Y’all missed GirlMelanie? Well, she may be coming back to your television screens!
It’s official—The Game creator Mara Brock Akil and American Soul co-creator Devon Greggory are developing a reboot series to follow the 2006 popular show. The reboot will be an hourlong dramedy.
The deets, via Deadline:
The Game family was coasting to retirement but they heard the call of the fans to make a comeback… and like the record-breaking winners they are, they decided to pick up and move from a half-hour sitcom in San Diego to a one-hour dramedy in Baltimore. This time, our out-of-touch old-timers are determined to help a bunch of knuckle-head new-schoolers navigate the ruthless game of football on and off the field. They will clash through the pitfalls of fame, fortune and love. Some will win, others will lose, but that’s what happens when you play The Game.
As things are still in development, we don’t yet know whether the original cast members (or even the newer cast members of the hourlong dramedy) will be returning, but that seems to be the goal. To keep things fresh, the revival will be set on the East Coast.
Debuting in 2006 as a spinoff to Girlfriends, The Game starred Tia Mowry (Melanie), Pooch Hall (Derwin), Hosea Chanchez (Malik), Wendy Raquel Robinson (Tasha), Coby Bell (Jason), Brittany Daniel (Kelly) and more, following “a group of women who all have relationships with professional football players.” In 2011, the show was picked up from The CW by BET and became an hour-long dramedy. The show eventually transitioned to a new cast, including Jay Ellis (Blue), Lauren London (Keira) and Brandy Norwood (Chardonnay), airing its eighth and final season in 2015.
As The Game is no stranger to cast changes—Fun Fact: Did you know Derwin was originally portrayed by Aldis Hodge?—I’m sure there will be some new faces, but the key is to bank on the nostalgia of the original series. It could’ve been a combination of network issues, among other things, but lots of fans (including me) felt something was missing when the show switched from the sitcom format to an hour-long dramedy over at BET.
“I’m really proud of the look of our show, that we took a multi-cam budget and turned it into a single-camera show. Its look, its tone, its approach, the characters’ development—that, yes, we were a half-hour comedy, but we used our moments to deepen the characters,” Akil told Deadline. “We also offered drama in a half-hour space. And that was my own personal desire, but it was also reflective of what the audience has been wanting, which is more well-rounded, deeper, richer, layered characters, and they got that in The Game.”