George Costanza’s favorite TV show is coming back with a modern twist.
Deadline is reporting that cult 1980s TV show The Greatest American Hero is being rebooted, again, at ABC. The original show was about an unassuming white man who was given an alien super suit that allowed him to save the world. This version has the same basic premise except that the lead character is “Meera, a 30-year-old Indian-American woman from Cleveland, whose talents include tequila drinking and karaoke and not much else.”
The half-hour, single-camera sitcom is being written and produced by Fresh Off the Boat’s Rachna Fruchbom. ABC has given it a put-pilot deal, which means it will at least air the first episode.
With superheroes being so popular these days, the show’s rights holders have tried to reboot it a few times in the past, including a version by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. None of them have made it to air. Making the lead a woman certainly distinguishes this take, though, and gives it a more updated feel. It also, in a way, ties into the original show—which ended with a finale that changed the plot to The Greatest American Heroine.
We just hope, no matter what happens with the show, it keeps the theme song, which has become more iconic than the show itself.
[Deadline]