"Life Goes On" Revival in Development; Kellie Martin, Chad Lowe to Return

Is Chris Burke going to be included?

How will they include Chad Lowe? They established in the finale that his character died.

Why do I remember this stuff?

Chad Lowe was so hot in that show

Is Corky still…with us?

R2, I don't remember myself (it's been too long ago) but here are two comments from readers in the TV Line article attached:

[quote]No, Jessie didn’t die in the original. There was an episode of Season 3 (I think) where there was a flash forward and Becca is telling her current husband about Jessie (but they could just pretend that episode didn’t happen). In the series finale, I think there was another flash-forward of Becca & Jessie getting married after they graduated from college.

[quote]The series finale was of Becca telling a story to a 10 year old boy and was mostly flashbacks. At the very end we find out he’s her son and his name is Jesse. Via flashback we find out Becca and Jesse got back together and married. She wanted kids with him but he was kinda against it. The finale never said what came of Jesse and who was the father of the 10 year old Jesse. However series creator Michael Braverman explained that Becca’s son was indeed fathered by Jesse. He wanted to show that, at some point in the future, it would be possible for them to safely have a child together.

He was, R3, as was the football player who took a liking to Corky (but whose name I don't remember).

This show wasn't even that popular when it was on. It got a lot of press, mainly because of Burke, but the highest it climbed to in ratings was #66 for all four of its seasons.

Are there any downsies left after abortion ?

R4 yes. Chris Burke is still alive. He's 56

Count me out. Way out!

Holy shit I completely forgot that was Patti LuPone.

Tommy Puett played Tyler, the football player who took Corky under his wing. He retired from acting and is now a business owner.

Tommy Puett was my first crush. I was 11.

The actor who played Corky lives in Newtown, PA in an assisted living place.

Patti in her book made it as clear as she could she couldn't stand Bill Smitrovich.

‘Life Goes On’ Reunion

Didn't Tyler get AIDS from sleeping with a woman?

Is corky still alive?

Read the thread, R18.

A show no one remembers. This will be another Murphy Brown.

I haven’t thought of this show in years, but it’s nice to hear Chris Burke is still with us. I watched this as a tiny kid.

Yeah....Patti and Bill Smitrovich hated each other and she wrote about it in her bitchy book.

Are they gonna get another Broadway star to belt out the title song? I never watched the show; I only tuned in to hear La LuPone's voice soaring over everyone else's.

I wonder if the Braverman family in Parenthood (tv) is named after Michael Braverman?

Without Splatsy Trombone this show is DOA.

I saw Becca naked!

Patti Lupone plays the teenage daughter in this version.

I’m not gonna lie - I would totally watch this. But only if the parents come back too.

I relish any opportunity I can to post this!

You should celebrate! Celebrate this revival!

My mom was angry at my trashy choices in reading and TV. She decided I had better read something substantial or else. Her selection: Some Kind of Hero, the life story of Chris Burke. FML.

Huh. The dad is (was) kinda cute.

Dats da suk job!!

I am ashamed to admit I loved this show!

Will there be a ban on wire clothes hangers and knitting needles now? Maybe stairs too?

This is PROOF that Hollywood has run out of original ideas!!!!

Fuckin' idiots.

I loved this show. A reboot would probably do well on a channel like hallmark.

I always thought Kellie Martin was an outstanding actor. I thought going from Life Goes On to ER meant that big things were in her future. I really think she’s better then the mostly hallmark channel mysteries she’s been in since.

R32 Oh that dad was atrocious

R38 I’ll never get over the two episodes of her end on ER. The most shocked I’ve ever been by a TV show!

Is Patti coming back?

Patti will only consider coming back if they let her sing. What’s she going to sing, DataLounge?

A Datalounger greenlighted this, right?

I loved this show as a kid, mostly for the theme song. Didn’t it come on Sunday nights just before the Wonderful World of Disney?

(Shhh.... I paid Corky's - whatever his name is - his parents $500 to keep all this quiet from him. They plan to block the channel showing it from his TV.

