From ’80s Sequels to a Musical: The ‘Freaky Friday’ Adaptations You Never Knew Existed

The 1976 Disney comedy Freaky Friday, which starred Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster as Ellen and Annabel Andrews, a mother and daughter who mysteriously switch bodies, has had a long afterlife. The film, which was adapted from the 1972 book of the same name by Mary Rodgers, was a hit and given the original movie’s success—and Disney’s love of rebooting their classic movies for new audiences—it was remade with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan (playing characters renamed Tess and Anna Coleman) in 2003. This version was an even bigger hit than the original, and it had major intergenerational appeal, winning over parents who fondly remembered the old movie and kids who only knew the new one alike.

Over 20 years after the Freaky Friday remake made Lindsay Lohan one of the biggest teen stars of the aughts, she and Jamie Lee Curtis have reprised their roles in the highly anticipated sequel Freakier Friday, now playing in theaters. While you’ve likely already heard the buzz around Freakier Friday and Lohan’s triumphant comeback, you probably didn’t know that there were a handful of forgotten Freaky Fridays from the ’80s until now. Read on for a look at the Freaky Friday franchise entries you haven’t heard of, from a gender-swapped 1984 take on the story to a 2018 musical.

1. ‘Freaky Friday’ in the future: ‘A Billion for Boris’ (1984)

It’s easy to forget that Freaky Friday was originally a book and yielded two sequels, A Billion for Boris (1974) and Summer Switch (1982). Both of these books were made into movies in 1984.

The first Freaky Friday sequel movie, A Billion for Boris, centers on Annabel’s brother, Ben (Seth Green), as he discovers a TV that broadcasts news from the future. As Ben finds himself in this sci-fi situation, Annabel (Mary Tanner) and her boyfriend, Boris (Scott Tiler), try to figure out how to get the most out of the magic TV, with zany results.

The lost movie received a limited theatrical release before airing on the then-new Disney Channel as well as CBS, and is noteworthy for featuring future Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor Seth Green in his very first role.

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2. A gender-swapped take on ‘Freaky Friday’: ‘Summer Switch’ (1984)

The second 1984 Freaky Friday sequel, Summer Switch, also centers on Ben (here played by Scott Schwartz) and sees him switching bodies with his dad, Bill (comedian Robert Klein). The TV movie, which was the only Freaky Friday adaptation not produced by Disney, aired as an ABC After School Special. While a father-son take on Freaky Friday could be a fun premise, this TV special was quickly forgotten.

3. The 1995 ‘Freaky Friday’ that predated Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis

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You might think that the 2003 Freaky Friday was the very first remake of the classic 1976 movie, but you’d be wrong! In 1995, a version featuring Cheers actress Shelley Long as Ellen and Now and Then child star Gaby Hoffmann as Annabel aired on ABC as part of a series of remakes of nostalgic live-action Disney films. The remake also featured a number of quirky comedic actors, including Sandra Bernhard, Drew Carey and Carol Kane, in supporting roles.

While not well-known 30 years later, this Freaky Friday became a cult favorite with a certain segment of ’90s kids who were too young for the 1976 movie and too old for the 2003 one.

4. A ‘Freaky Friday’ musical from 2018

In 2016, Disney adapted Freaky Friday into a musical, which was performed onstage in Virginia, California, Ohio and Texas and will debut in the U.K. later this year (it hasn’t made it to Broadway so far). In 2018, it was adapted into a Disney Channel Original Movie starring Heidi Blickenstaff, who originated the role onstage, as the mom and Cozi Zuehlsdorff as the daughter (in this version, the characters are renamed Katherine and Ellie Blake).

A Freaky Friday musical sounds like a potentially crowd-pleasing idea, but the new take on the decades-old movie wasn’t quite as popular as the Disney Channel TV movies of the ’90s and early ’00s. Still, it stands out for being one of the more unique adaptations of the enduring body-swapping tale.