The Party of Five reboot just got closer to becoming a reality. Freeform has made a pilot order for the series which will put a topical spin on the original concept.
The series hails from original series creators Christopher Keyser and Amy Lippman. The duo co-wrote the script for the drama, which is described as a modern twist on the original series that follows the five Buendias children as they struggle to survive together as a family after their parents are deported to Mexico. Lippman had this to say about updating the classic series:
“Twenty-five years ago, we imagined a story about five kids navigating the world after the untimely death of their parents. 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.”
The original Party of Five ran for six seasons and focused on five siblings — Bailey (Scott Wolf), Charlie (Matthew Fox), Julia (Neve Campbell), Claudia (Lacey Chabert) and their baby brother, Owen — who unite as a family after their parents are killed in a car crash. The San Francisco-set Party of Five aired for six seasons on Fox, from 1994-2000. The show helped launch the careers of Wolf, Fox, Campbell, and Chabert, as well as notable guest stars, including Jennifer Love Hewitt while tackling serious themes such as substance abuse, domestic abuse, cancer and its central theme: the loss of a parent. The series won a Golden Globe in 1996 for best drama. Party of Five also spawned a short-lived spinoff — Time of Your Life, which centered on Hewitt’s Sarah Reeves as she moved to New York — that lasted one season on Fox.
