F-U, Reboot-Mania: Express Your Hate Here

[SVNBob]

And [MacGyver]'ll have PTSD.

Actually, that's not a too far-fetched idea.  It could add a layer to Mac's "no guns" policy.

[UYI]

I had no idea until last night that Coach is no longer on Netflix. I wonder if the new pilot not being picked up had anything to do with that. I know the show has been on Netflix for a long time, and eventually you need to rotate other shows in its place, but I still wonder if the failure of the "reboot" (really a continuation) pushed it over the edge. Either way, it SUCKS, because only the first four seasons are on DVD, and Netflix had the whole series. :(

 

People may have made fun of the idea of a new version of Coach, but that show DOES have fans like me out there who have kept it on in syndication over the years (although I think it currently isn't on in syndication at the moment--hopefully that will change soon) and brought it to DVD/Netflix. 

[Kromm]

Haven't there already been several MacGyver-esque series since MacGyver? (I know, I know, those didn't have the brand/name recognition.)

I don't think so.

 

But even if there were, none of them had that sweet ass cheesetastic theme song!

 

Or that utterly glorious (cheesetastic) explosion in the credits (except for maybe that "McGruber" parody that SNL did).

[DittyDotDot]

Awww. Richard Dean Anderson is practically a baby! ;)

 

I haven't thought about MacGyver in years. Thanks for that!

[Raja]

Haven't there already been several MacGyver-esque series since MacGyver? (I know, I know, those didn't have the brand/name recognition.)

 

 

I don't think so.

 

 

The only one I could think of was Dr. Hank and PA Divya on Royal Pains being medical MacGuyvers. Maybe Michael Weston on Burn Notice but it wasn't as big a part of the show as on MacGuyver or Hank's field improvisations.

[ganesh]

Early Burn Notice, and when Michael is doing jobs for the "someone needs your help" episodes, is fairly MacGuyver. It's based on Michael's field work prior as a spy, but they would give the VOs on how to avoid the tail, etc. So it wasn't MacGuyver things per se, but he was MacGuyvering to a point.

[opus]

Nancy Drew at CBS. Can the Hardy Boys be far behind?

http://deadline.com/2015/10/cbs-drama-series-nancy-drew-book-series-1201567695/#comments

[Kromm]

Nancy Drew at CBS. Can the Hardy Boys be far behind?

http://deadline.com/2015/10/cbs-drama-series-nancy-drew-book-series-1201567695/#comments

I don't totally hate the idea of Nancy Drew. It was done on TV, sure, but really badly. To me that leaves an actual opening for it because its not only been a REALLY long time, but it's not rebooting a success.... it's simply retrying a failure to see if they can get it right this time.

 

But... there's an immediate fail with making her in her 30s and working for the NYPD. Bullshit. Who wants to watch that?  That's just using the name and making a different show. Instead, I'd do a contemporary teen version, but ala Veronica Mars (a little less with her being an outcast, but following the same kind of mystery and plot structures).  That could have worked brilliantly with the right actress. 

[merylinkid]

 

making her in her 30s and working for the NYPD

 

Isn't that Law & Order SVU?  Or Kate Beckett on Castle?   I mean seriously folks, how many shows are on right now with people working for NYPD?    At least  find another city.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Nancy Drew at CBS. Can the Hardy Boys be far behind?

http://deadline.com/2015/10/cbs-drama-series-nancy-drew-book-series-1201567695/#comments

 

 

I don't totally hate the idea of Nancy Drew. It was done on TV, sure, but really badly. To me that leaves an actual opening for it because its not only been a REALLY long time, but it's not rebooting a success.... it's simply retrying a failure to see if they can get it right this time.

 

But... there's an immediate fail with making her in her 30s and working for the NYPD. Bullshit. Who wants to watch that?  That's just using the name and making a different show. Instead, I'd do a contemporary teen version, but ala Veronica Mars (a little less with her being an outcast, but following the same kind of mystery and plot structures).  That could have worked brilliantly with the right actress. 

 

 

Huh. I know that they did a movie? or an attempt at a new Nancy Drew series a few years ago; Okay, closer to 10 years ago, maybe with Maggie Lawson as Nancy Drew. She of Psych fame.  And her dad was played by Brett Cullen. I didn't think it was too bad. I think it was just a one-off, though? I can't remember.

[roamyn]

I'd rather see Trixie Belden. She was more hip when I was growing up.

[Wax Lion]

There was The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries in the 70s which started out with every other episode focusing on Pamela Sue Martin as Nancy. The show lasted three seasons, but looking at the wikipedia article in the second season all the episodes were focused on the Hardy boys with Nancy being kind of a sidekick and Martin quit the show midway through that season. By the third season the show was just The Hardy Boys.

