Have Reboots & Reality TV reached saturation point?

[EricMontreal22]

I have to say I've been a bit surprised by Murphy Brown's reboot.  I don't think it's great, or even really very good, and yet, it works for me much better than I ever expected it to.  My memories of the old series are pretty vague--I think I watched with my family relatively often, at least near the end, but it was never must watch and I don't remember ever having the chance to watch reruns (as mentioned it's particularly odd that CBS didn't stream it before the reboot--just another reason why the reboot surprised me.  Will and Grace, Roseanne, etc, seem like they've been rerun and easy to watch for ages).  But I think the cast, even the less talented members, play off each other well, I like the chemistry between Murphy and Avery, Tyne Daly seems to work, etc.  The anti-Trump stuff is a bit much and the desire for *every* episode to tackle some modern political issue is also a bit much (like making the Thanksgiving episode suddenly be about deportation) but it does have a bit of an older-style sitcom charm.  ANyway I take it we're only getting the one season.

Completely agreed.  And man, I had no idea Blair Brown was involved.  I think the pilot aired at some conferences?

[Khan]

 

Yes.  It managed to last three or four seasons, but I don't think it was any good.

 

It's strange that reboots and revivals are or have been the latest trend, since many would argue that each "new" series that comes along is just derivative of something else.

[Vee]

LOL, I have a DS show bible rotting in a drawer dating back to the mid-2000s when I was college. While the stories were very different it was heavily influenced structure-wise by the then-new Joss Whedon structure of horror/soap plotting, which of course has influenced most shows since - a seasonal villain, etc. Most of the planned twists have been mined by shows since, though. It also was actually a direct follow-up to the original show utilizing both a young cast and some of the original stars, which is not remotely viable today - Carolyn Stoddard had a secret just like her mother Elizabeth, namely that she'd killed her son, the Leviathan Antichrist, a JFK Jr. type, and was ward to her teenage grandson, etc. Barnabas was back, but it was a big surprise how. (And again, a twist since mined by another show.)

 

I know DS inside and out and love it - I was obsessed with it when I was a kid. I just don't have an interest in it anymore. But it is beyond me why it hasn't been rebooted.

 

As for MB, I really enjoy it. It is definitely far from perfect but I think it mostly gets better and funnier by the week and is a lot of wish fulfillment in troubled times. And some of its issue episodes - and issues are a lot of what MB does, for better or worse - really work, like the #MeToo one and the latest two. It probably won't get another season, but I don't think it's been a disgrace to their legacy or anything. Bergen, Shaud, Regalbuto, etc. all are still on point for what they do.

[Paul Raven]

It's crazy (and clever) how streaming has turned things around.

 

Once upon a time if asked what you did on the weekend, you replied 'watched hours of TV' you'd be classified as a loser.

 

Nowadays, the same response is totally cool.

[All My Shadows]

Yes, it was screened in places (or maybe just in one place?). It ended up online, but it looks like there is only a small clip on YouTube at the moment.

I've been watching a lot of (original) Dynasty via Amazon Prime lately, and I know this topic has probably been exhausted, but LORD, in the age of TV shows centering on rich, pretty people, it's beyond me why we never got a continuation when we could. I imagine that's a no-go now that the CW version is here and isn't going anywhere (my students love it - I showed them clips of original Alexis and Krystle's catfights during our unit on absolute monarchy [indoctrination]), but I'm in season five, and you have all of these babies and toddlers running around - cousins LB and Danny with their Aunt Krystina, who happens to be a few years younger than them. They'd be in their early/mid 30s now.

[DramatistDreamer]

Up until a year ago, I was jonesing for a Capitol reboot but at this time, I feel as if the moment may have passed.  We're drenched in politics and the bloom is definitely off the rose.  Our current politics is just so so in the gutter, the seductive quality has been totally stripped away.

It's all bonesaws and bareknuckle insults. Perhaps when this current 'bull in a china shop' series of moments are over in our politics, the idea of a Capitol reboot might become alluring again.

 

I have to say, though, that there is a weird symmetry to how the 1980s soap ended with a journalist's association with a Middle Eastern prince, leading to her death amid recent events.

[Khan]

 

It could be because 1) the movie version w/ Johnny Depp tanked and 2) the last time Dan Curtis rebooted the show, it, too, tanked.

 

Some old properties just are better left alone.

 

Conversely, I think "Columbo" or "Murder, She Wrote" could be rebooted successfully, but only with actors who could stand toe-to-toe with Peter Falk and Angela Lansbury, respectively.

 

Also, I'm looking for someone to do a "A Different World" revival.

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[DRW50]

 

There was another attempt at a revival in the early or mid '00s, I think for the WB. I think each time things just get in the way. I could see a revival working, maybe for Netflix, but I am not expecting it. 

