The Brady Bunch Reboot Produced By Vince Vaughn In Development At CBS
By NELLIE ANDREEVA
EXCLUSIVE: Americas most famous blended TV family is eying a comeback. CBS is developing a reboot of the cult comedy The Brady Bunch, co-developed and executive produced by Vince Vaughn. The multi-camera comedy project, which has received a script order, will be produced by CBS TV Studios.
The original sitcom, created by Sherwood Schwartz and starring Robert Reed and Florence Henderson, ran on ABC from 1969-1974. It centered on Mike Brady (Reed), a widowed architect with three sons who marries Carol Ann Martin (Henderson), who has three daughters.
In the new Brady Bunch, written by Mike Mariano (Raising Hope, My Name Is Earl), a divorced Bobby Brady, with children of his own, is remarried to a woman who also has kids, and together they also share a child. In addition, their ex-spouses are still part of their lives. The changes in the premiere reflect the evolution of family dynamics over the past four decades. Back in 1969, Schwartz wanted Carol to be a divorcée but the network refused, so the end of her first marriage was never addressed.
I hear Vaughn came up with the reboot idea and teamed with Mariano. Mariano and Lloyd Schwartz, son of the late Sherwood Schwartz, will executive produce the CBS project along with Vaughn, Victoria Vaughn and Peter Billingsley through Vince Vaughns Wild West Picture Show Prods.
CBS TV Studios has the rights to the original series as it was produced by its predecessor Paramount Television. The studio has a lot of experience successfully reviving old series. There are three reboots now on the air now: CBS Hawaii Five-0 and the CWs 90210 and Beauty And The Beast all of them produced by CBS TV Studios.
The Brady Bunch signals a return to the traditional family comedy arena for CBS, which gradually moved away from it following the end of Everybody Loves Raymond and The King Of Queens in favor of buddy/relationship comedies like Two And A Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother and 2 Broke Girls. As for classic comedies, the network last year took a stab at remaking another 1960s series, Bewitched.
If the contemporary remake goes forward, CBS will likely bring back The Brady Bunchs popular theme song tweaked for the 21st century the way CBS modernized the signature theme music of Hawaii Five-0 for the reboot. (See title sequences from all seasons of The Brady Bunch below).
This is the first major series reboot of The Brady Bunch, which has spawned spinoffs, TV movie reunions, a musical and a successful movie parody franchise starring Shelley Long. Wild West Picture Show has stepped TV efforts over the past couple of years the company has a series on the air, TBS Sullivan & Son, which had a solid second-week showing. Vaughn and Mariano are repped by CAA.
