Although The Blues Brothers is something that they really should have just been left alone the moment John Belushi died, it’s continued to live on, whether through the ill-judged film sequel or the live stage band. Now it appears it may find new life on TV.
While Universal owns the film rights to the property, Variety reports Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi’s widow, Judith Belushi-Pisano, share the television rights, and they reckon TV is the way for the characters to go. A pilot script for a Blues Brothers show, by Aykroyd, former Saturday Night Live scribe Anne Beatts, Wayne Catania and Kieron Lafferty, is currently being shopped to various networks.
The Blues Brothers musical duo of Jake and Elwood Blues will be recast, with the series taking place just after they both get out of jail. The main plot of the entire series will revolve around Elwood searching for his real father. Dan Aykroyd will only appear on the show via his voice, taking on the unseen role of Jake and Elwood’s parole officer.
While trying to make is sound like they’re not trying to trample once more on a great film, Judith Belushi-Pisano had this to say about the new show, “I think these are great American characters. We want to keep them alive. We chose to introduce them as new characters but do it in an way that they have some history, have some life behind them.”
It’s all a bit speculative at the moment though, as the Blues Brothers TV series doesn’t even has a pilot commission yet. If the pilot does get picked up though, each episode in the series will include one main musical number, with different musicians taking on the role of The Blues Brothers band as Jake and Elwood travel the United States, searching for Elwood Sr.