A streaming service decides to bring back a once popular sitcom. Sound familiar? It’s happening over and over again in real life, and it’s the premise of Reboot, a new Hulu comedy out Tuesday from Modern Family co-creator Steve Levitan.
Keegan-Michael Key, who plays one of the stars of the original series, tells ABC Audio now is the perfect time for a show like this.
"There's a plethora of reboots in our world, the fact that nostalgia is something that we're all kind of connecting to in some way," he says. "I think part of it has to do with the world that we're living in right now and the pandemic, we need some comfort food, we need some visual comfort food."
Paul Reiser, co-creator and star of the hit 1990s sitcom Mad About You, plays the creator of the original show who's part of the reboot's writing team, so a lot of his character’s time is spent in the writers room. The calls it a place where he has "learned so much about human nature...because it's about collaboration, it's about ego, it's about tempering egos, supporting egos, filtering out negativity, bringing out the best of people."
"It's trying to tamper down the worst in people," Reiser continues. "So it really is this petri dish of human instincts and emotions."
As for where the idea for Reboot came from, Levitan shares that it was largely due to the revival of Roseanne and it "kind of blew up because Roseanne got in trouble."
"I just remember thinking to myself, well that's the show I want to see," he said, adding that he thought someone else would have the same idea before he got a chance to: "But much to my surprise, no one ever did."