Daydream Relivers

Entrepreneur, Nov, 1999 by Victoria Neal

S Club 7: The Monkees for the next generation

Get ready for another British invasion to sweep the country when pop band S Club 7 enters U.S. living rooms with their music-incorporated TV program, set to debut on the Fox Family Channel this month.

Configured by former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller, S Club 7's sitcom, S Club 7 in Miami, places the four girl and three boy performers in madcap predicaments while they search for stardom in the States.

S Club 7 in Miami is now a top-rated show in the United Kingdom, and the group is topping the charts there with its first single.

"We're looking for S Club 7 to be as big, if not bigger, than some of the recent groups that came out of the UK," says Fox Family Channel's senior vice president, Joel Andryc. "When I heard about the creative team that was putting this together, we got really excited about its potential."

The seven members, aged 17 to 22, are an actual performing group who play themselves, using their real names on the show. Sound familiar? That's no coincidence: S Club 7 has already been deemed the new Monkees.

Andryc admits the winning combination of music, relationships and great story lines may borrow elements from the popular 1960s sitcom, but he maintains it stands out with its modern sensibility. "I don't think it's as wacky or goofy as The monkees was," says Andryc. "Kids today are more sophisticated. [S Club 7] is a little more relationship-driven."