The premise (if not the execution) of Grace and Frankie was so exciting to so many people not only because it’d feature two immensely talented stars depicting people of an underrepresented age, but also because those stars had actually first become friends through their participation in the 25-year-old feminist workspace cult comedy, 9 to 5. And a new proclamation from Dolly Parton suggests 9 to 5 affiliations may soon become even stronger.
For Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, Grace and Frankie was an anticipated onscreen reunion. But though Tomlin and Fonda’s characters were the first to band together against their misogynist boss in 9 to 5, they’re eventually joined by Dolly Parton’s character, who they’d wrongly ostracized due to their own stereotyping based on her buxomness and southern charm. That movie was very much about the three characters, and so in order to complete the fulfillment of 9 to 5 fans’ fantasies, Dolly Parton would have to appear on Grace and Frankie. (Also, Parton should just appear in everything, anyway.)
According to The Hollywood Reporter, at the summer press tour for the Television Critics Association, Parton — who was there to discuss her major plans for NBC telepics based on her songs — expressed her enthusiasm about a 9 to 5 reunion on Grace and Frankie. Though she admitted to not having seen the show, she said:
I told them whenever I get a little block of time, I’d love to come be on the show. We always talked about a [9 to 5] reunion.
She allegedly joked that, 25 years later, such a reunion would seem more like “95.” She also referenced Grace and Frankie‘s premise of two women who become friends when their husbands leave them for one another, saying, “I don’t know what my husband [on the show] is going to turn out to be…but we’ll figure it out.” I mean, I’m certainly down for a plotline about a polyamorous triad between Sam Waterston, Martin Sheen and some other respected septuagenarian.