Amazon has ordered a remake of British comedy Friday Night Dinner for its recently rebranded Freevee service.
Formerly known as IMDb TV (which itself was rebranded from IMDb Freedive in 2019), Freevee is Amazon’s free, ad-supported video channel, available to Amazon account holders in the US and UK through the Prime Video website or app.
Amazon began ordering shows for the service back in the spring, among them are a revival of American Rust, which had previously been canceled by Paramount, and a remake of Inside No. 9., the anarchy comedy written by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton.
Now it has added another beloved British comedy to its slate, with confirmed plans to remake Friday Night Dinner.
Created by Robert Popper, Friday Night Dinner starred Tamsin Greig, the sadly departed Paul Ritter, Simon Bird, Tom Rosenthal and Mark Heap. In each episode, brothers Johnny and Adam Goodman would return to their parents Jackie and Martin’s house for the traditional Jewish Friday night Shabbat meal, a meal that is always beset with disruptions.
Among the regular disruptions are Johnny and Adam trying to endless play pranks on each other, Martin becoming obsessed with random DIY tasks and frequent unplanned visits from their eccentric neighbor Jim and Jackie’s neurotic best friend Valerie.
The show ran for six seasons and 37 episodes in total on Channel 4. Ritter tragically passed away in 2021. Six weeks later, a special 90-minute documentary episode aired to celebrate the show’s anniversary, which was dedicated to Ritter’s memory.
According to Deadline, Amazon’s remake will be named Dinner with the Parents and has been written by Jon Beckerman, a veteran writer on the staff of the Late Show with David Letterman.
It has been given a straight-to-series order and will run for 10 episodes. There’s no casting details as yet.
Believe it or not, this is the fourth attempt to remake the show, but the first to get into production. Hopefully it’s fourth time lucky.
A fourth attempt?
The first attempt at a remake came in 2011, not long after the show had first aired in the UK, when Greg Daniels, fresh from remaking The Office, signed up to remake the show.
Despite recruiting The West Wing’s Alison Janney and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s Tony Shalhoub for key roles, NBC didn’t pick up the pilot. CBS tried twice to remake the show, once in 2014 and then again in 2016. Michael Weithorn, who’d created The King Of Queens and is a prominent force on The Goldbergs, was involved in 2016, but it didn’t make it to series.
Amazon has bypassed the pilot stage and has fired the starting gun on production.
What else is on Amazon Freevee’s slate?
As well as American Rust, Inside No. 9 and Dinner with the Parents as we must now call it, a second season of Bosch: Legacy, which was actually renewed ahead of its premiere, is coming, as well as unscripted specials America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation and Play-Doh Squished.
Pop duo Tegan and Sara’s memoir High School is being adapted for a new series by Happiest Season creator Clea Duvall and Sprung, a new comedy from Raising Hope writer Greg Garcia, which reunites him with that show’s stars Martha Plimpton and Garret Dillahunt.
Lots to look forward as Amazon steps up its output for Freevee, which has, up until now, largely been the home of long-completed dramas and comedies.
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