According to Variety, some parents who have been getting heyyy, no respect, no respect at all from their college-aged children may soon have a recourse in the form of a new “docu-series” inspired by Rodney Dangerfield’s hit 1986 comedy film Back To School. Like the movie, the series will be about parents and their children attending the same colleges at the same time, with the story teasing that some “awkward situations will come”—like, for example, “geriatric beer pong,” “mismatched dorm mates,” “fraternity brother with your dad,” and “sorority sister with your mom.” Hilarious stuff.
The movie is about Dangerfield’s character showing up at school to stop his son from dropping out, getting into all sorts of wacky college hijinks along the way, but it seems like the show will be about parents who are less of an unexpected nuisance and more of an… expected nuisance. After all, people have to agree to appear on a reality show, so it’s not like whatever network picks this up is just going to trick students into becoming fraternity brothers with their dads. Also, there’s a statement from MGM’s head of unscripted television Barry Poznick that says, “I love that grown-ups are going back to school,” so maybe this is just a totally normal thing that happens all the time.
There’s no mention anywhere of Melissa McCarthy’s Life Of The Party, but that could be because nobody remembers that movie.