It’s almost here, mi gente! 

Your favorite Cuban-American family is set to make its second television debut, this time on Pop TV, this coming Spring. After being canceled by Netflix earlier this year, the Alvarez family will prove that Cubanos can withstand just about anything when they return in March 2020 with 13 new episodes. 

Speaking recently about the series, writers for the show have given fans a few hints about what to expect. 

The “One Day At A Time” writer’s room is only a few weeks into creating the series, but they’re proving the show will be back with fervor. 

Speaking during a Vulture Festival panel the series’ writers boasted that its new home on Pop TV means some pretty exciting things for the Alvarez family. Now, instead of streaming all at once, the new season will run weekly. 

“We’re so excited!” creator Gloria Calederon Kellett told Vulture during the panel. “We get to have a breath between each episode.” Creators behind the show have said that the decision to do a weekly release schedule comes with the hope that it will mean more consistent audience engagement with the show. Because of the show’s shorter airing window, Pop TV hopes to introduce more topical and poignant storylines. Which is pretty incredible considering the series was already doing that pretty well to begin with. All of this also means that the series will have a more traditional network sitcom runtime and format. I.E.L commercials.

The news was a pretty big surprise to EGOT  Rita Moreno who exclaimed incredulously during the panel: “We’re gonna have commercials?!” 

 “I’m sorry,” Maria Elena Fernandez, a moderator for the Vulture panel replied to Moreno during the reveal. “I didn’t mean to break it to you this way.”

Creators of the show also teased some series storylines which might include seeing  Moreno’s Lydia character falling in love with Dr. Berkowitz who is played by Stephen Tobolowsky.

Earlier this year, when news that Netflix had canceled the critically acclaimed show “One Day at a Time” hit Twitter, many were feared the entire site would be burned down. News that the beloved comedy-drama, which followed the life of a Cuban American family, had officially been canceled spurned various criticisms of Netflix and backlash from the show’s fanbase. Netflix users decried the decision accusing the site of giving POC viewers low priority and nearly no visibility through its shows. Some canceled their Netflix accounts altogether and even started hashtags to do the same. To say the least, fans were devastated.  

So when the TV channel PopTV announced that fans had convinced them enough to save the series and buy it for their own, Latino viewers were beyond elated.

Earlier this fall it became officially official that the Alvarez family is truly returning.

According to an image shared straight from the “One Day At A Time’s” writer’s room, creators of the series are already tapping out the new season’s scripts. On Monday, ODAAT’s series producer Mike Royce posted an image of the series’ sign at their new offices on Twitter. In his post, he revealed that the writers would start working on the show this past Wednesday.

If it’s three other earlier seasons can be any indication, ODAAT’s 4th season will undoubtedly be a major hit. Since its 2017 debut, the series starring EGOT winner Rita Moreno and actress Justina Machado has garnered copious amounts of praise from fans and critics for its portrayal of Latix culture in today’s Post-Trump world. For its work in portraying the trials and tribulations of its diverse LGBTQ+  and Latin American characters. The series has also tackled political issues related to Trump-inspired racist attacks and slurs as well as the portrayal of mental health in the military community. 

When news that PopTV had saved the beloved series, nearly everyone was elated.

No doubt, decisions to buy the show had been motivated by petitions and hashtags to #SaveODAAT. Various Latino names in the entertainment industry began to tweet about the series in support. This included Broadway star and Hamilton hitmaker Lin-Manuel Miranda who posted a series of tweets to his Twitter account to #SaveODAAT as well.

When it was finally announced that the series had been saved by Pop TV the outlet’s president, Brad Schwartz, released a statement saying “How amazing it is to be involved with this brilliant and culturally significant series that deals with important themes one minute while making you laugh the next. We couldn’t be more proud to continue telling heartwarming stories of love, inclusion, acceptance, and diversity that pull on your emotions while putting a smile on your face.”

Needless to say, as pleased as fans are for the new series and its renewal, they really can’t wait.

I mean basically, at this point it is kind of a tragedy that we have to wait. But everyone is still pumped. And for real ready for production and streaming to begin. Because this show is a gift beyond gifts.

With so much representation, there’s literally a character for everyone to feel seen. 

One user in the comments section of Mike Royce’s thread pointed out that the show isn’t just for those who are Latino.”I showed my Cuban spouse the episode not yet yesterday and we were all bawling on the couch frequently pausing for them to talk about how their Mami would also say try again tomorrow and how every time they were in hospital the entire family showed up,” user @danielzklein said. “I’m just saying this show is a god damned gift to the world. How is it so good and so heartfelt and so brave to go to dark places without the copout of a joke at the most intense moment and how is it still so laugh out loud funny the rest of the time.” 

