Groundhog Day TV Series Reportedly in the Works

Groundhog Day, the beloved comedy directed by the late Harold Ramis and starring his Ghostbusters castmate Bill Murray, is apparently being developed for television, according to an actor who was approached to reprise his movie role in the show. On the new episode of The Production Meeting Podcast, veteran character actor Stephen Tobolowsky said that a producer had recently approached him on the Sony lot and, while he was working on another series, inquired about his interest in reprising the role of Ned Ryerson, his memorable (and slightly grating) character from the original film if a TV series actually materializes.

There are no deatils, other than the fact that a show is apparently in development. While Tobolowsky as Ned seems to imply that it will be a continuation of the original film’s plot, it’s safe to assume that Bill Murray is very unlikely to appear, which means it would either have to follow a new character or recast Phil Connors. Slashfilm notes that a mobile game released in 2019 centered around Phil’s son going through a similar experience to the one his father had, which seems like a possible solution.

“There’s talk about a Groundhog Day series in the works,” Tobolowsky said on the podcast. “One of the producers – I was working on The Goldbergs or Schooled, one of those shows over on the Sony lot, and one of the producers 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 thirty years later. What has his life become?”

Groundhog Day, released in 1993, centered on Pittsburgh weatherman Connors (Murray), who is forced into a thankless assignment covering the Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney. When he’s snowed in by a blizzard, he wakes up the next morning only to find that he is reliving the same day over again. This happens again and again in a time loop, while Phil figures out how to be a better person, falls in love, and ultimately is released from the time loop by whatever cosmic karma had put him there.

The movie turned out to be a huge success. Recently, a fan-favorite episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow referenced it when one of the show’s time-traveling superheroes was caught in a time loop of her own.

Other feature films to be given the TV series treatment in recent years have included Rush Hour, Lethal Weapon, and Limitless.