Reboots, revivals, and remakes have been all the rage for the small screen in recent years, with some scoring multi-season returns including members of the original cast. Could Fox's 90s hit sitcom Martin be one of the next to return to TV? Tisha Campbell, who appeared on Martin as Gina for all five seasons of the Martin Lawrence-starring series and now stars on Fox's Unmatched, weighed in on whether or not Martin could return:
Everybody's working their behinds off. So we're all trying to find the time and the time is so hard to schedule. Tichina [Arnold] has her show, and Martin and his movies. Carl [Anthony Payne II] is working constantly and doing stand-up. So the time is so hard to kind of schedule to do something like that.
Back in the heyday of Martin, there were five central characters: Martin Payne (Martin Lawrence), Gina Waters-Payne (Tisha Campbell), Tommy Strawn (Thomas Mikal Ford), Cole Brown (Carl Anthony Payne II), and Pam James (Tichina Arnold). While a Martin revival could conceivably work with some of these five missing, certainly not all of them! And certainly not without Martin Lawrence and Tisha Campbell.
As Tisha Campbell noted to ET, Martin Lawrence's film career is going strong, with Bad Boys For Life being the first movie of 2020 to hit a particular milestone, and Campbell herself appearing in the new Fox sitcom Unmatched, not to mention Carl Anthony Payne II and Tichina Arnold keeping busy as well! Tragically, Thomas Mikal Ford won't be able to reprise Tommy Strawn due to his death back in 2016, at the age of 52.
Tisha Campbell (who also dropped by another Fox sitcom in recent years) went on to state that Thomas Mikal Ford's death has had an impact on the Martin cast, though they're "still talking" and "love each other so much." She said this about Ford's death:
Rest in peace Tommy. That's one of the reasons why it's a little hard, because Tommy's not with us.
Despite the busy schedules and the passing of Thomas Mikal Ford, Tisha Campbell sounds optimistic about the chances of a Martin revival. Other 90s sitcoms have had some success with revivals. Although Roseanne's revival was technically short-lived, I would argue that The Conners counts as proof that sitcom returns can be hugely successful on network TV, and Fuller House ran for several seasons on Netflix before its end was announced. Martin could arguably work for streaming or network release, if the stars (and schedules) can align!
If Outmatched is a hit for Fox, Tisha Campbell herself may be too busy to consider a second sitcom. For now, you can find her showing off her comedy chops on new episodes of Outmatched on Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. ET on Fox. If you're still in the market for some broadcast and streaming series, be sure to swing by our 2020 winter and spring premiere schedule as well as our 2020 Netflix premiere guide.