 

Nancy Drew is a challenging character, IMO, because she's a teen character in a book series aimed at much younger readers (I know a lot of pre-teens read them) but the books can be enjoyed by adults. Overall, tho, TV has trouble with teen characters. You have soaps where teens act like adults or teens in adult dramas where the writers struggle not to make them unbearable. What made Veronica Mars remarkable was that it was a teen drama that adults and teens could enjoy, just that a lot of adults couldn't be convinced to watch a teen drama on UPN/CW.

 

Trying to think of a decent template for Nancy Drew, I'd probably say they should be aiming for Alex Dumphy from Modern Family if she started solving mysteries. Nancy's supposed to be smart and willful, but still has a lot of love and respect for her father. That's actually surprisingly unique for TV.

 

But a 30ish Nancy as a New York cop? That's the most generic take on the character possible.

[paulvdb]

That sounds more like someone developed a new series for CBS and they wanted to use a known name to attract more viewers. So they randomly selected some older crime solving series with a female lead and took Nancy Drew from the list. I'm not very familiar with Nancy Drew, but with that description it sounds like they could just as easily have called it "Murder She Wrote" and it would have just as much in common with the source material as it does with Nancy Drew.

[DearEvette]

Of course CBS would make Nancy Drew into a 30-something police procedural.  Keep on' CBS-ing, CBS!

 

I swear if they decided to remake Sweet Valley High, Jessica & Elizabeth would be twin sister LAPD detectives, one good cop one bad cop!

Or Encyclopedia Brown would be an ex-NPYD cop who was fired for not following the rules and now he's a PI who helps his dad solve cases

Or the Animoprhs would be an elite CSI team who use their "special" skills to solve crimes

 

Seriously, it would have made more sense to make Nancy at least a college student solving crimes with the help of some friends.

[Kromm]

Of course CBS would make Nancy Drew into a 30-something police procedural.  Keep on' CBS-ing, CBS!

Nancy Drew as a 30-something NYPD cop is like Sherlock Holmes, in New York, in modern times, with a totally different personality and a female Watson, who far worse than being female isn't even a Doctor, or a writer.

I bet 30-something NYPD Nancy is kind of like 30-something Beckett on Castle, or 30-something whatever her name was on Forever, or maybe even 40-something Laura Whateverhernameis on The Mysteries of Laura, or {insert some other female NYPD cop on TV here}.

(the big difference being that the 40-something cop has kids and an ex)

[ganesh]

That sounds more like someone developed a new series for CBS and they wanted to use a known name to attract more viewers.

 

That's the textbook definition of reboot imo. 

[kassygreene]

To me it sounds like the alternate universe form of fanfiction.  Take known characters and universe, twist to write the story you want to tell, but keep the original sources so you can post it in fic forums and get eyes reading your stuff.

 

Now, some fanfic writers are very very good, and should be writing original stuff (and maybe some of them are).  But the quick and dirty way to get readers if you don't want to go through the long-term grind and heartbreak of professional writing is to borrow already established characters, location, relationships, etc.

 

I'm not knocking this!!!!!  If I could actually write (plot, character, setting, intelligent use of words, etc), I would be writing lots of fanfic because I think it is one way (of many) to get useful feedback and experience at reworking the story.  Most reboots just aren't good.

 

(I also never got Nancy Drew, or the Hardy Boys.  I had a hard time slogging through the many specializations of Cherry Ames.)

 

(And if anyone ever did a series about Cherry Ames, I would try to watch!)

Edited October 6, 2015 by kassygreene

[Kromm]

To be clear, Nancy Drew WOULD need a spin on it to be interesting (or even palatable) to a modern audience. It's just that the mature "New York Police Detective" angle is SO hackneyed. 

 

That's why I suggested the Veronica Mars model. where she could basically be her classic self, but stuck inside a Noir setting a bit (albeit as less of an overt outcast). But you could also do her in a transition period from teen to adult investigator and get some miles from that (so an early 20-something). Or you could go younger and do a pre-teen version, and Goosebumps the whole thing up a bit and just make it a fun lark.  Which might turn some people off, but if it's got those slightly silly angles intentionally, it could have been done as sort of an homage to all kinds of fun stuff from the 80s.

[bmoore4026]

http://www.avclub.com/article/cbs-starts-development-young-miss-marple-series-226412

 

I succinctly expressed my thoughts (in my own inimitable fashion) on this turn of events in the article's comment section.  You'll know it when you see it because I post there under the same user name.

