Who's the Boss? Reboot: Judith Light Weighs In!
Judith Light on a Who's the Boss? Reboot: A Cautiously Optimistic Approach!
Remember the awesome 80s sitcom Who's the Boss?? It starred Tony Danza, Alyssa Milano, and the legendary Judith Light. Plans for a reboot recently fell through. Yet the actress is still open to a revival— but only under certain conditions. It has been reported that the project has been in some form of development hell for at least two years!
When MovieWeb asked Light about potentially returning as Angela Bower, her response was rather measured: "You know what? I don't know how to answer that question, because I don't know where they are in their own journey and their process of putting it together, so when it's further along, then we could talk about it again," she said. "But I certainly loved my time, and I love my Tony Danza," she added. That's a perfect, diplomatically sound way to discuss this project!
Light also fully supports Milano's take on the show, adding, "I know exactly what Alyssa is talking about when she says that the show was cutting edge," the actor explained. "And I, to this day, have young women come up to me and say, 'I watched that show when I was a little girl, and I knew that I could be in business today because I saw a role model.' And we didn't really know at the time what we had, the gender swapping of the roles, also the role model of a woman in the workplace. Nobody really had talked about that before, but, you know, kudos to ABC for doing that. It was a great time."
Who's the Boss?: A Groundbreaking Sitcom for Its Time
Who's the Boss? (created by Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter; debuting September 1984) ran for eight seasons, becoming hugely successful. It had an innovative setup: Tony Micelli (Tony Danza), a retired baseball player, becomes the housekeeper for Angela Bower (Light), a successful businesswoman; and both raise their kids together! This simple premise produced major storytelling!
The show completely flipped gender roles! A single mother running a business? This is normal in modern society, and not that shocking. It also brought something incredibly important: it explored themes of class and gender; showcasing an unexpected and unique progressive spin, making it quite similar to many other feminist productions from a previous decade, especially resembling those made by Mary Tyler Moore.
The recently scrapped reboot aimed for more development: set 30 years later; this focuses on Samantha (Milano) as a single mom raising her children. This explored new generations and parenting, with attempts to focus on the different dynamics within those generational settings and their unique ways of dealing with situations.
Alyssa Milano's Vision: A Modern Who's the Boss?
Milano had plans. A script was completed in 2022 for Freevee but that ended up not materializing! Even then however, Milano still believes in that project. And that makes this very surprising turn of events, all the more unexpected. She discussed her perspective in more detail during a separate interview with Entertainment Tonight:
"I think it could be really funny because, in my head, Tony is gonna be the exact same character but everything around him is just changing and growing. So I'm excited about the prospect. I think it could be really, really fun... We're working really hard, 'cause we feel like we have some more of a story to tell. It would be Tony coming to take care of my children because I get a job that makes me travel a lot, so it's that whole dynamic," Milano said. "But also, the generational difference between raising a child now versus then, which is always the conflict that I have with my parents in real life about gentle parenting. So I'm really looking forward to that aspect of it."
Conclusion: The Potential Still Exists For a Who's the Boss? Sequel
The Who's the Boss? reboot’s failure to become realized isn’t really a surprise and hasn’t killed hopes for a comeback. Light's comments show there’s potential. That original show's impact lingers! Milano's passion for her ideas remains. Those characters had immense appeal, bringing new conversations that would otherwise never appear! And with how incredibly well Milano is maintaining interest in this old project and continually bringing this project to several media outlets – we're all eagerly waiting!
