The rebooting of old TV series is now an epidemic, and it’s one that could be more deadly than the current flu. Plus, there’s no shot that can fix it.
Yesterday came news of reboots of “Magnum, P.I.” and “Cagney & Lacey” at CBS. Those are two shows no one needed to see again. The originals were just fine. CBS is also bringing back “Murphy Brown.” There was some talk of “All in the Family” reappearing. Producer Norman Lear has a Latino version of “One Day at a Time” on Netflix.
For CBS, the reboot is nothing new. They’ve just had a seven year run with “Hawaii 5-0.” And they had an unsuccessful one with “The Odd Couple.” Can a new “Murder, She Wrote” be far behind?
There’s also an idea of the hit show “Charmed” coming back. That announcement got star Holly Marie Combs to tweet: “While some may not get why I take issue with the network that didn’t want to renew Charmed 12 years ago ‘reimagining’ it now let me just say I understand it perfectly. Also this kinda stuff given all that Rose and Alyssa have done lately…um no. Just No”
Plus, there’s a version of “Dynasty” running on the CW, which I’m sure is tepid fun but really, the Carringtons of Denver aren’t the stuff of Shakespeare. Wasn’t it possible to think of a new premise and characters?
All of this comes as “Will & Grace,” exhumed, is back on NBC. And “Roseanne” is about to re-launch on ABC. “Fuller House” thrives on Netflix.
Is it just laziness on the part of the networks? Yes. Someone obviously said, these are are brand names. What the heck? Why try to sell something new to anyone?
I say ‘enough,’ and you say it too but it’s not going to stop. This has just become too easy for the networks. And so this will be what rap music’s sampling did to the last generation of music fans. There will be a small legacy of new works from this generation. It’s sort of like TV Fracking. Drill down into your resources now. Tomorrow they will be gone. Fear the Viewing Dead.
