Simmons Jogs Back To Syndie In 'dream' Strip

Richard Simmons will drop his court-jester-of-fitness image for a return to his old syndication stomping ground in a Vin Di Bona Prods. reality strip tentatively titled "Dream Makers."

The "feel-good show" is being pitched as a foil to much of daytime's "voyeuristic TV," its producers said.

Simmons will drop his vest-and-sports-shorts look for a "more eclectic" style in assuming host duties on a show "about making people's dreams come true," said Richard Brustein, Vin Di Bona's partner and an executive producer with Di Bona on the strip.

Simmons also takes an executive producer role, as does his manager Michael Catelono. The series is being packaged by Mark Itkin at the William Morris Agency.

Word of the series emerged Friday as sources reported that a major distributor with a broadcast arm signed the show for the 1999-2000 season, but Brustein denied that a deal has been inked.

With the high recognition factor Simmons brings and the track record of Vin Di Bona Prods. ("America's Funniest Home Videos," "America's Funniest People"), the project has a high interest level, studio sources said.

Brustein said the project will be pitched for daytime and afternoon time periods as an upbeat show to counterprogram harsh reality TV like "The Jerry Springer Show" that now populates daytime.

The project is a return to syndication for Simmons, whose "Richard Simmons Show" from Golden West distributors ran for four years in the early '80s and was a daytime hit. That show mixed fitness, lifestyle factoids and interviews; the new show "will be worlds removed from that," Brustein said. "It will be about making wishes and dreams and fantasies come true."