Dolly Parton Developing Series of TV Specials for NBC
Dolly Parton will soon be coming to a TV screen near you.
The country legend is working with NBC to develop a series of two-hour TV movies inspired by her deep catalog of songs, personal writings and colorful life.
Speaking with reporters this morning at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt revealed that the network has partnered with Parton to create films that will feature the singer’s positive outlook.
“I produced 9 to 5: The Musical on Broadway and we became very close,” Greenblatt tells Rolling Stone Country. “She’s just thinking about a lot of things going on in her life and things she’s written about and I had lunch with her a couple of months ago and she said, ‘You know, I’d love to see if there’s some movies we can develop out of the stories I’ve been writing about.'”
In a statement following the announcement Parton said, “I am so excited to be involved with my friend Bob Greenblatt… and my longtime friend and former agent Sam Haskell. We want to create projects for NBC that are both fun and inspirational with a family audience in mind.”
Greenblatt says Parton could possibly appear in the films “if there was something that was right” for her as an actress.
“We have not talked about them being musicals, but you know it’s not out of the question,” he says. “I think they will have a lot of her music in them, but I don’t think they’ll be musicals, per se.”
The Country Music Hall of Famer is no stranger to screens both large and small, having starred in such feature films as Steel Magnolias, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and 9 to 5 — for which she wrote the Academy Award-nominated theme song — and many TV projects, including guest spots on fellow country star Reba McEntire‘s eponymous sitcom and on her goddaughter Miley Cyrus‘s series Hannah Montana.