Although it made promises of a Hayden Fox nature, NBC has cruelly reneged on its Coach revival series. According to Deadline, the network stopped production on the 13-episode order after completing the pilot. The publication cites the usual “creative differences” for the show’s demise, including concerns that it felt “dated,” but The Hollywood Reporter learned from network insiders that things were “not going well and multiple people inside NBC were not optimistic about it from the start.”
We can’t imagine where this second Coach train could have derailed. The sequel series was to pick up 18 years after the original, and would follow the gridiron adventures of Coach Fox old and new. Andrew Ridings (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) had been cast as Tim Fox, the new coach on the block, who lures dad Hayden Fox (Craig T. Nelson) out of retirement with an assistant coach gig at an Ivy League school. That’s a solid premise for intergenerational fun.
The revival had even managed to bring back the Dybinskis (actors Bill Fagerbakke and Pam Stone), as well as cast Malcolm Barrett (Dear White People, Better Off Ted) as the university president whose dreams of having a football team reunite father and son coaches. Sadly, we may never figure out why Coach 2.0 was canceled, so let’s just hope this doesn’t mean that ALF revival is in danger.