In the latest chapter of “Hollywood is out of ideas,” 7th Heaven is officially being rebooted. Yes, that 7th Heaven—the WB drama about a pastor, his very large family, and their weekly moral crises that were resolved in 43 minutes.
CBS Studios has confirmed that a new take on the show is in early development. This time around, the focus will be on a new, more diverse family (a welcome update), with Queen Sugar and Bel-Air showrunner Anthony Sparks leading the project. Jessica Biel—who played rebellious daughter Mary Camden—returns as an executive producer, not a cast member. DeVon Franklin is also on board, which may suggest the reboot will still have a faith element… just hopefully one that ages better than the original.
No original cast members are returning, and with a seemingly new family and new plot involved, no one seems to be asking the hard question: why reboot 7th Heaven at all?
The original series ran for 11 seasons and was somehow both wildly popular and aggressively corny. It followed Rev. Eric Camden and his growing crew of children as they navigated every Very Special Episode topic imaginable, from teen pregnancy to peer pressure to… opening your locker the wrong way? At the time, it was The WB’s highest-rated show. In hindsight, it was the peak of mid-’90s moral TV, complete with the now-cringeworthy legacy to match.
That legacy took a nosedive in 2014 when Stephen Collins, who played the beloved pastor patriarch, admitted to past sexual abuse of minors. Former cast members have since denounced him, but the show’s reputation never quite recovered.
So no, the Camdens are not coming back. And honestly, good. But what is coming back remains vague. It’s possible the reboot could offer something entirely new—a modern, culturally aware take on family and faith. Faith-based series are seeing major success these days, so it’s clear there is an audience here for this. Plus, Sparks has a strong track record of telling grounded, socially relevant stories, and Franklin’s involvement suggests spiritual themes won’t be off the table.
But it’s also hard to shake the feeling that this is less about fresh storytelling and more about digging through the IP vault for something—anything—that still has name recognition.
Maybe the new 7th Heaven will surprise us. Maybe it’ll tap into something meaningful about what it means to lead a good life in a chaotic world. Or maybe it’ll just remind us that not every ‘90s show needs a second coming.
