For Alyssa Milano, the progressive themes and socially difficult features of her ’80s sitcom Who’s the Boss? nonetheless resonate as we speak — which is why she’s working diligently on getting a revival off the bottom.
The actress and activist walked the carpet on the ERA Coalition’s Ladies’s Equality Trailblazer Awards in Los Angeles on Wednesday, and she or he spoke with ET’s Denny Directo in regards to the groundbreaking components of her iconic comedy sequence.
“Who’s the Boss? was the very first thing the place actually there was a swapping of gender roles, proper?” Milano stated, explaining how the dynamics of the present actually set it aside and put it entrance and heart within the cultural dialog.
Within the sequence, Tony Danza starred as Tony Micelli, a widower and former baseball participant who takes a job as a live-in housekeeper for Angela Bower (Judith Gentle), a divorced, rich promoting hotshot, and her son, Jonathan (Danny Pintauro). Milano starred as Tony’s teenage daughter, Samantha, who lives on the Bower residence together with her dad.
“Tony was doing all of the housekeeping and you already know and Judith was divorced, owned her personal enterprise, single mom, all these issues that we did not actually see at the moment,” Milano stated of the present’s distinctive set-up. “And a daughter who may be very a lot a tomboy.”
Milano has lengthy been engaged on a technique to convey the present again, and provides followers a have a look at the place the characters are actually.
“I believe it might be actually humorous as a result of, in my head, Tony is gonna be the very same character however the whole lot round him is simply altering and rising,” Milano defined. “So I am excited in regards to the prospect. I believe it might be actually, actually enjoyable.”
The actress defined that the revival sequence is “nonetheless in improvement” and that they’re “nonetheless searching for a house” for the venture.
“We’re working actually exhausting, ‘trigger we really feel like we’ve some extra of a narrative to inform,” Milano defined.
Milano spoke with ET again in November 2022, and shared some particulars about one potential premise for the brand new sequence.
The proposed Who’s the Boss? replace would focus on Milano’s Samantha, who’s now a single mom residing in the identical home she grew up in on the unique sitcom, which ran from 1984 to 1992. Her father now lives together with her and helps deal with Samantha’s youngsters.
“It might be Tony coming to deal with my youngsters as a result of I get a job that makes me journey rather a lot, so it is that complete dynamic,” Milano teased. “But additionally, the generational distinction between elevating a toddler now versus then, which is at all times the battle that I’ve with my mother and father in actual life about mild parenting. So I am actually trying ahead to that side of it.”
As for the Ladies’s Equality Trailblazer Awards, Milano helped rejoice the night time’s visitors of honor — 9 to five co-star Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton, who have been all acknowledged for his or her contributions to the combat for equality.
The ERA Coalition occasion additionally featured a particular premiere screening of the documentary Nonetheless Working 9 to five, which particulars the lasting impression of the movie and its message, and the combat for girls’s rights and equality that continues to at the present time.
Wanting again on the beloved 1980 comedy, Milano defined, “The unhappy factor is it resonated the very same method all these years later.”
“We’re nonetheless combating for pay equality, we’re nonetheless combating for constitutional equality as girls, we’re nonetheless combating for racial justice and reproductive justice and environmental justice,” she shared. “So these are the identical points… we’re nonetheless combating the identical combat as [we were] 40 years in the past. You might make it as we speak and it could nonetheless maintain up.”
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