If you stretch a little, Young Frankenstein is a kind of reboot. It goes back to its source material — here, James Whale’s Universal monster movies Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein, themselves loosely adapted from Mary Shelley’s novel — and restarts the story fresh, with one key difference: Mel Brooks’ version of the genre-defining sci-fi/horror classic is packed full of silly wordplay and PG-rated sex humor. If we accept this premise, then Very Young Frankenstein is a rebooted reboot, a ridiculous framing that suits the comedic talent involved with the series.
Brooks has given his blessing to Very Young Frankenstein, a TV version of his beloved 1974 comedy that’s been in development for over a year and was just ordered to series at FX, according to an article in The Hollywood Reporter. FX, of course, was also the home of What We Do in the Shadows, and the two series share key talent: Series co-creator Taika Waititi has been tapped to direct the pilot for Very Young Frankenstein, which was written by another WWDITS player, Stefani Robinson. Robinson wrote (and was nominated for Emmys for) a number of classic episodes of the vampire comedy, including the season-two favorite “On the Run,” which introduced the world to a regular human bartender named Jackie Daytona.
