Katie Couric Pitches Morning News Comedy Parody With Michelle Pfeiffer
Katie Couric is planning a new direction for her career. She’s on board to be the executive producer of a comedy series centered around a fictional morning news program. The show will feature Michelle Pfeiffer as the leading anchor, essentially filling the role Couric held on Today.
According to TV Line, Michelle Pfeiffer and Katie Couric are working with the show’s creator, Diane English, to sell the show to either HBO, Showtime, AMC, Netflix, or Amazon.
Diane English is best known as the creator of Murphy Brown, a scripted comedy series centered around another fake news show. The show starred Candice Burgen and ran from 1988 to 1998. Since the end of Murphy Brown, English hasn’t been particularly active in entertainment, save a credit in the movie The Women.
Katie Couric seems like an odd fit for a fictional comedy show, but her experience on Today could be invaluable. Variety reports that she’s attached to make the show more realistic, although the storylines will not be drawn from Couric’s individual experiences.
Michelle Pfeiffer is also coming out of left field. The actress has an incredible film career, including starring roles in Dangerous Minds and What Lies Beneath, but not much time on the small screen. If the comedy show moves forward, it will be her first leading role in a TV series.
Eric and Kim Tannenbaum from Two and a Half Men are also attached as executive producers, according to Variety.
Katie Couric’s pitch comes at a troubled time for news-based comedy. Jon Stewart will be leaving the Daily Show at the end of this year. Stephen Colbert ended his show last year. However, Couric isn’t the only hope for news satire.
Patrick Stewart will star in the new Starz series Blunt Talk about a cable news blowhard with a drug problem and a bad attitude. Seth MacFarlane will be the executive producer for that series, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Likewise, Comedy Central recently announced Trevor Noah will be taking over for Jon Stewart after a long and exhaustive search.
As for Katie Couric’s show, the plot might not be drawn directly from her experiences, but if it has any similarity, it might be intense as well as funny.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Katie Couric was described as a bully in a tell-all book called The News Sorority, which details the former Today anchor terrorizing colleague Ann Curry.
Most likely, Diane English will not include those aspects in her parody of the morning news.
[Image Credit: Getty Images]
