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If I close my eyes and concentrate long enough, I can pick out little memories about the classic CBS 1980s sitcom Kate & Allie which ran from 1984 until ‘89: First up in my old gray matter is the two-person rapport and chemistry between the show’s stars, actors Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin; this comedic duo brought laughter and a few tears to their portrayals of recently divorced mothers who opt to move into the same house with one another in best classic sitcom style. Credit series creator Sherry Coben for picking out little gems of human emotions such as the fear and anxiety of suddenly finding your life in tumult after the demise of a significant relationship; Over thirty years later, those bits resound and drown out some of the more mundane tropes and trappings of the American sitcom. What else comes to my mind about this show? Good acting, solid scripts and my own youthful crush on Jane Curtin all harken me back to those halcyon days of good old fashioned ‘80s fun. And now, according to our fellow nostalgia junkies at The Hollywood Reporter, it appears as if I may get a chance of pulling my own version of Gig Young in the Twilight Zone episode Walking Distance by revisiting – after a fashion – a blurry childhood love and memory.
Kate & Allie is getting the remake treatment at a new network – NBC – courtesy of Erica Oyama of Never Have I Ever fame. This talented wunderkind is writing the dusted off new version for the network after being given a pilot commitment. The script itself has the creative fingerprints of Universal Television, Propagate and Nahnatchka Khan’s Fierce Baby production house. Khan – no relation to the dreaded Wrath of Khan – has an overall television deal at Universal Pictures.
Erstwhile creatives Khan and Oyama are pulling executive producing duties on top of their other work on the new show. Joining them as exec producers are those loveable lot of rogues Ben Silverman, Rodney Ferrell, Jen Carreras, Peter Principato, Brian Dobbins, Howard T. Owens and Gregory Lipstone; Kate & Allie fans one and all.
No word on whether there will be any connective continuity tissue between this remake and the original Kate & Allie, although with the recent spate of 1980s/90s nostalgia currently making the rounds in Hollywood (Cobra Kai, Mighty Ducks, Saved By the Bell, Ghostbusters Afterlife, Stranger Things) it might be intriguing to see some sort of callback to the original show that is making this new iteration a reality.
