Emily Hampshire to star in a remake of Norman Lear's Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman

Variety

The former Schitt's Creek star will co-write, executive produce and star in an updated version of the Lear-developed satire of soap operas, American media, and consumer culture that earned a cult-like following airing in first-run syndication from 1976 to 1977. Louise Lasser earned an Emmy nomination playing the title role, a small-town Ohio housewife who reacted to the bizarre goings on all around her. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman ran for two seasons and 325 episodes, spawning the beloved spinoff spoof talk show Fernwood 2 Night, starring Martin Mull and Fred Willard. Sony Pictures TV, which plans to shop the remake to networks and streamers, says the updated Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman gives a new spin to the characters of Fernwood, Ohio, and “is about a small-town woman who feels like a nobody in every aspect of her life until she suddenly becomes a ‘Verified’ social media somebody. We’re bringing the original show’s satirical look at consumer culture into today’s social media world, where ‘America’s Typical Consumer Housewife’ has now become the product consumed when her nervous breakdown goes viral.” Hampshire will co-write the revival with Canadian actor, director and writer Jacob Tierney. The pair have worked together in the past, including in his 2009 film The Trotsky.