For Peyton Manning's next project, it shouldn't be in the broadcast booth

Given how Hollywood is so obsessed with pre-sold product in today's market, there's a fair number of movies and a TV remake that could be handed off to former NFL quarterback-turned-Nationwide Insurance shill Peyton Manning.

No, really, think about this for a second. He has the folksy Southern charm, even though he's about as telegenic as a dead tree, in this writer's opinion, to pull off a modern-day reworking of films like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" or "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town". As an actor, Manning ain't exactly the second coming of Gary Cooper or Jimmy Stewart, but then, but after a few years of Nationwide commercials being shoved down the viewers' throats, at the expense of co-star Brad Paisley's country music career, I'm beginning to see how Manning could manage to be like other former NFL players who transitioned to television, from Roosevelt Grier to Merlin Olsen to Fred Dryer. The diff being, of course, that he was a quarterback, not a lineman like the others. Like, Dick Butkus & Bubba Smith parlayed all those Miller Lite commercials into movies ("Police Academy" for Smith) and television (Blue Thunder for both, Hang Time for Butkus, etc.) in the 80's and 90's.

Manning & Paisley have transitioned from The Jingle Sessions, in which Manning tried to write insurance themed songs for Paisley, and failed miserably, to the self-indulgent Welcome to Peytonville, which premiered last year....



But think about this.

What about Manning in a remake of Gomer Pyle, USMC? Unlike the late Jim Nabors, who had the ace card of swapping out his Southern drawl for a powerful singing voice when needed, Manning can put more emphasis on the private's naivete. He has no problem with being humbled.

And, as previously shown on Saturday Night Live, Manning can do comedy.

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, despite being in a potentially powerhouse Friday lineup on ABC in 1969, didn't survive the season, and there are more haters than supporters of Adam Sandler's remake. Again, Manning could hew as close as possible to the original. Seven years earlier, a pre-Daniel Boone Fess Parker tried a TV version of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but that also failed.

Oh, wait. I just thought of something. Manning's version could combine elements of the movie and Gomer, in that we could see what happened to Gomer after the series ended. Maybe someone pitched that idea to Jim Nabors at one point, but it never got off the ground.

And, then, there's No Time For Sergeants. In order to counter Andy Griffith, ABC thought it might be a cool idea to do a TV version of the play & movie that helped make Griffith an icon. Yep, that bombed, too. I can picture the story being updated to present times, with Manning as Will Stockdale.

Here's my bottom line. In my day job, I work for an insurance agency. No, we don't represent Nationwide, and there are worse advertising offenders, which we'll look at this week. My boss is a Dolphins fan, and I don't think he'd be too thrilled if Nationwide sent him a stand-up of Manning if we signed on to represent them. If Manning doesn't want to do Monday Night Football, ok, let's find something else for him to do, even if network executives and his agents don't think of them.