Rebooting TV shows

[Susie Q]

Why are TV shows getting reboots lately? Unable to find a creative writer to make new shows? Nostalgia?
What do you think of some of the reboots?

• Will and Grace
• Roseanne (now The Conners)
• Murphy Brown
• Fuller House

Gotta say, I was happy about Will and Grace. It's still just as good in my opinion.

[Terry]

The Roseanne reboot I liked, which was odd as I wasn't particularly a fan of the show the first time around, but had seen enough of them the first time around to remember what the show was. And I thought the reboot captured enough of the original sprit, and captured it well enough, for there to have been some sense of purpose for the reboot.

From what I gather, Fuller House was relatively satisfying for fans of the original show.

Will and Grace I had heard about during its first run, but had only seen a couple of episodes. Wasn't really for me.

Murphy Brown I was never huge about during the initial series. However, during the initial series, I could at least recognize the sitcom rhythms in terms of the laughs, regardless of enjoying the humor or not. I caught about ten minutes of the reboot, and it just...sort of laid there onscreen...just floundering. And ten minutes for a sitcom without anything funny going on is not a good sign.

It's hard to say for me, because beginning in the early 1990s I slowly began disengaging from tv. I wasn't all ga ga over Seinfeld. I didn't give a shit about Friends. So, I'm not particularly invested emotionally in these 90s shows being rebooted in terms of saying "how DARE they try to reboot this series?!" By the time the 2000s rolled around and shitty reality shows began replacing shitty sitcoms, my disinterest in television in general terms accelerated. I only tend to catch tv shows now when the missus is watching them, like the Roseanne reboot.

The weird part? When I was growing up in the 1970s through about 1985, I fucking LOVED television. Now, I tend to agree with the notion someone once uttered that tv is just an idiot box pumping you with sex and death and holding your attention just long enough to sell you something you don't need.

[ZahZoo]

It's odd that the entertainment industry can't turn out new programming and seems fixated on recycling old shows.

The Rosanne/Conners show was ok... not quite as great as the original and some of the subjects/punch-lines seems forced.

My wife wanted to see Murphy Brown... we agreed it stunk.

Haven't seen Will & Grace nor Fuller House... not interested.

Part of the problem may be there's too many choices... used to be just 3 channels competing for prime-time entertainment. Then there's the mine-field of politically correctness that you couldn't even consider something as controversial as All in the Family, Sanford & Son's, Jefferson's, Married w/ Children reboots...

I miss old comedies like Barney Miller, Night Court, Taxi, Cheers, Mash, etc...

[Terry]

Considering the amount of movie sequels and remakes the entertainment industry has been churning out over the last 40 years, I guess the surprise is that it took so long for the television format to start churning out reboots.

I'd agree that with the sheer amount of methods to view programs now vs. the 1970s/1980s, it's pretty tough for any one show to capture the zeitgeist. Even recent top-ranked sitcoms like 2 & 1/2 Men, as high as their ratings are, still aren't being watched by a majority of the viewing public. Lot of niche subsets these days. And with that many channels or avenues, there's just too much air time to fill without taking shortcuts a la reboots.

I did hear a lot of excitement over shows like Mad Men, Game Of Thrones, The Walking Dead. For me, the 1/2 hr sitcom format dried up years ago as a form. Kind of along the same lines as late night talk shows hosted by white males a la The Johnny Carson Show. About the only good one of those I saw post-1995 that piqued some interest for me was the Craig Ferguson show, where Ferguson was an anomaly and he tweaked the format slightly. Otherwise, it's just yet another guy coming out, doing a monologue, doing a couple comedy bits, sitting behind a desk for an interview. To the point where who really gives a shit if it is Letterman, Leno, O'Brien, Fallon or whoever, when the form itself is tired.

[twonabomber]

I watched some of the Roseanne. ABC pulled the rest before I could finish.

Never watched Murphy Brown or Will & Grace and wasn't going to start now.

I shut my Playstation Vue off for the summer and haven't really watched much beyond the local channels. Was going to start watching Mayans MC but I'm seeing mixed reviews. I still haven't watched the last two episodes of Westworld yet.

[ZahZoo]

Mayans MC is fairly good... the story lines are starting to develop and got off to a slow start. Definitely not as good as SOA... but not terrible either.

[FORD]

Even if the networks have to bring back 20 year old sitcoms, it's still better than "reality" shows or useless singing competitions to find the next generation of corporate bubblegum "singing" talent.

Was a little disappointed by the Murphy Brown reboot episode, since it was all about Hillary worship (she was actually in the episode, for fucks sake) but hopefully it will get better from there. Not "must see TV" for me, but I'll probably watch it if I got nothing better to do.

