ABC has ordered a new pilot from The Goldbergs creator Adam Goldberg, about an adult woman who starts talking to her childhood imaginary friend again as she copes with the pressures of being a grown-up. And while the cynics in the audience might point out that that’s pretty much the exact same plot as the 1991 Rik Mayall vehicle Drop Dead Fred—a fact that might lead Goldberg into yet more exciting Twitter fights, this time with a righteously furious Phoebe Cates—the new series will presumably take a unique, Goldbergian spin on the premise.
It’s not like “adult talks to imaginary friend” is all that fresh of an idea, anyway; otherwise, why would NBC be developing a comedy with Sean Hayes with that exact same premise? (Said project gets bonus points for literally being called Imaginary Friend, the original title for Goldberg and co-writer David Guaracio’s original pitch.) Despite our degrees in pop-cultural armchair psychoanalyzing, we hesitate to guess why Hollywood is suddenly so interested in watching adults regress into safe childhood fantasy; it’s possible that the entertainment industry is just looking to make up for the crippling, delight-hemorrhaging whimsy gap that’s been looming since Best Time Ever went off the air.