Two all-American TV classics, Cheers and The Brady Bunch, are to become stage shows, in a new proposal from their network CBS.
Entertainment Weekly reports that The Brady Bunch, the now rather corny-seeming 1970s sitcom about the travails of a suburban family, is to become a musical – and the creative team is also a family affair. Its writers are the son and daughter of the sitcom’s creator Sherwood Schwartz, Lloyd J Schwartz and Hope Juber, with the latter writing the production’s songs with her husband Laurence Juber, who played guitar in Paul McCartney’s group Wings.
The Brady Bunch is no stranger to spin-offs, with TV series like The Brady Brides and TV movies like A Very Brady Christmas; in 1995, The Brady Bunch Movie sent up the show’s corn-fed wholesomeness by beaming the 70s cast into the cynicism of the 90s.
In the case of Cheers, viewers need not worry about the sight of Norm tenderly serenading Cliff, as its stage incarnation will not be a musical but will rather “showcase classic moments from many of its scripted episodes” according to EW. The sitcom ran for 270 episodes in the 1980s and 90s, set in a bar in Boston; it span off the equally successful Frasier. The stage show is set for a 2016 tour.