Reportedly the reason for the Roseanne character's absence on "The Conners" is going to be that she died from an opiate overdose, which is completely logical, as they were dropping big hints last season that she was abusing pain pills to manage knee pain while postponing surgery for financial reasons (ironically at the same time praising the Orange Imbecile who took her health care away from her. Go figure). I guess that's a good way to make a PSA about the opiate crisis, but will they have the balls to discuss the actual health care issues? Doubt the Disney corporation will let them go there. On the other hand, if Hillary can show up on Murphy Brown, maybe Bernie Sanders can have a rally for Medicare For All in fictional Lanford Illinois?

On the other hand, what's up with CBS's prime time lineup. For years they couldn't come up with anything but new spinoffs of the CSI & NCIS franchises. Now they seem to be rebooting all the old shows from the 70s & 80s. First it was Hawaii 5-0. Then Mac Gyver. Now there's a Magnum PI reboot (Which I haven't seen yet) Of course these are technically remakes rather than reboots, since there aren't any original cast members involved

Again, it's better than the reality crap, but you would think that somebody could have an original idea for a TV show once in a while. Or have all those people defected to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon??

[Nitro Express]

Even if the networks have to bring back 20 year old sitcoms, it's still better than "reality" shows or useless singing competitions to find the next generation of corporate bubblegum "singing" talent.

Was a little disappointed by the Murphy Brown reboot episode, since it was all about Hillary worship (she was actually in the episode, for fucks sake) but hopefully it will get better from there. Not "must see TV" for me, but I'll probably watch it if I got nothing better to do.

Reportedly the reason for the Roseanne character's absence on "The Conners" is going to be that she died from an opiate overdose, which is completely logical, as they were dropping big hints last season that she was abusing pain pills to manage knee pain while postponing surgery for financial reasons (ironically at the same time praising the Orange Imbecile who took her health care away from her. Go figure). I guess that's a good way to make a PSA about the opiate crisis, but will they have the balls to discuss the actual health care issues? Doubt the Disney corporation will let them go there. On the other hand, if Hillary can show up on Murphy Brown, maybe Bernie Sanders can have a rally for Medicare For All in fictional Lanford Illinois?

On the other hand, what's up with CBS's prime time lineup. For years they couldn't come up with anything but new spinoffs of the CSI & NCIS franchises. Now they seem to be rebooting all the old shows from the 70s & 80s. First it was Hawaii 5-0. Then Mac Gyver. Now there's a Magnum PI reboot (Which I haven't seen yet) Of course these are technically remakes rather than reboots, since there aren't any original cast members involved

Again, it's better than the reality crap, but you would think that somebody could have an original idea for a TV show once in a while. Or have all those people defected to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon??

I don't like remakes of old classic shows. They usually fail anyways. One reason we don't have good shows anymore is the shows get pulled before the show has a chance to grow. It takes awhile for the actors to get their chemistry down and it takes a while for the show to get it's mojo. Also you do need some real artists running things. Bean counters suck at creativity.

[Susie Q]

I watched one episode of Murphy Brown and haven't seen any other episodes. The Conners is pretty good. Not sure if it will survive a second season. I lo e Will and Grace. It's still as good as it was when it went off the air.

[ZahZoo]

Watched an episode of the Conners... seemed fairly mediocre. The obvious thing missing was the sarcastic, cynical, politically incorrect central character, the original show was created around. Of the remaining characters, the cynical daughter role of Darlene can't carry the show like Rosanne's character/persona did...

It's what it would be like if they recycled All in Family... Archie bunker died and they returned with Edith, Meatloaf and Gloria carrying on their simple, nice existence without a colorful character sitting in that old recliner... yawn.

[Seshmeister]

I would expect any Married With Children reboot to be shit.

I can't see it ever being edgy enough, for example can you imagine having a slutty teenage girl character nowadays?

[ZahZoo]

Agreed... no way they could have the slutty daughter and the #meToo folks would prevent them from having Al or the son getting any air-time!

[Nitro Express]

I would expect any Married With Children reboot to be shit.

I can't see it ever being edgy enough, for example can you imagine having a slutty teenage girl character nowadays?

It will be as good as American Top Gear which sucked warthog nuts. People here watched Top Gear because it was British. It was entertaining because it was different. The hosts and the cars. People like variety. They don't want to eat a Big Mac in Paris. Also you just don't remake shows that were hugely popular when they originally ran. It will alway be a failure. People want new stuff that's good. Where are the creative thinkers and writers? Maybe those people exist. Maybe the system won't let the creative juice flow.

[Seshmeister]

I think part of the appeal of Top Gear came from the fact that it was the BBC which meant that they could say a car was shit without worrying about losing advertising.

[Nitro Express]

I can remember the questions of who you would rather screw. Kelly Bundy or Mrs. Bundy? Most guys probably wanted to screw both of them. If you wanted to screw Mrs. Bundy, Kelly Bundy, and Mr. Bundy you would be considered a well rounded individual these days and might even have a shot at winning political office.