If Lupown’s not in, I’m out.

Patti...goes on.

Hated that show and everyone in it. I had no idea Patti Lupone was a Broadway diva until long after this show finished.

[quote] Didn't Tyler get AIDS from sleeping with a woman?

Tyler wasn't the character with AIDS. Tyler died in a drunk driving car crash.

[quote]Didn’t it come on Sunday nights just before the Wonderful World of Disney?

Yes, it was on Sunday nights on ABC at 7pm Eastern, 6pm Central.

[quote] The actor who played Corky lives in Newtown, PA in an assisted living place.

He does? About 7 years ago he was living in Manhattan. I worked somewhere that he frequented as a customer—way, way too often— and I got to know him fairly well. I never asked him about Life Goes On, though (which I loved as a kid, watching every episode as they aired new). In fact I tried not to talk to him too much. Let’s just say, it was a friendship to be *endured.*

I also didn’t know when I was a kid watching the show that LuPone was a Broadway star until after LGO had concluded its run.

And I still confuse it with Our House (Wilford Brimley, Chad Allen), which I also saw every single episode of in their first runs.

Kellie Martin’s career triumph was, and remains, Death Of A Cheerleader—now available in HD on Amazon Prime!

I do not have high hopes for a Life Goes On reunion.

R47 Patti makes me cry there. You can tell this is personal to her. She has tears in her eyes.

Bill S. played Blake's father on the new Dynasty a few years ago. He was good. I can see both he and Patti appearing on the new version of LGO, but separately. They'd have to make the characters divorced. She's friendly with Kelly Martin.

She really goes after Bill in her book. Accuses him of touching her inappropriately, and of having bad breath. Rumor is she once slapped Corky. She has complained of having to do endless takes with him. I think eventually she'd shoot her part, and a stand in was used when Corky shot his part. After a time they were rarely on screen at the same time.

Like with Betty Buckley, it's too bad the show robbed her of some prime Broadway stage years.

Look like Lowe would only be a producer, he wouldn't be in it. I recall the character being in pretty bad shape with full blown AIDS toward the end. Wouldn't really make sense.

They reboot everything and do revivals of everything, so why not this?

The AIDs storyline was considered a big deal back then, groundbreaking. I recall the later episodes where the adult Becca is telling someone (her husband?) about Jesse, who is definitely dead by that time. Becca Becca wasn't an old lady when she talks about the dead Jesse, so the implication is that he died young. So how are they going to incorporate the Jesse character back in a revival? Seems like it wouldn't make much sense. But then someone suggested maybe they're hoping nobody remembers the shows that confirmed Jesse's death. And yes, Jesse did get AIDs from a female.

Tyler won't be in the revival. He died in a car accident. And what about the older sister, Paige? Will she be in it? Or will she be considered a superfluous character?

I always thought the acting was good on the show. But it was just trying to hard to be serious and have depth. It got boring.

I mean, it wasn't a good show. I used to tune in hoping Patti would sing. There was an episode where she sang Never Never Land, acapella, to her newborn baby. It was so lovely. I wish I could find it.

[quote] Look like Lowe would only be a producer, he wouldn't be in it. I recall the character being in pretty bad shape with full blown AIDS toward the end. Wouldn't really make sense.

Maybe he took PrEP.

Patti 's character in a strange monotone with a holier than thou vibe. Frumpy too. She must have pissed wardrobe and make-up off.

R57 if you look at her audition on YouTube she NAILS it, hard. But, I think she HATED doing the show, day to day. She begged to get out of her contract. They finally relented, and she's barely in season 5. They let her off to do Sunset Boulevard. Yikes.

Make that season 4, she's barely in.

In it's first season, it ranked #75. That's gotta be close to the lowest ranked show on network. In subsequent years, it never ranked better than #66. It must've driven Patti NUTS that it kept getting renewed!

OMG someone uploaded it! It cuts off too soon, but this is wonderful. I don't often think of Patti having a pretty voice, but this is absolutely lovely.

