Over the past half-decade or so, David Gordon Green has jumped ably from television to feature films, helming episodes of “Eastbound & Down” and “Red Oaks,” and then directing the likes of “Joe,” “Manglehorn,” and “Our Brand Is Crisis.” And with his Boston Marathon bombing film “Stronger” in the can, Green is once again headed back to TV, this time collaborating once again with his “Red Oaks” pal Paul Reiser.
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Green has signed up to direct the series “There’s…Johnny!” over at Seeso, an NBC Universal owned streaming service specializing in comedy. Penned by Reiser and David Steven Simon (“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Mad About You“) , the show will follow a young man and woman as they work behind the scenes on “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson,” with the ’70s set series touching upon events of the day like the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon’s presidency.
Approved by the Carson Estate, which will also give the the makers of the show access to their archives, “There’s…Johnny” has been greenlit for eight episodes, which will premiere next year, 55 years after Johnny Carson’s first appearance on “The Tonight Show.” It’s not yet clear if Green will direct just a few episodes or the entire series (fingers crossed for the latter), but it certainly sounds like great material and a strong premise. Guess we’ll have to add a Seeso subscription to our ever growing list of streaming services. [Deadline]