And more importantly, this series is a savior in so many ways.

And not only are we beyond excited that the series means more representation on screen. It also means the Rita Moreno remains employed and on our screens.

Yes to ODAAT and the power of its fans!

The 90s cult classic ‘Clueless’, is a source of timeless fashion and high school drama, even to this day. The film gave us a style icon and a whole valley-girl inspired vocabulary that is still quotable in 2019 —exhibit A: ‘Ugh, as if!’. And since we’re already knee-high deep in nostalgia, this piece of news will brighten your day: Clueless is getting a reboot and it’s being described as a “baby pink and bisexual blue-tinted, tiny sunglasses-wearing, oat milk latte, and Adderall-fueled” look at high school, and omg, we’re totally buggin’.

The 90s classic is being made with a different generation in mind, and there will be no Cher involved. 

credit Instagram @cluelessthemovie

Remake fever has fallen on Clueless. The 90s classic reimagining of Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’, which is based around Alicia Silverstone as spoiled but well-meaning Beverly Hills posh girl Cher and her high school adventures. The remake though is being made with another generation in mind —Gen Z— and this version will focus, not on the Alaïa-wearing airhead-like Cher Horowitz, but her sassy best friend, Dionne —formerly played by Stacey Dash in the original 1995 film. 

The new Clueless project won’t be a film, but rather a reimagined TV show.

Credit Twitter @TracyYOliver

‘Girls Trip’ writer Tracy Oliver is producing, with a script by Marquita Robson, the writer of women’s wrestling Netflix show, GLOW. Oliver made sure that fans were aware that this Clueless project will be a new version of the story, not a continuation of the original film. Additionally, the project is set to be a TV series rather than a new film, written by Jordan Reddout and Gus Hickey —the writers behind another 90s classic, Will & Grace. 

Bye-Bye Cher, it’s the Dione show now.

credit Twitter @eslafleur

Clueless 2.0 could best be described as ‘Mean Girls meets Riverdale meets a Lizzo music video’ according to Deadline. The plot explores what happens when “high school queen bee Cher disappears and her long-life number two, Dionne, steps into Cher’s vacant Air Jordans.” So there will be no Cher —it’s the Dionne show now.

And, fyi, this wouldn’t be the first Clueless TV series, the first one aired after the film’s success in the late 90s.

credit Twitter @ernathomas

The 1995 feature starred by Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy and dreamy Paul Rudd, was written and directed by Amy Heckerling, who also created another Clueless TV show back in the nineties —ICYMI. After the success of the movie in 1995, Paramount Network Television launched a half-hour comedy series, which ran for three seasons from 1996 to 1999. 

The Clueless TV series followed the movie’s premise, recounting Cher’s adventures as a student at Bronson Alcott High in Beverly Hills, CA and her romantic and academic antics. The series starred Rachel Blanchard as Cher, since Silverstone was too busy being Batgirl in 1997. Many of the actors from the movie appeared in the TV series, including Dionne, Mr. Hall, Miss Geist, Amber and Murray.

The movie has been turned into TV shows, books, it’s been referenced in music videos and fashion collections, it even inspired an Off-Broadway musical.

Credit Twitter @Mercedeskat45

The movie’s legacy has included a TV spinoff that ran three seasons, a series of YA novels, and Iggy Azalea music video that pays homage and the publication of a 20th-anniversary oral history book. Add to that a musical that was in development for more than a decade, with Heckerling writing the script, plus lyrics to around 25 repurposed chart hits from the ‘90s. It was probably too much to hope that this recycled iteration could recapture the original’s amazingness, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when it didn’t. 

The musical opened Off-Broadway at The Pershing Square Signature Center on November of 2018. The show had a very small run until January of this year. Clueless, The Musical, received mixed reviews. Frank Rizzo of Variety called the narrative “lightweight” but praised the overall look. He praised the design, costumes, and choreography as well. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter found the show “hit-or-miss”. Rooney praised that the show stuck closely to the original’s plot but criticized that there was no element of surprise. Rooney wrote that “in comparison to other teen classics retooled for the stage, like Mean Girls, Heathers: The Musical or Bring It On, the show rarely steps out from the shadow of its screen source with anything new to offer.” So the production closed down after a very shortly lived run. 

It was about time a young black woman was given the protagonist role of a teen series.

In an interview in June, Oliver spoke to Vulture about the remake, noting that this story would be a “reimagining” of the film, focusing on a “2019 or a 2020 version of a group of teens that would be the Clueless for this generation.” Whatever happens, we’re excited to see a young black woman take the wheel of a teen mystery series. It’s a rare thing and it was about time. Hopefully, this reimagining of the 90s classic does better than the musical rendition did.