For a 95-year-old, Norman Lear is still kicking truly shocking amounts of ass. He’s launched a new podcast, guest-starred on The Simpsons, and is still involved with the excellent Netflix remake of his series One Day At A Time. All this, and now he’s recruiting an iconic comedic actor into his brand-new show.
The comedy pilot Guess Who Died is in development at NBC, and it looks like a DeLorean just pulled up at the studio lot, because The Hollywood Reporter announces that Christopher Lloyd has joined the cast of the new show. The actor, who recently appeared on The Big Bang Theory and 12 Monkeys (but more importantly, starred in the horror film I Am Not A Serial Killer, which is quite good and you should definitely watch), would be making his first series regular role since 2005's godawful Stacked, should the pilot get picked up for a full season.
Guess Who Died is a single-camera comedy based on Lear’s own experiences, albeit more about the pains of aging than being arguably the single most important figure in the history of the American sitcom. Set in a senior center in Palm Springs, it follows Murray (Hector Elizondo), a retired music exec focused on staying positive, and his ex-flight attendant sister (Holland Taylor). Lloyd will play Mort, a “crusty and grumpy guy who is puttering along slowly in his golf cart…He’s a man of mystery and wealth.” While it doesn’t say anything about him also traveling back to 1885 in order to invent a time-traveling locomotive, let’s just go ahead and assume that’s what is meant by the “mystery” in his character.
The pilot was co-written by Lear and Peter Tolan, and has been a longtime passion project for the iconic TV producer. Presumably, by the time he turns 96, Lear will also be launching a new streaming service, hang-gliding in the Adirondacks, and building a perpetual-motion machine out of balsa wood, but let’s try not fault him too much for being so goddamn lazy.