Fox‘s midseason drama series The Frankenstein Code is dropping Frankenstein from its title. It will now be known as Lookinglass.
The name will make sense when watching the show. Written by Crisis and Life creator Rand Ravich and executive produced by Howard Gordon, Lookinglass centers on Jimmy Pritchard, a disgraced, 75-year-old ex-sheriff, whose life ends at the hands of corrupt cops. He is brought back to life and given a second chance by a pair of young tech scientists as a 35-year-old (Rob Kazinsky) with unpredictable near-superhuman abilities. The name of the company of the two scientists, twins Otto (Adhir Kalyan) and Mary (Dilshad Vadsaria), is Lookinglass.
The producers of The Frankenstein Code (originally Frankenstein) had been looking to distance themselves from the famous moniker, stressing the fact that the series only takes inspiration from the basic Mary Shelley mythology of a man brought back to life by scientists playing god.
Tim DeKay and Ciara Bravo co-star in the series, executive produced by Ravich, Gordon and Michael Cuesta, who directed the pilot.
While changing titles in the pilot process is very common, changing the names of new series after the upfronts, in the final weeks/months leading to their launch is more unusual. We’ve had several of those this year, NBC’s Odyssey, which became American Odyssey just before its midseason bow, and three (!) new shows for next season, which have been renamed this summer, Lookinglass, NBC fall comedy Truth Be Told (previously People Are Talking) and ABC fall drama Blood and Oil (fka Oil).
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