Freeform has given a put pilot commitment to Party of Five, an immigration-themed reboot of the popular 1990s family drama revolving around Mexican-American siblings. It hails from the original series’ creators Chris Keyser and Amy Lippman and studio Sony Pictures TV.

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The original revolved around on the five Salinger siblings who become orphans after their parents are killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver.

The reboot will follow the five Buendias children as they navigate daily life struggles to survive as a family unit after their parents are suddenly deported back to Mexico.

Keyser and Lippman will write the pilot, along with Michal Zebede (Castle, Devious Maids), a first-generation American writer with Costa Rican and Panamanian roots. Rodrigo Garcia is set to direct.

Keyser, Lippman and Garcia executive produce, with Zebede serving as co-executive producer.

The original series, which starred Scott Wolf, Matthew Fox, Neve Campbell and Lacey Chabert as the older Salinger siblings, ran for six seasons on Fox and spawned a short-lived 1999 spinoff, Time of Your Life, toplined by Party of Five co-star Jennifer Love Hewitt. It was a Golden Globe success story, struggling in the ratings early in its run until winning a Globe for best drama series in its second season when its popularity picked up.



I hear the reboot was taken to the original series’ home at Fox before landing at Freeform. By then, Fox already had put in development In the Country We Love, about a young woman whose family had been deported to Colombia, based on the memoir by Jane the Virgin‘s Diane Guerrero. It is among a slew of immigration-themed projects bought by the broadcast networks this development cycle.

The Party of Five reboot is reminiscent of the new One Day at a Time, which also was revived with the original developer, Norman Lear, and with a Latino family at the center.