we wouldn’t be upset if he gently turned it down. (Andie MacDowell, who played Rita Hanson, also said in 2018 that Murray is “never going to do” a Groundhog Day sequel.)
If made, this wouldn’t be the only Groundhog Day adaptation out there. There’s also a musical, as well as a video game sequel (playable in VR!) centered around Phil Connors’ son.
I’m not sure how good of a thing a series would be – the movie captured something special – but I will never say no to more Stephen Tobolowsky.
I would be down for a miniseries about Ned stuck in a time loop, learning how to be less annoying. And the show must be called “Bing Again!”
My joke is that the studio should do a massive ad campaign for Groundhog’s Day 2 and the re-release the original movie.
Uh . . . .no.
A Ned-perspective time loop would be great, and then incorporate all of the filmed encounters with Phil on the street corner as part of Ned’s own looping. And Ned’s moral lesson isn’t to be less annoying (because “annoying” is really subjective) but to learn his own version of empathy. As a salesman, he’s probably accustomed to just bombarding his targets with word salads and relentlessness (“Ned the Bull,” after all), and he’s probably carried that over to his personal life, making it even more of a shambles.
Ned starts to learn to pull back on that aggressiveness, gain more satisfaction in life while learning that his clients are real people with real worries, and adjust his insurance sales tactics to not just make another sale but to actually care for his fellow humans by using the system he’s practiced since high school when he dated Phil’s sister Mary Pat until he was told not to.
Of course, I’m just another loser on the Internet with his own ideas on how movies should be written with zero experience or influence, so what do I know?