It would have been a boss move.
Tony Danza was champing at the bit to dust off his apron and reprise his iconic “Who’s the Boss” role opposite TV daughter Alyssa Milano in a spinoff about the pair living in a woke world.
“We had a shot at it. I thought it might happen,” Danza, 74, told The Post.
“I thought we had a real opportunity because of the timing of it, to address what was happening in the culture. Because you have Alyssa, who knows what’s going on, and me, mixed up.”
The proposed series, which the on-screen daddy-daughter duo announced in 2020, would have featured Danza’s character, housekeeper Tony Micelli, as a retiree, and Milano’s Samantha as a single mom, living in the original home from the hit sitcom, which ended its eight-season run in 1992.
“We had a real good script,” Danza added of the show, which was in development at Amazon Freevee. No reasons were given when news that the project was dropped came in 2024.
“I think it would have been funny,” Danza said.
The East New York, Brooklyn native, who now lives on the Upper West Side, also filmed a never-aired pilot for NBC with Sebastian Maniscalco, where he played the comedian’s dad.
“Let me tell you, It was funny,” Danza said of the pitched series, dubbed “Sebastian Says.”
“After [Maniscalco] sold out four nights at Madison Square Garden. I thought there might be [potential]. But I think you get one shot at those things … It’s too bad. The vagaries of TV, I guess.”
Although he may not be starring in any sitcoms, Danza is keeping busy with the nonprofit he co-founded, The Stars of Tomorrow Project, a free, year-round acting, voice and dance program for 14 to 25-year-olds from low-income communities in the five boroughs.
Danza, a former professional boxer who was discovered by a TV producer at Gleason’s Gym on West 30th Street and Eighth Avenue, said the Murray Hill-based nonprofit, which he launched in 2012 with actor Brian D. Hills, is inspired by his past.
“So much of this comes from my background. I was a fighter in New York and I ended up in ‘Taxi.’ And I needed development,” said Danza, who starred alongside Danny DeVito, Marilu Henner, Christopher Lloyd, and Andy Kaufman in the Emmy-winning sitcom, which ended in 1983.
“It was one of the best acting schools you could go to because of who I was surrounded with.”
His program’s motto is: “When you teach a kid how to act, you teach a kid how to act.”
“So much you have to do as an actor has to do with life in general. You have to be part of something bigger than yourself. You have to look people in the eye. You have to speak clearly. You have to be disciplined. You have to be on time,” he said.
Danza recalled the story of one of the 1,105 students who have gone through his program — who told him he had zero interest in actually acting.
“I said, ‘Well, what’d you come for?’ He says, ‘Because it’s free and I figured there might be girls … And I’m not interested in going to college because my father made a life for our family and me without going.”’
That teen, Daniel Bravo Hernandez, not only went on to graduate from SUNY Purchase, but starred on Broadway in “Romeo + Juliet.”
Many of Danza’s students — who will be performing in a variety show at the Triad Theater on the Upper West Side on Feb. 26 — had never seen their mentor in “Taxi” or “Who’s the Boss.”
“They’re a little young for that,” he said.
“I have a recognition quotient … when I go to a restaurant, if a 40-year-old guy is seating people, I’m getting a table. If it’s a 22-year-old, I don’t know.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