I get Kellie Martin and Tracey Gold mixed up.

“ Libby sings 'Never Never Land' to the little boy who will be Nicky.”

Who is Nicky and why will be become him? Did he transition?

why can’t OP say Doubleyew Bee?

[quote] Is Chris Burke going to be included?

Only if he has a free schedule!

R63 he was a representation of her unborn child

I love Kellie Martin, she proved her acting acumen by convincing us that she was obsessed with the “Beautiful and popular” Tori Spelling in Death of a Cheerleader

I'll never get over the trauma of Dr. Noah Wylie seeing her body under the hospital bed. Also, why did they replace the eldest daughter after the first season. The first actress to play Paige was Monique Lanier, she seemed very fancy. The second actress was very Becky number 2 from Roseanne.

Patti also disliked Paige #2.

It might be a shorter list to say who Patti DID like.

She adores Kelli Martin, and she liked the first Paige.

DL fave Pamela "Claudia Blaisdel" Bellwood played adult Becca in the final episode.

Are flash forwards considered canon? Will and Grace said they had kids and didn’t talk for 20 years, Roseanne said Dan died. None of that really happened when the shows were rebooted.

Well, they've already made clear that Chad won't be actually on the show, he'd be a producer.

Why won’t he be on the show?

In Patti's autobiography she names names and the one name she hated more than anyone else was the guy who played the father. She HATED him. I can't imagine they would both come back.

Never heard of this. Is it about a throuple and their two tards?

The reboot is about Becca raising her own Downs kids with the help of Uncle Corky.

Oh I didn't realize the boy has an actual condition when I posted that at r77. Uh sorry...

[quote]A show no one remembers. This will be another Murphy Brown.

Which is a shame because studios have vaults full of lost shows. But re-runs of "Law And Order" play 24/7.

[quote]Well, they've already made clear that Chad won't be actually on the show, he'd be a producer.

[quote]Why won’t he be on the show?

I think this presents an interesting question. If they stick with the Jesse died long ago storyline, there really would be no way for Chad to appear in the reboot, not even as a ghost, because if Jesse died when he was a teenager/early 20s, his ghost would be a man in his 50s? Would that make any sense?

So ghosts don’t age? How does that make sense?

Why would a ghost age? It's your physical body that ages as it decays.

She could have a fantasy sequence where she imagines life today had he lived.

In the show, the flash forward shows she has a child, and Jessie was the father. The producers wanted to show that it would one day be safe for an HIV + man to have children.

So, that's a problem because I'm not sure if that ever really came true. They could certainly disregard those flash forward scenes altogether. Plenty of reboots have retconed things.

[quote]Is corky still alive?

He was alive when this thread started. He has since died while fighting in Afghanistan.

HOLY SHIT the clip from r47 is almost exactly what she did to the person taking pictures in the audience of Gypsy. It's like she had that moment built into her psyche and it came roaring back decades later.

[quote] Which is a shame because studios have vaults full of lost shows. But re-runs of "Law And Order" play 24/7.

Yeah, a lot of ok/decent shows from the 80s, 90s and 2000s have been forgotten due to Law&Order NCIS, and CSI franchise shows being show constantly in syndication. I remember that period in the mid to late 90s when basic cable networks aired a variety of reruns from different types of shows and not just crime procedural shows. Life Goes On was reaired on a few basic cable channels around that time. Once basic cable networks started reairing crime procedural reruns more a bunch of past shows were forgotten. Other ok/decent shows from the 90s like Northern Exposure and Sisters are also examples of shows that would be ok to rewatch these days, but they aren't on streaming services and were pulled from syndication or basic cable reruns many years ago.

A friend of mine used to refer to this show as "My Favorite Retard."

I bet they’ll recast it as a black family. Like they did with the new Wonder Years. Dumb assholes.

13%

In the reboot, Corky’s Mongoloid uncle Genghis will return to bring him back to the land of his true ancestors where he can enjoy their sumptuous Mongolian BBQs.

R51 did you ever call him Corky or Mr. Corky?