Heathers Anthology Series From TV Land to Feature Diverse, LGBTQ Leads

Jill Pantozzi | March 16th, 2016

The 1988 black comedy Heathers is also a cult classic. So what might be interesting to see in a TV adaptation? Diversity, of course, and that’s apparently what we’re getting from TV Land.

The film was written by Daniel Waters, directed by Michael Lehmann and starred Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Kim Walker, and Lisanne Falk. It’s one of my favorites and it deals with a lot of heavy stuff. This new take will be from Lakeshore Entertainment and written by Jason Micallef. It will apparently take on a FX Fargo-like anthology format which could potentially follow different sets of “Heathers.”

The Hollywood Reporter describes the series thusly:

TV Land’s take is described as a black comedy that takes place in the present day. It features a new set of popular-yet-evil Heathers — only this time the outcasts have become high school royalty. Heather McNamara (originally played by Lisanne Falk) is a black lesbian; Heather Duke (Shannen Doherty) is a male who identifies as gender-queer whose real name is Heath; and Heather Chandler (Kim Walker) has a body like Martha Dumptruck.

I am…happily shocked. Not just for the presumed representation here but also that it’ll be on TV Land which I previously only knew of for reruns of Happy Days and the like. The project certainly seems like it would have a better home at also-Viacom-owned MTV but perhaps they’re trying for something big here? THR writes:

Heathers arrives as TV Land has undergone a rebranding in the past year with a focus on single-camera and younger-skewing comedy after abandoning the multicamera fare (Hot in Cleveland, The Soul Man, The Exes) that helped put the cable network on the map as a destination for originals. To that end, all of its single-camera fare that has been picked up to series has gone on to earn a second season, including Younger, Teachers, The Jim Gaffigan Show and Impastor.

Back in 2012, Bravo was attempting a reboot of Heathers (Lakeshore also tried that in 2009). It would have picked up 20 years later and focused on the daughter of Ryder’s Veronica and a new generation of “mean girls.” That eventually fell through but there was a Heathers musical I heard great things about but didn’t get a chance to see.

Dear diary, am interested in this new take on Heathers. Please let it be good.

[Edit: After seeing other folks’ reaction to this description online I’ve realized if done wrong, this could be very wrong. For instance, if these characters are the “bad guys” that could mean the “good guys” are the normatives in the whole scenario which would lead to some strange dynamics considering how the world currently treats POCs and LGBTQ people. That said, we don’t have enough info about the project and its plot at this time to really know how it will play out. Fingers crossed for something revelatory.]