[Kromm]

I can't imagine a more moronic, lamebrained, exploitative, stupid idea than "Young Miss Marple In California".

 

Everything wrong with remakes in general, then adding in everything wrong with lame bad reinventions, piled together into one idea.

 

Miss Marple HAS to be old for there to be a point. She HAS to be English. I could see her in another environment perhaps, but that's already half-way to "Murder She Wrote" (which other than the English part was probably loosely based on Miss Marple). 

 

If you want a series about a mystery solving young American bookshop owner, there are countless books series already with main characters like that.  Ergo, this is just a lame "name grab".

 

I know I've always been in the tiny minority that thinks "Elementary" was also that. But their interest in this AND "old NYPD Nancy Drew" (and the Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn Mystery thing, which is also hilariously misguided) proves, I think, that CBS KNOWS they are a factory for this kind of bullshit.

[paulvdb]

Has CBS been reading my mind? When I posted my previous post on Nancy Drew I compared it to Murder She Wrote with Jessica Fletcher as a 30-something NYPD detective, but I had actually thought of using Miss Marple instead. But I thought that might be a too British reference for this mostly North American site.

[merylinkid]

Part of the reason Miss Marple is so good at solving crimes is because no one suspects the sweet little old lady of being a detective.   The other part is because she has lived a long time wherein she has seen a lot of people interact.   She uses the knowledge from her long life and applies it to the confidences that people give to the sweet harmless looking little old lady to solve the crime.   I think you get my point here.

 

If you want a young lady bookstore owner who solves crimes, just do it.   You don't need a hook name.   You just do it.  

[ganesh]

CBS is so out of ideas that they troll internet tv message boards for pitches.

[UYI]

CBS is so out of ideas that they troll internet tv message boards for pitches.

 

I'd argue that we often have the better ideas now. ;)

[DearEvette]

http://www.avclub.com/article/cbs-starts-development-young-miss-marple-series-226412

 

I succinctly expressed my thoughts (in my own inimitable fashion) on this turn of events in the article's comment section.  You'll know it when you see it because I post there under the same user name.

 

Holy Cow!  My post upthread about Encyclopedia Brown and the Animorphs was (I thought) a (lame) joke, but having read the last sentence about Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer as crime-solving lawyers... yeah, I wouldn't be surprised now...

[Kromm]

Holy Cow!  My post upthread about Encyclopedia Brown and the Animorphs was (I thought) a (lame) joke, but having read the last sentence about Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer as crime-solving lawyers... yeah, I wouldn't be surprised now...

To be fair, Mark Twain himself wrote a book called Tom Sawyer, Detective. It's certainly nothing like Tom & Huck being grown up lawyers solving crimes, but it's not like THAT idea doesn't have some small rooting. In it's own way, Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer as crime-solving lawyers may actually be less ridiculous than Miss Marple as a contemporary, young California bookstore owner.  It's hilariously misguided, as I said before, but not so much because it's arbitrary, but because it's just SILLY.  Nobody would take it seriously (even if it was written as a comedy).

And there's more coming out about the A-Team TV reboot. Talk about ridiculous.  The following piece is just speculative, but it makes for silly reading.

 

http://www.ibtimes.com.au/team-tv-series-reboot-happening-new-cast-could-include-some-women-1472508

Not because it talks about females in the roles, but mostly because it just seems so arbitrary. Why remake the show with women instead of just make a fresh action franchise with women?  Why shoehorn instead of invent?  Oh I know... the branding. It's frustrating though.

[ganesh]

That's kind of dumb because there aren't women in special forces in the American military yet, are there?

 

The only reason for the article is because of the new Ghostbusters movie with all the women, which again, why not make a comedy featuring women? Both Bridesmaids and Pitch Perfect were new comedies with a female cast. They're clearly successful movies.

 

ZOMG Let's make The Hangover, but with WOMEN!!!1111!!!!

[UYI]

To be fair, it's not like the idea to do something but with an all-female cast is all that new, anyway. There was a female version of The Odd Couple on stage in the 80's with Sally Struthers and Rita Moreno, for instance. And to keep it within the realm of TV, Cagney & Lacey wouldn't have been seen as a groundbreaking show had it starred men (but that wasn't a reboot, so...okay, not the best example).

Edited October 7, 2015 by UYI

[Kromm]

To be fair, it's not like the idea to do something but with an all-female cast is all that new, anyway. There was a female version of The Odd Couple on stage in the 80's with Sally Struthers and Rita Moreno, for instance. And to keep it within the realm of TV, Cagney & Lacey wouldn't have been seen as a groundbreaking show had it starred men (but that wasn't a reboot, so...okay, not the best example).

