The 'Burbs: How Tom Hanks' Original 1989 Cult Film Inspired Keke Palmer's New Peacock Series
Find out how Joe Dante's beloved 1989 movie came back around as a Peacock Original series.
**SPOILER WARNING! This story reveals spoilers about Peacock's 'The Burbs series!**
If the title of Peacock's new mystery/thriller, The ‘Burbs (now streaming on Peacock), starring Keke Palmer and Jack Whitehall (The Afterparty), triggered a serious case of, "Wait, why is that familiar?" -- just know that you're not alone.
It wasn't one of Tom Hank's biggest films, but he did star in a black comedy/thriller of the same name (now streaming on Peacock), the 1989 original film directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins) and written by Dana Olsen (George of the Jungle - 1997). In the years after its theatrical run, The 'Burbs became a cult classic because it poked fun at the weirdness and rampant paranoia underpinning "normal" suburbia.
RELATED: How to Watch Keke Palmer's New Mystery/Comedy The ‘Burbs, Streaming Exclusively on Peacock
One particular fan, Seth MacFarlane (Ted), loved it so much that he pitched a reimagining of The 'Burbs to his fellow Fuzzy Door Productions partners, executive producers Erica Huggins and Aimee Carlson. Peacock Blog sat down with Huggins and Carlson last summer as they were wrapping up production on 'The Burbs series (streaming now on Peacock).
We asked about its origin as a series idea, if Joe Dante gave his approval, and how the Peacock series ties into the canon of the feature film.
The 'Burbs producers reveal how the 1989 Tom Hanks film turned into a Keke Palmer mystery series
While The 'Burbs just dropped all eight episodes on Peacock, Huggins told Peacock Blog that this was an idea that first came up during the Covid shutdowns. She said they had been recently discussing their favorite '80s movies and MacFarlane brought up Dante's The 'Burbs.
"It felt like it was trying something new, and we've always prided ourselves at Fuzzy Door to try and come in through the side door on some of these topics," she said of why it piqued their cumulative interest. "So, it was Covid and there wasn't a lot happening. He felt like maybe this is a movie that you can make on the back lot at Universal with 25 people and get away with it during Covid, and he had an idea of how to make it modern."
But then other productions at Fuzzy Door took priority, like their Peacock series Ted, and The 'Burbs got placed on the back burner until after the 2023 Hollywood strikes were completed. They revisited the idea as a possible television series instead.
"I think it heightened the paranoia from living through Covid," Huggins said. "We had the feeling that this is a perfect moment to make something modern. It wasn't everybody's favorite movie, but it had a really clean, cool idea at the center of it."
How showrunner Celeste Hughey's weird neighbors got her The 'Burbs job
Once the series was greenlit, they brought in several potential showrunner/executive producer candidates to pitch their creative angles, including Celeste Hughey (Palm Royale, Dead to Me).
Carlson said Hughey had a unique vision about how to make the film into a television show while also having real love for the 1989 movie. "Celeste came to us with a story about how one neighbor of hers had shot another one over a property line dispute," Carlson told Peacock Blog.
RELATED: Who's in the Cast of Peacock's New Mystery Comedy The 'Burbs
And that in turn inspired the room to start telling their own crazy neighbor stories. "When you start having those conversations with your showrunners and your creators, everybody has a their own story of something creepy or something funny, or the guy who was down the street who turned out to be a CIA agent in disguise," Huggins joked. "Or, the house that was on the corner that turned out to be this creepy, drug house."
With a wealth of stories to use, and confidence on how to weave them together, Hughey was hired. She wrote the series pilot, which they shared with Dante and Olsen (also an executive producer on the series). "We reached out and had a nice conversation with him, and he met with Celeste," Huggins said of Dante's appreciation the idea was getting a new life. "He wished us well on the journey."
The 'Burbs film connections that made it into the Peacock series
While Peacock's The 'Burbs series is not a direct sequel to the film, it does imagine itself set in the same universe. In the Dana Olsen scripted film, Ray Peterson (Hanks) lives in the town of Hinkley Hills in the Mayfield Place cul-de-sac. In the series, a newly-married couple, Samira (Palmer) and Rob (Whitehall) return with their newborn to his hometown of Hinkley Hills to live in his retired parent's home nestled in the Ashfield Place cul-de-sac.
Huggins teased in the series, "There is a wink to the original Hinkley Hills that happens before the movie would have even happened. We're sort of grabbing that as a unique idea and using that as our story unfolds to go to the past."
RELATED: The 'Burbs: Is Peacock's New Keke Palmer Show Related to the 1989 Tom Hanks Movie?
The 'Burbs series and film were both filmed in the same house at Universal Studios
Both the film and series were filmed in the same houses on Colonial Street inside the Universal Studios back lot. Huggins said because of that, they could expand on those location similarities and put a fresh twist on other themes.
"The Klopeks, for instance, in the movie were the creepy neighbors across the street," she detailed. "We didn't want to do the same thing. But there were certain traits and certain behaviors and certain things that sort of screamed out to us as little Easter eggs along the way in the show. Celeste has named characters after old characters, and street names.
"Everything is connected if you're a fan. If you're not a fan, it's still fun," Huggins continued. "And it's those little moments that really connect the dots. There's a very specific idea at the center of this, which is in this perfect, idyllic neighborhood somebody moves in, and everybody starts to believe that something really bad is happening. Not only does the paranoia grow, but sometimes you're right, sometimes they're wrong. In this case, hopefully we'll be right, and then wrong and then right again."
Catch both The 'Burbs series starring Keke Palmer and The 'Burbs film starring Tom Hanks, streaming now on Peacock!
