Here's Why Tony Danza Doesn't Want to Reboot Who's the Boss? — Even Though Alyssa Milano's on Board
Reboots may be all the rage at the moment, but don’t expect to see beloved ABC sitcom Who’s the Boss? join the revived ranks any time soon.
Series star Tony Danza shut down talk of playing housekeeper Tony Micelli once again, and said his firm “No” was due to the death of co-star Katherine Helmond.
“First of all, I’ve never been a big fan of these reboots,” he said on Good Day New York. “[But] no, can’t reboot [Who’s the Boss?] because we’ve got no Katherine Helmond, that’s why not. That’s it.”
He did, however, admit that the one reboot he might consider watching was Mad About You, which will return as a limited series later this year.
Helmond, who died in February, starred on Who’s the Boss? as Mona Robinson, the mother of Judith Light’s divorced ad executive Angela Bower. As fans know, the show centers around Danza’s Tony after he moves into Angela’s ritzy Connecticut home with his daughter Samantha (Alyssa Milano) to take a job as her live-in housekeeper.
Danza, 68, stood firm in his rejection of a reboot despite being pushed by host Rosanna Scotto, though he did admit that he wished the show got more play on TV so it could be introduced to a younger generation.
RELATED: Alyssa Milano Is Ready for a Who’s the Boss? Reboot – with Tony Danza as a Grandpa
“I wish it was on TV. It would be a good show for kids to see,” he said. “The other night I was standing in front of the Paley Center on 52nd Street, [and] this woman walks by with these two little kids, and the kid’s about 6 years old, he goes to me, ‘Are you Tony Micelli?’ I go, ‘How the heck do you know that?’ His mother says he watches it all the time.”
The actor went on to heap praise on Milano, 46, who he said he still speaks to frequently, for her continued efforts as an advocate.
RELATED: Alyssa Milano and Tony Danza Mourn the Death of Who’s the Boss? Costar Katherine Helmond
“This is somebody who wants to leave the world a little better than she found it,” he said. “One of the things that happens, I think – you’re a kid from – she’s from Staten Island, I’m from Brooklyn, garbage man’s son – and you get this opportunity, you get this platform, this job, you get this career. I feel this tremendous – there must be a reason. I gotta do something good with it. I don’t want to just sit around, and I think she feels the same way, that she feels like she should do something.”
Milano, for her part, said back in 2015 that she would be “100 percent” interested in a Who’s the Boss? reboot – and even offered up some potential plotlines.
“It would have to be a really good script, though,” she told Page Six. “I think [Samantha] would have kids and Tony would be a grandfather.”
The series originally aired on ABC for eight seasons from 1984-1992.
