{"id":456681,"date":"2026-02-08T16:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T16:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/456681\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T16:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T16:46:09","slug":"the-burbs-adapts-tom-hanks-1989-cult-classic-for-our-dark-modern-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/456681\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘Burbs adapts Tom Hanks’ 1989 cult classic for our dark modern times"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Celeste Hughey first started working as showrunner on a TV reimagining of the 1989 Tom Hanks<\/a> horror-comedy movie The \u2019Burbs she noticed something interesting. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever I would mention I was working on it, people either had never heard of the movie or were absolutely obsessed,\u201d Hughey tells Polygon. <\/p>\n

The original version of The \u2019Burbs is perhaps the definition of a cult classic. Directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins<\/a>), this PG-rated movie with some genuine scares likely introduced a generation of kids to the delights of the horror genre. It played on cable TV throughout the \u201990s and found a fandom in anyone lucky enough to stumble across it, myself included. Hughey, who was born the same year the film came out, recalls watching it for the first time when she was \u201ctoo young.\u201d But in the years since, she\u2019s come to appreciate it as a sharp commentary on American suburbia. <\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve probably watched it a thousand times,\u201d Hughey says. \u201cI know every little nook and cranny of that movie. It’s been so fun to infuse new life into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Streaming now on Peacock, the 2026 \u2019Burbs uses the original film\u2019s premise of a group of cul-de-sac residents (led by Hanks as a bored white-collar dad) who grow suspicious of their creepy new neighbors. But the show adds a modern twist. The story begins when a Black woman named Samira Fisher (Nope<\/a> star Keke Palmer) leaves the big city with husband Rob (Jack Whitehall) and their newborn baby, and moves into Rob\u2019s old childhood home. Samira\u2019s overwhelmingly white neighbors are unwelcoming at first, but soon accept her into their community \u2014 especially once they\u2019re united by a creepy new interloper who buys the abandoned house across the street. As with the 1989 movie, their initially unfounded suspicions eventually help reveal some disturbing truths.<\/p>\n

\"Justin
\n Justin Kirk (Weeds) plays a creepy new neighbor named GaryImage: Peacock<\/p>\n

The original plan was to remake The \u2019Burbs as a new movie, but producers Seth MacFarlane and Brian Grazer quickly realized the story was big enough for an entire series. So they brought in Hughey, and she got to work reimagining the original story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to enter this world through the outsider’s perspective,\u201d she says. That outsider was always going to be played by Palmer: \u201cI really always wanted Keke to star in the show. To me, she’s the essence of Tom Hanks: charismatic, funny, dramatic, all of the things that we love about him. I knew she could carry the torch for him in a series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palmer took a bit more convincing, mostly because she\u2019d never seen the film. Once she watched The \u2019Burbs and read Hughey\u2019s script, however, she quickly understood the story\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a fish out of water,\u201d Palmer says. \u201cThis is a new person coming into the \u2019burbs. We talk about things that are very contemporary, so it’s a way of honoring the old, but also remaking it in its own way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
\n Image: Peacock<\/p>\n

While the Peacock series takes the original premise in lots of new directions (with plenty of time to explore the quirks of Samira\u2019s quirky new neighbors), it\u2019s also full of Easter eggs for fans of the original. Each episode is titled after a quotable line from the movie, the Fisher family\u2019s name is a tribute to Carrie Fisher (who plays Tom Hanks\u2019 wife in the 1989 movie), and a dog on the show named Darla is a reference to the real name of Queenie, the dog from the 1989 film.<\/p>\n

The best throwback, however, is a recreation of the iconic sardine scene from the original movie, in which those creepy new neighbors invite the community into their home and feed Hanks\u2019 character a plate of canned sardines and pretzels. On the show, Palmer reenacts that moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeke ate real sardines all day to make it really authentic,\u201d Hughey.<\/p>\n

Luckily, the actress didn\u2019t mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am from the Midwest; I love sardines,\u201d Palmer says. \u201cCanned fish is not abnormal to me. I remember even going fishing with my dad and getting sardines and stuff. So yeah, I was cool with it. Not bad at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond paying tribute to the original, Hughey saw The \u2019Burbs as a chance to portray her own experience growing up in the Boston suburbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of what I wanted Samira to experience is what I did growing up as a Black kid in a pretty white neighborhood,\u201d she says. \u201cI always wanted to center it on a Black woman going into this neighborhood, not being sure who to trust, who is welcoming to her, who is questioning her presence. I wanted to make sure it was authentic and have those real microaggressions in the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
\n Image: Universal\/Everett Collection<\/p>\n

Palmer also sees a horror-comedy like The \u2018Burbs as a chance to take on complex topics through a pop culture lens: \u201cI love the way that you can talk about big themes in a way that feels unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

She compares The \u2019Burbs to the work of Norman Lear, the celebrated sitcom writer who tackled social, political, and economic issues through popular TV shows like All in the Family and Sanford and Son in the 1970s and \u201980s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose earlier sitcoms didn’t shy away from talking about racial tensions or classism or all these different things that were happening in the world; they brought them to the forefront in a way that exposed them to the audience,\u201d Palmer says. \u201cI think that’s a lot of what\u2019s happening in The \u2019Burbs. We bring those things to the surface, but then expose something much more nuanced underneath.\u201d<\/p>\n

All eight episodes of The \u2019Burbs are streaming now on Peacock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Celeste Hughey first started working as showrunner on a TV reimagining of the 1989 Tom Hanks horror-comedy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-456681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}