Step by Step Patrick Duffy Suzanne Somers - P 2013
Bobby Ewing has got Patrick Duffy thinking.
The actor, who reprised the iconic role for TNT’s Dallas reboot, says there’s another character he’d like to step back into these days.
“I would love to work with Suzanne [Somers] again,” Duffy tells The Hollywood Reporter, referring to his Step By Step onscreen wife. “The Step by Step cast was so wonderful to be with. They were my family and I think a little two-hour special about where these people are – not a documentary, but actually doing a show – seeing where they all come to over the years. It would be so fun to play that goofy Frank Lambert character again, aging another 25 years.”
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Step by Step ran from 1991 to 1998 as part of ABC’s TGIF lineup, with Duffy playing a single dad to three kids who spontaneously weds a single mom [Somers], also with three kids. Making their families work together isn’t easy, but as the jingle goes, they do it “step by step.”
Duffy also expressed interest in returning to his amphibious roots.
“Going back to The Man From Atlantis, it would be interesting to play that character 40 years later,” he says of the 1977 sci-fi show. “Not trying to be a superhero, but to be a sage voice of that kind of sci-fi thing. … I would be the Obi Wan of The Man From Atlantis at that point. That would be fun.”
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Nostalgia programming has become a hot commodity in Hollywood, with Veronica Mars fans rallying to donate millions of dollars to a Kickstarter campaign to fund the movie, the cast of Mary Tyler Moore set to reunite on an episode of TV Land’s Hot in Cleveland, and BET recently having secured a syndication deal to air old episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Family Matters, Martin, The Jamie Foxx Show and The Wayans Bros. Teen Nick, meanwhile, saw big ratings success from reruns of Clarissa Explains It All and Doug in the past two years.
When Dallas premiered on TNT in June 2012, the first time viewers could tune in since its 1991 finale, the episode pulled in 6.86 million viewers.
Audiences can see Duffy as the good Ewing brother, executing J.R.’s master plan in the season-two finale of Dallas, airing Monday on TNT.
E-mail: Sophie.Schillaci@THR.com; Twitter: @SophieSchillaci
