Jessica Biel is bringing back 7th Heaven, 20 years after it wrapped up after 11 seasons. The actress, who played Mary Camden in the series, is producing a reboot. The new series will focus on modern-day family challenges while sticking to its faith and community roots.
The reboot will explore tougher issues facing today’s teens
Biel talked about plans for the new series during the October 22 episode of Collider’s Ladies Night podcast. According to E! News, the series will handle issues facing teenagers and their families today. It will also deal with topics that earlier television programs had stepped around cautiously.
“What we want to create, how we want to modernize it, is really the things that are happening for teenagers and families that have teenagers all the way down to the youngest child,” Biel explained. She listed “technology-based issues, school stuff, bullying stuff, drugs, alcohol” among the topics.
She acknowledged that the original series had limitations when addressing difficult subjects. “All of those things we want to address in a very real way, which is, I think, what the original kind of gently touched on.” She continued, “But we were very careful about what our audience wanted. We had a lot of limitations. We have less limitations now.”
Biel, who shares sons Silas, 11, and Phineas, six, with husband Justin Timberlake, does not want to take the beaten path with the series. She hopes that the series will offer the kind of television entertainment which mothers can enjoy with their children.
“I’m looking for what I can watch with my kids on television,” she said. “It’s limited. I cannot watch a lot of these things with them, and they love TV, and it’s my business. My husband and I are in this business together doing these things, and we can’t share a lot of that with our kids.”
Despite modern tropes, the show will preserve the focus on faith, family, and optimism that the original series was based on.