 

After Angela Lansbury was unhappy about the MSW reboot I don't think that will happen while she's still with us. 

[Khan]

 

I disagree.  I think it could happen -- not necessarily will happen, but could happen -- while she's still alive, as long as the next writer/producer does not make the same mistake of premising a series that is MSW "in name only."  I don't believe AL expected a potential new series to be an exact replica of the old.  However, she was correct to say there are certain elements to the MSW franchise -- namely, Cabot Cove and its' denizens -- that shouldn't be tossed aside.

[Soapsuds]

I'd be satisfied with a MSW reunion movie....one in February and one in May sweeps....

[Soaplovers]

 

It was a shame that the 1991 Dark Shadows reboot didn't take off because it got it right in terms of casting most of the characters... while correcting the mistake of not having Victoria/Josette resemble one another.   The main reason they show tanked wasn't because it wasn't good.. but because it debuted right when the Persian Gulf war was starting so it got moved around/pre-empted all the time so that no one knew where it was airing (The first two or three airings got strong ratings).. and it had a great Christmas promo for it

 

 

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Timing and a change in leadership doomed the show from getting a second chance.  Since than, any attempt to revive it has failed (saw the WB pilot.. and it wasn't good).. and Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie.. we won't go there.

 

I think you can reboot a series, but it has to be the right series to reboot.. or else it will fail.  Murphy Brown would have worked if it was rebooted in 2016 instead of 2018..imho.

 

 

[Vee]

I don't think DS 91 was bad, but I also haven't seen it in years. I do think Dan Curtis was too involved in plotting and made the plot heavily resemble the campy, OTT House of Dark Shadows - they had killed half the cast left and right by the end of the season, including the gorgeous Michael T. Weiss who played Joe Haskell, which was unthinkably stupid. (There was idle talk of having him return as werewolf Chris Jennings or something, but still)

[EricMontreal22]

Haven't there been gay/straight Odd Couple takes?  *edit* Maybe not and certainly I can't recall what I thought I saw which had the GAY guy be sloppy (though there was that odd John Goodman sitcom where he played a slobby gay guy) and the straight guy be prissy.  But there was Some of My Best Friends, the sitcom version of Kiss Me Guido which had Justin Bateman rooming with Danny Nucci, written by a post Golden Girls but pre Desperate Housewives Marc Cherry.  It wasn't good but wasn't all that bad either -- it seems to all be on youtube including the original pilot when it was called Kiss Me Guido and had a slightly different cast.

 

 

Which is why I don't see it as strange at all.  This way (I say cynically) they don't have to pretend it's actually a  new concept, and they hope they can pick up audience members nostalgic for the originals.  Which is why it particularly makes sense with network TV (though I know Netflix arguably really started the trend) which now more than  ever depend on an older demo.

Still, it's not an entirely new trend.  Lucille Ball to some extent basically tried to reboot I Love Lucy (OK there she did pretend it was something new) all her life.  Dragnet in the 1960s was already a reboot (of a tv show that was adapted from a radio show, no less).  Etc

 

Yeah I was so obsessed that I became a bit... oversaturated with it and have needed a break lol

 

I think that assessment is more than fair--and I agree about the cast and their chemistry, especially considering how so many of them had essentially retired from the industry.  I'm assuming one reason it seems we won't get a second season was that many of the people involved sorta thought it would be a one season and done from the start, but that's just an assumption based on all the interviews and press.

This is not meant to sound insulting towards Capitol, but wouldn't it simply make more sense in this case to simply create something new with a similar concept>  Capitol holds (at least in the social world I live in) absolutely zero name recognition whatsoever.  I dunno, it would be like if Hulu had decided instead of rebooting AMC and OLTL (*cry*) they had announced they were rebooting Loving instead.  And I say that as a huge Loving fan

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Those would both seem like mistakes to me because it was Falk and Lansbury--much more than any other element of either show--that caused people to tune in for so many years.  Of course the same could be said about something like Hawaii 50 or Magnum PI and their stars, I guess, so what do I know.  But I still think a reboot is pretty useless when 90% of the appeal was really for an actor who won't be a part of the new one.

[EricMontreal22]

I agree about the quality and some of the reasons for why the 91 reboot failed.  I will say that it also may be harder the more time passes.  In 1991 there would have still been a ton of TV viewers who remembered DS from when it first aired, very well.  It was 20 years after it ended.  Now it is 45+ years after it ended and sure it's still a relatively large cult thing, and a ton of it still influences a lot of pop culture, but...

 

I thought the remake was more than solid, but I do think they were burning through plot and characters foolishly fast...

[Paul Raven]

If the ratings were better,for sure CBS would have pressed for more Murphy. Network TV is all about getting every last drop from a show.

 

As for DS 91, they went back into the past too soon.I think there should have been more contemporary stuff before the regression.