Joe Walsh To Star in Remake of The White Shadow
Rocker Joe Walsh will star in a new Netflix original series; A remake of the 1970’s TV series, ‘The White Shadow’. Special guest stars will include Ringo Starr, Don Henley and Betty White.
Walsh stars as Coach Joe Walden, a rock star who retires from the music business after a drug overdose. Upon his retirement, Walden takes a job as the head basketball coach at the fictional Carver High School, a mostly black and hispanic urban high school in Chicago.
Carver’s principal is Coach Walden’s former roadie, Jim Willis, played by Morgan Freeman. Sybil Buchanan (played by Queen Latifah) is the vice principal, who was against Walden’s hiring and frequently clashes with Walden in the areas of discipline and education.
The show will tackle serious topics such as illicit drug use, child abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, gambling, prostitution, sexual orientation, gangs, violence, murder and physical and mental disabilities. The show will incorporate Walsh’s irreverent humor and history for pranks and destroying hotel rooms.
The cast will include Michael B Jordan as Warren Coolidge, Justin Bieber as Mario “Salami” Pettrino, Mario Lopez as Ricardo “Go-Go” Gomez, EJ Johnson as James “Hollywood” Hayward and Kevin Hart as Morris Thorpe. When asked if Hart, 41 and Lopez, 47 were too old to portray High School basketball players, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings commented, “Did you ever hear of acting? Robert DeNiro was not actually a gangster, Julia Roberts was not actually a prostitute, but they made it work.”
In the first episode, Coach Walden nails all the locker room furniture to the ceiling and puts Ben Gay in the jockstraps. Since the show takes place in Chicago, Six members of the basketball team are murdered over the weekend and Coach and other players go undercover to solve the crimes. Hilarity ensues. The White Shadow is sure to be a ratings success.
