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Alyssa Milano shares update on ‘Who’s the Boss?’ reboot on TODAY: 'We're closer'

Milano said they hope to make the show "as special" for today's world as the original series was.
/ Source: TODAY

Alyssa Milano says the “Who’s the Boss?” reboot is moving along.

“I think we’re closer,” she said Tuesday on the 3rd hour of TODAY. “We are still developing because obviously we want it to be something as special and relative to these days as ‘Who’s the Boss?’ was originally.”

Milano said the show was ahead of its time.

Alyssa Milano
Milano grew up in front of viewers' eyes, playing Samantha Micelli on "Who's the Boss" for eight seasons.Disney via Getty Images

“If you think about ‘Who’s the Boss?,’ it was about a divorced single mom who owned her own business, who had a naughty mother in Mona and then hired a man to come help her with the housework,” she said. “That was pretty daring in the ‘80s.”

Milano and co-star Tony Danza announced in 2020 that the sitcom, which ran for eight seasons between 1984 and 1992, was returning.

Milano, who just released a new book, "Sorry Not Sorry," has made a name for herself in recent years as an activist, even getting arrested last week in a protest for voting rights. She says she learned to differentiate the need for activism with being liked as a performer after she kissed Ryan White on “Donahue” after White contracted HIV as a teenager in the 1980s. White died in 1990 at the age of 18.

“Ever since the moment when I kissed Ryan White on ‘The Phil Donahue Show’ to prove that you couldn’t get HIV/AIDS from casual contact, ever since that monumental moment in my life that changed my life, I’ve never separated my opinions from perception of being disliked,” she said.


Alyssa Milano and Tony Danza on Who's the Boss? "Samantha's Growing Up" Season One, January 8, 1985.
Milano and Tony Danza were a winning father-daughter team on "Who's the Boss?"Disney via Getty Images

“And I think, people always say, ‘You were so brave’ and I don’t think it has anything to do with bravery. It’s just, to me, there is no reason to be a celebrity, to have a platform, unless I’m going to do everything I possibly can to use that in a responsible way, to bring people together, to make sure people have everything they need to live happy, productive lives.”

Milano has mulled over the idea of taking her activism in another direction, saying earlier this year she might run for Congress in 2024. Is she still entertaining the idea?

“My fear of running is I’m afraid I won’t be as effective as I am as an activist. So many people in Congress, I think on both sides of the aisle, are dealing with a certain amount of frustration right now,” she said, citing progressive lawmakers she knows who are worried that initiatives they fought for will be repealed.

“I can’t think of anything more frustrating.”