Well in fact Cagney & Lacey is the COUNTER-example. It's what I suggested SHOULD be done. Make something original in the genre that uses women as their own new identities rather than as recycled reinventions of male roles.

[Guest]

http://www.ibtimes.com.au/team-tv-series-reboot-happening-new-cast-could-include-some-women-1472508

Not because it talks about females in the roles, but mostly because it just seems so arbitrary. Why remake the show with women instead of just make a fresh action franchise with women?  Why shoehorn instead of invent?  Oh I know... the branding. It's frustrating though.

 

I don't know, maybe someone wants to see if they can get Dirk Benedict to right another essay ala Starbuck and the BSG reboot.

 

Given the involvement Canell's daughter on this one, I'm going to assume (based on nothing) that she is posthumously telling Peppard to shove it because she heard a lot about how the male cast treated the actresses on the original version.

[BW Manilowe]

I don't know, maybe someone wants to see if they can get Dirk Benedict to right another essay ala Starbuck and the BSG reboot.

Given the involvement Canell's daughter on this one, I'm going to assume (based on nothing) that she is posthumously telling Peppard to shove it because she heard a lot about how the male cast treated the actresses on the original version.

If anyone's telling George Peppard anything, it's definitely posthumously. He died in 1994. But yeah, I've also heard The A-Team's set was an anti-female "Boys' Club" too, when it came to the men in the titular team & the lead cast's apparently token female(s).

Edited October 8, 2015 by BW Manilowe

[ganesh]

The line, "This is not a game!" has been uttered so many times that earlier today mathematicians derived a new set of infinity.

[Kromm]

A reboot I can ACTUALLY totally support?

 

Okay, technically since it's movie to TV it's an ADAPTATION...

 

Praise be to the Supreme Being! Terry Gilliam reveals that a Time Bandits TV show is in the works

 

Reasons why it might be okay.

 

1.) Gilliam is in charge.

2.) The concept had a lot more juice to it than one two hour movie

3.) Little People need employment opportunities too!

[CoderLady]

If well done, I'd watch that. There's so much history to plunder they'd never run out of material.

[Demented Daisy]

New American Gothic at CBS summer of 2016.

[Irlandesa]

New American Gothic at CBS summer of 2016.

Dammit.  I was hoping I'd get more Sheriff Buck...with a B.

 

What is this rebooting exactly? 

[Kromm]

It's just a new show with a name that's already been used.  So it's not a reboot at all. Especially since the other version was a ratings failure.  It's such a generic name that there certainly can't be any real intellectual property issues here, even if it's on the same network anyway (but not the same production company).

[Demented Daisy]

Dammit.  I was hoping I'd get more Sheriff Buck...with a B.

 

What is this rebooting exactly? 

 

 

It's just a new show with a name that's already been used.  So it's not a reboot at all. Especially since the other version was a ratings failure.  It's such a generic name that there certainly can't be any real intellectual property issues here, even if it's on the same network anyway (but not the same production company).

 

*shrug*  It's about as much a reboot as all the other shows that capitalize on name recognition without having anything to do with the original.

[Kromm]

*shrug*  It's about as much a reboot as all the other shows that capitalize on name recognition without having anything to do with the original.

They usually have a shared premise and common characters, even if both are altered somewhat.  From reports this literally is just the same name (and not even any connection in heritage).

 

And it's not like it wasn't also the name of a painting before any of this. The legacy of the name pre-exists the earlier show.

[Kromm]

Me making a joke about Galaxy Quest in the KODTTM (where Home Improvement is an entry now)  led me to uncover this news item from last Spring I never knew about until stumbling on it today...

 

‘Galaxy Quest’ Series In Works At Paramount Television

 

And this update on it from August:

 

‘Galaxy Quest’ TV Series Takes Flight at Amazon

 

Again (like Time Bandits), this is something that is an Adaptation between two mediums and NOT a reboot per-se, so given that it might not suck.  That said, even a good idea that hasn't been fully exploited still shows a current favoritism towards recycling ideas.

Edited October 12, 2015 by Kromm

[Crim]

It's just a new show with a name that's already been used.  So it's not a reboot at all. Especially since the other version was a ratings failure.  It's such a generic name that there certainly can't be any real intellectual property issues here, even if it's on the same network anyway (but not the same production company).

ITA. It's the title of a 1988 movie too, also unrelated.

[Demented Daisy]

Fantasy Island Remake w/a Female Lead (and no island)

[Kromm]

Fantasy Island Remake w/a Female Lead (and no island)

That's bizarre.

