We’ve got chills (they’re multiplying), and we’re losing control — because for the first time since Welcome Back, Kotter, John Travolta is slated to star on television again. The impossible is possible, as evidenced by the power of Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. America: meet your new Robert Shapiro.
Nabbing both a producer credit and starring role on the American Horror Story spin-off series, Travolta is set to play Rob Shapiro, the lawyer who — uh, spoiler alert, I guess? — successfully defended O.J. Simpson (slated to be played by Cuba Gooding, Jr.) in the 1995 trial that accused him of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and waiter Ronald Goldman in 1994.
The 10-episode miniseries has a veritable smorgasbord of talent attached to it, including Murphy favorite Sarah Paulson as prosecutor Marcia Clark and David Schwimmer who is slated to play Robert Kardashian — another one of the lawyers on the Simpson case. And, unlike most of American Horror Story, American Crime Story has some source material off of which it is based — namely Jeffrey Toobin’s book The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson.
All of this is further proof that there is no longer a pedigree divide between movies and television. Though Travolta has guested on such shows as Kirstie on TVLand as of late, this marks his first major TV role since leaving Kotter back in 1979. Who says you can’t come home again, eh? (Fingers crossed we get some of the man’s sweet, sweet dance moves.)
Will Travolta make a good Shapiro? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
HT: Variety
