Freeform greenlights the pilot for the update on the classic '90s family drama.
The Party of Five reboot is one step closer to reality.
Freeform has officially greenlit the reimagined drama, from the original series creators, with a pilot order on Thursday, the network announced.
In development since January, the new iteration of Party of Five is a modern twist on the original series, following the five Buendias children as they struggle to survive together as a family after their parents are deported to Mexico.
“Twenty-five years ago, we imagined a story about five kids navigating the world after the untimely death of their parents,” executive producers Amy Lippman and Christopher Keyser said. “Today, stories of families being separated, children having to raise themselves in the wake of their parents’ deportations, don’t require any imagination; they are everywhere. This new iteration of Party of Five isn’t a retread of the original; it’s a whole new look at kids trying to parent each other in the wake of circumstances beyond their control, yet learning a similar lesson: that families persist no matter how great the obstacles.”
“From the moment we heard that Amy and Chris were updating their iconic series with this timely and powerful twist, we knew we had to have this pilot. We’re honored to be the home for the next, brilliant iteration of their vision,” Karey Burke, Freeform’s Executive Vice President of Programming and Development, said.
The original Fox drama ran from 1994 to 2000 and followed the five Salinger siblings after their parents are killed in a drunk-driving accident. The series explored heavy, difficult topics, like financial problems, drug abuse, cancer and death, and helped launch the careers of Matthew Fox, Lacey Chabert, Scott Wolf, Neve Campbell and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Lippman and Keyser, who created the original series, wrote the pilot with Michael Zebede. Rodrigo Garcia will direct.
In July, Campbell told ET that she's excited at the prospect of Party of Five returning to the small screen.
"I think it's really wonderful," she said at the time. "They're going to make it a Mexican family of kids whose parents are taken across the border from them. In the same way that our family lost their parents and had to find a way to survive. It's going to look at that story which a lot of people are dealing with, so I think it's really prevalent."
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