 

I mean it's not like a Fantasy Island remake would be inherently bad--it's just a bad idea. The one that WAS made in 1998 by Barry Sonnefeld with Malcolm McDowell was actually fairly good, qualitywise. But few people had any desire to WATCH it, so it tanked in the ratings.

 

But even beyond the problem that I bet STILL nobody wants to watch it, you can see the typical remake nonsense we've been joking about where stupid things are changed arbitrarily just to fit certain boxes some network moron thinks "sells" better. Moving it to San Francisco?  But STILL calling it "Fantasy Island"? Come the fuck on. That's like moving Nancy Drew to NYC. Or de-aging Miss Marple and making her a California bookstore owner. Just lame, unnecessary reinvention. And I wouldn't be surprised if the Ms. Roarke figure (I bet that's her name!) is also that early 30s white girl figure that is also figuring into so many of these lame reboot attempts. Except this one is "mysterious and sexy".

 

Okay, to be clear, IF Fantasy Island was rebootable again (and had a CHANCE of people actually wanting to watch this time), then having a female Roarke is not the problem as much as the San Francisco part. Does that part even BEGIN to make sense or seem necessary?

Edited October 12, 2015 by Kromm

[ganesh]

Except this one is "mysterious and sexy".

 

She can make *anyone's* fantasy come true...EXCEPT HER OWN!!!!

[Gudzilla]

 

Edited October 14, 2015 by Gudzilla

[bmasters9]

Who would be behind this Fantasy Island remake if it came to fruition? The reason I ask is that the original 1978-84 one with Ricardo Montalban and Herve Villechaize (and in 1983, Christopher Hewett, replacing Villechaize) was from Spelling/Goldberg IAW Columbia Pictures Television, as was T.J. Hooker and the remaining two seasons (1982-84) of Hart to Hart (Hart had Rona II in the mix as well).

Edited October 14, 2015 by bmasters9

[Kromm]

Who would be behind this Fantasy Island remake if it came to fruition? The reason I ask is that the original 1978-84 one with Ricardo Montalban and Herve Villechaize (and in 1983, Christopher Hewett, replacing Villechaize) was from Spelling/Goldberg IAW Columbia Pictures Television, as was T.J. Hooker and the remaining two seasons (1982-84) of Hart to Hart (Hart had Rona II in the mix as well).

And Barry Sonnefeld was the name on the first remake. I don't think that matters any more or less than Spelling being involved wit the original. Both are dead and gone relationships in regards to the property.

 

The article has the names "Sony", Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air), Jennifer Klein and Josh Berman (Drop Dead Diva) for this one. Variety also has the company name "Vendetta Productions" (which I think is just Klein and Berman's company--but Googling the name is useless because like a dozen different companies seem to have used the exact same name).

 

The common piece between ALL THREE versions is Columbia Pictures and their various partnerships and descendants. The original was just Columbia Pictures (what they were organized as in those days). The Sonnefeld version was Columbia-Tristar TV, with Sony Pictures as a distributor (Sony owned Columbia by that point), and the current article simply has "Sony" in the description--because I believe Columbia-Tristar TV was renamed "Sony Pictures Television" eventually.  ABC (although inevitably billed as co-producers) really just seem to be the customers/buyers on this.

Edited October 15, 2015 by Kromm

[opus]

Netflix revives Gilmore Girls. Looks like 4 ninety minute episodes.

http://tvline.com/2015/10/19/gilmore-girls-revival-netflix-new-episodes/

[Kromm]

Netflix revives Gilmore Girls. Looks like 4 ninety minute episodes.

http://tvline.com/2015/10/19/gilmore-girls-revival-netflix-new-episodes/

That's actually a surprisingly sensible format for the revival. Not so long they'd drag (like real movie length would), but without having to pump out too many scripts.

I wonder if they can get (or even afford) a few minutes of Melissa McCarthy's time now. That said, the lack of her won't kill anything.

[Rick Kitchen]

 

The article has the names "Sony", Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air), Jennifer Klein and Josh Berman (Drop Dead Diva) for this one. Variety also has the company name "Vendetta Productions" (which I think is just Klein and Berman's company--but Googling the name is useless because like a dozen different companies seem to have used the exact same name).

 

I looked up Vendetta Productions on imdb and came up with http://www.imdb.com/company/co0345523/?ref_=fn_co_co_2- the two shows listed there are "The Advocate" and "By Virtue Fall".  The Advocate is written by Sheldon Turner. The other one has no credits yet, it's in development.

Edited October 21, 2015 by Rick Kitchen