As reported by Deadline, Melanie Griffith has signed on to co-star in ABC’s upcoming comedy pilot based on Kip and Mona Lisa Harding’s book The Brainy Bunch. The book is all about how the Hardings managed to raise a bunch of genius children through a straightforward and easy-to-follow regimen of homeschooling, positivity, and—presumably—the drug from that movie Limitless. The show will follow that same premise, but ABC will make it into a comedy instead of an impossible ideal that parents dream of when their stupid kids refuse to clean their rooms. Also, the show will change the family’s last name to “Mitchell,” because that probably did better in focus groups or something.
Griffith will be playing Celeste Mitchell, a “former pageant queen” who is now the grandmother of this brood of baby Einsteins. For reasons that can probably be best summed up as “sitcom contrivances,” she invites her daughter’s family to live with her. Everyone will probably get into various comedic situations, and then they’ll all recognize how much they love each other. Roll credits. Stay tuned for an all-new episode of Modern Family.