Chances are, if you grew up in the 1990s, one of your favorite movies has Jim Carrey in it. Carrey became a bona fide star during this time period, an
Chances are, if you grew up in the 1990s, one of your favorite movies has Jim Carrey in it. Carrey became a bona fide star during this time period, anchoring comedies like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Mask alongside major blockbusters like Batman Forever. He also proved he could deliver dramatic performances, thanks to his stellar role in The Truman Show. The best of both worlds is evident in Carrey’s performance in The Cable Guy, where he plays a cable technician who develops a truly disturbing infatuation with architect Steven Kovacs (Matthew Broderick). 30 years after its debut, The Cable Guy is slated to make a return, albeit in a completely different form.
Hulu is developing a television series based on The Cable Guy, which will be written by Rob Rosell (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Joe Piarulli & Luan Thomas (Cobra Kai) and produced by Sony Pictures TV. This novel version has a unique twist, as it takes place in the up-to-date day and features a man who, seemingly growing tired of streaming services, reactivates his cable subscription and catches the attention of a lonely cable technician. In an age when cable subscriptions are slowly dwindling, The Cable Guy TV series might have found an angle that could lend a hand it stand apart from other television adaptations of beloved movies.
‘The Cable Guy’ Reboot Will Tackle Friendship in the Streaming Age
Jim Carrey holding a drill with Matthew Broderick standing behind him in ‘The Cable Guy’.Image via Sony Pictures Releasing
Most of the chaos in The Cable Guy stems from the way Jim Carrey’s character, Chip Douglas, was raised. When Chip and Steven first get to know each other, Chip confesses that he more or less grew up watching television because his father walked out on him and his mother was busy. It’s a story that resonates with the struggle to connect in the up-to-date day, and something the television adaptation could update. While social media and the Internet theoretically facilitate connections between people who’ve never met in real life, they can also lead to parasocial and extremely toxic behavior online, much like the deranged acts Chip commits after Steven rejects his friendship. There’s also the streaming angle to consider. How does your relationship with media change when Netflix or Hulu is a click away?
This angle gives The Cable Guy real relevance, not to mention an edge over other attempts to turn beloved television shows into movies. Too often, these shows lean heavily on nostalgia for the movies they’re based on, rather than asking how they could work in the here and now. Key examples are Paramount+’s adaptation of Fatal Attraction, which stretched the original movie’s tense storytelling over an excruciating eight episodes, and Fox’s Minority Report, which turned Steven Spielberg‘s thrilling vision of the future into a uninteresting procedural. The novel version of The Cable Guy sounds like it’ll actually have something to say, which makes it worth tuning in.
Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz
Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving?
Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not astute enough, swift enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
Jason
Michael
Freddy
Pennywise
Chucky
TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →
01
Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do?
First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
ALeave immediately. I don’t need to understand a threat to respect it.
BStay tranquil and observe. If I can see it, I can understand it. If I can understand it, I can avoid it.
CStay awake. Whatever this is, I am not going to sleep until I feel sheltered again.
DConfront it directly. Fear grows in the gloomy — I’d rather know what I’m dealing with.
ECheck everything, trust nothing. The threat might be closer than I think — and smaller.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong?
Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
ASomewhere remote — a cabin, a campsite, off the grid and away from people.
BA tranquil suburban neighbourhood where nothing ever happens. Except tonight.
CIn my own head — the most hazardous place of all, depending on what’s already in there.
DWherever children are — because something about this place attracts the worst things.
ESomewhere ordinary — a house, a toy store, a place where the last thing you’d expect is a threat.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
What is your most reliable survival asset?
Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
APhysical fitness — I can run, I can swim, I can outlast something that relies on brute persistence.
BSpatial awareness — I always know the exits, the hiding spots, the fastest route out.
CPsychological resilience — I’ve faced my worst fears before. They don’t have the same power over me.
DEmotional steadiness — I don’t panic. Panic is what gets you caught.
EScepticism — I don’t underestimate threats because of how they look. Size is irrelevant.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through?
Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
AThe unstoppable — something that will not stop, cannot be reasoned with, and is always getting closer.
BThe imperceptible — a threat I can feel but can’t locate, watching from somewhere I can’t see.
CThe psychological — something that uses my own mind and memories against me.
DThe unknowable — something historic, shapeless, that feeds on the fear itself.
EThe mundane — a threat so ordinary-looking that no one will believe me until it’s too overdue.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role?
Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
AThe one who says “we need to leave” first — and means it, even when no one listens.
BThe one who stays tranquil, watches the others, and figures out the pattern before anyone else does.
CThe one who holds the group together when panic sets in — because someone has to.
DThe one who asks the questions nobody wants to ask — because ignoring them gets people killed.
EThe one who takes the threat seriously when everyone else is laughing it off.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make?
Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
AGoing back for someone — I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t leave them behind.
BAssuming I’m sheltered once I’ve found a hiding spot. That’s when it finds me.
CFalling asleep when I absolutely cannot afford to. Exhaustion is its own enemy.
DLetting my curiosity override my instincts — I always need to understand what I’m dealing with.
EDismissing the threat because of how it looks. That’s exactly what it wants.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means?
Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
AThe environment itself — I exploit the terrain, the water, the geography against it.
BPatience — I wait, I watch, and I strike at the one moment it doesn’t expect.
CLucidity — if I can stay in control of my own mind, it loses its primary weapon.
DCourage — facing it directly, refusing to run, taking away the fear it feeds on.
EImprovisation — I exploit whatever’s at hand, however unconventional. Creativity over brute force.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it?
The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
AI kept moving. I never stopped, never hid for too long, never let it corner me.
BI figured out the pattern before anyone else did — and I used it against the thing following it.
CI stayed awake, stayed lucid, and refused to give it the one thing it needed most.
DI stopped being afraid of it. And the moment I did, everything changed.
EI took it seriously from the start — and I never once made the mistake of underestimating it.
REVEAL MY VILLAIN →
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated
Your Best Chance Is Against…
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
- He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
- Your ability to keep moving, exploit the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
- The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
- You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too overdue for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
- But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
- Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
- Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
- You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
- You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
- The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
- Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
- Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Pennywise
Pennywise is historic, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
- The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
- You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
- That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the gloomy — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
- It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too overdue. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
- You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
- Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
- Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
- Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
‘The Cable Guy’ Series Is Also a ‘New Girl’ Reunion
The Cable Guy didn’t just work because of its off-the-wall premise, but because it cast a perfect pair of opposites in Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick. Broderick’s low-key, affable persona not only made him relatable but also provided the perfect foil to Carrey’s literally manic energy, and helped sell some of The Cable Guy’s more outlandish moments. The TV series aims to replicate this vigorous by featuring a reunion between two cast members of a highly popular sitcom, with Jake Johnson playing Chip and Damon Wayans Jr. playing Steven. The duo previously worked together on New Girl and the cult comedy Let’s Be Cops, meaning that they have experience playing off of each other.
In an ever-shifting television landscape, The Cable Guy might be the one series that’s a legit surprise. It puts a fresh spin on a classic cult comedy, and it feels like the one reboot that could actually work. Whether or not it gets as gloomy as the original movie remains to be seen, but it genuinely sounds promising.
Release Date
June 10, 1996
Runtime
96 Minutes
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