A new What I Like About You just might be headed to your TV soon, at least if the stars of the show have their way.
Both Amanda Bynes and Jennie Garth, who played the main characters, sisters Holly and Valerie, would like to see the show revived. The WB sitcom, which originally aired from 2002 to 2006, followed the adventures of vivacious teenager Holly (Bynes) and her older, more responsible sister Valerie living together in New York City after their dad moved to Japan.
According to TMZ, Bynes is “very interested” in reprising her role.
“I think it’s a great idea to reboot the show,” she told the news outlet, adding that she had not spoken to Garth or another former co-star on the show, Leslie Grossman, about the subject. (Grossman played Val’s friend Lauren.)
Garth has mentioned Grossman, as she’s suggested a new version of What I Like About You in more than one interview. On May 19, when Yahoo Entertainment asked her about the possibility, she was enthusiastic.
“I mean, I would love that,” Garth said. “That show was so much fun to make. Fans of that show are super loyal. Like, it was kind of a cult following of its own. We were on for four years, and it was just a really great time. Great relationships with the people who were on that show, and I would love nothing more than to revisit that, but I’m not really sure if it’s in the cards right now. My dear friend Leslie Grossman — she was on that show with me — we talked about it, and I would love it.”
On the May 18 episode of the Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast, Garth had said Bynes would be critical to the project.
“I would want to do the show with Amanda,” she said. “I would just want to make sure she was in a place where she wanted to do it.” Garth added that she and the Hairspray actress were themselves “like sisters,” even when the cameras were off.
Bynes actually announced her retirement from acting in 2010, but she said in 2017 that she would perform in future projects. And What I Like About You would, apparently, qualify as something she’d want to do.
“I miss them and would love to work with them again,” Bynes told TMZ of Garth and Grossman. “I don’t miss acting but I loved this show, so I’d be down to return to acting for this revival. It would be a great experience to continue the show.”
The development comes two months after Bynes was released from a conservatorship that she had been under for more than eight years. Her mother, Lynn, had overseen her medical and professional affairs since 2013. That’s when she was hospitalized on a psychiatric hold, following legal trouble, which included multiple arrests, setting fire to a Los Angeles driveway, and, according to her parents’ court testimony, increasingly erratic behavior.
Bynes revealed in November 2014 that she struggled with mental health issues. Since then, she graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising and has been treated for a relapse. Bynes and her fiancé, Paul Michael, made headlines in April when police were called to their home following an argument.
The actress’ last on-screen role was playing Marianne, the nemesis of Emma Stone’s protagonist Olive, in the 2010 comedy Easy A.
