CBS to remake "Wild Wild West"

[DRW50]

http://www.deadline.com/2010/11/cbs-to-remake-the-wild-wild-west-series-with-writers-ron-moore-and-naren-shankar/

Considering H50's ratings compared to CSI Miami last year I'm not sure if it's all that much of a success.

I don't see the point of these remakes. I definitely don't see why they would take a fun show and give it to Ron Moore, who only writes depressing, navel-gazing roads to nowhere.

[lovely_m]

I read about this earlier today and this madness needs to stop already. How many remakes are in the works? It's like Hollywood's not even trying anymore.

[DRW50]

And none of these remakes work. Over and over we hear that this is a modern, edgy, daring update, because the original was just so old and inferior. And viewers don't want to know. I still laugh at the Bionic Woman flop, where the producer said he didn't even watch the original show. And we got yet another ponderous, empty-headed nothing.

[All My Shadows]

*screams*

It's ridiculous.

[Khan]

At least the original "Hawaii Five-O" was a good show. The original "Wild Wild West" was (IMHO) simply awful and probably one of the last series that needed to be rebooted.

[applcin]

I dunno. I mentioned in the Hawaii 5-0 thread a while back that I'm not against the concept of remakes, if they are well done and have some resemblance to the original show and concept. I mean, my favorite show in all of creation is the original Star Trek yet I enjoyed the 2009 film even though my beloved characters all had new faces. Should they ever decide to turn this incarnation into a series, I'd give it a shot.

To me, H50 is nothing more than a generic cop show set in Hawaii, with a nostalgic title and theme attached to it. I couldn't watch it anymore beyond 2 1/2 episodes. Likewise, I found The Bionic Woman so far removed and darker from the original that I knew it was doomed. And yet a show like Battlestar Galactica succeeded. I'm not sure why they (the networks) are so gung-ho about remakes, especially if, for instance, there haven't been films or tv-movies done to see if there's even an audience. For instance, if they were gonna do remakes, why not capitalize on The Addams Family or Batman when those movies came out, reviving interest and creating new fans? I mean, a western? Talk about reviving a genre.

The danger with remakes is you can end up turning off fans of the original and you can't bank on younger viewers who have no predisposition to watch something they never heard of anyway.

Actually, one remake I would have been curious to see was another go at Mission:Impossible (even though it was attempted a couple of decades ago)....based on the series, not on the movies. On the one hand, that was sort of a "procedural" drama long before shows like CSI came about in the sense that it focused on the assignment and not on the characters' lives. But, in this technological age of being able to be watched, tracked, surveilled, videoed, published, researched everywhere, how undercover can people be anymore?

Sigh....no wonder I'd rather watch classics more than what's on now.

[DRW50]

I think the BSG remake succeeded because the original was not all that fondly remembered. Even then, it was only a niche show, and one which I think experienced steady ratings erosion before going out with a whimper.

If you're going to remake something then try to remake something people don't remember all that fondly. They can remake "My Mother the Car."

[Khan]

Any day now, I expect this network (CBS) to announce they're rebooting "Murder, She Wrote" as well.

[DRW50]

They'll never do that. It had an old person. Cooties!

They'd probably recast the role with Jessica Stiles or somebody.

[Khan]

True that.

Even worse, they'd refashion it to make it look like "CSI: Cabot Cove" or some crazy [!@#$%^&*] like that.

[DRW50]

Dead Harbor

[wingwalker]

Ha, I was just thinking not too long ago, that one of the networks should try to revive the Western and if any network, it be CBS. At least they aren't trying to remake Gunsmoke (yet, lol). I think it could work, I don't the think the Original series or the Will Smith movie are all that fondly remembered the way most other shows/movies the networks try to remake are, so this remake probably won't have this huge bar to jump over. Plus, the steampunk/scifi element could the twist to make in more intersting to younger viewers that might find your typical western boring. (although Firefly tried the Western/scifi combo and didn't work)

I think this has the potential to be good and a success, whether it will be, we'll have to wait and see.

[JackPeyton]

Remakes do not suck anymore or less than original programming today anyways.

I am always down for a remake, if for nothing else other than opening my eyes to the original. In this case, i do not much care to see the original (or remake) tho.

I still think its funny ABC was legit thinking of remaking Alias. I wonder how long until The CW tries to remake Buffy, Dawsons Creek, and 7th heaven.

[DRW50]

I think the original is somewhat fondly remembered.

The real question is why this is being remade at all, since Moore doesn't seem like someone who would enjoy any of the more lighthearted elements of the show. Why not just make a new show entirely? If an entire episode is devoted to a greasy-haired West sitting in a pitch black room staring into his own misery, then there's not much to do with the original version.

[soapfan770]

So will Will Smith be starring in the lead role? *ducks and runs*