Mon 11 Nov 2013
by Michael Shonk
Remakes of TV series are so popular it seems everyone is doing it. Books continue the stories of MURDER SHE WROTE and MONK, comic books keep BUFFY THE VAMPIRE and THE MIDDLEMAN alive, and movies (and the studios that make them) love dead TV series. One could make a long list of TV series that have made it to the big screen including GUNN (1967, based on PETER GUNN), A TEAM, POLICE SQUAD, X-FILES, STARSKY AND HUTCH, etc. So it is no surprise television occasionally turns to its own past.
Not all remakes are a bad thing. Look at the past of COLUMBO. The character Columbo first appeared in an episode of the TV anthology series THE CHEVY MYSTERY SHOW in “Enough Rope†(NBC 7/31/60). The story for the episode was partly based on a short story “May I Come In†(published in ALFRED HITCHCOCK MYSTERY magazine under the title “Dear Corpus Delictiâ€) that did not have Columbo in it.
In 1962 the TV episode was remade into a stage play “Prescription Murder†which was adapted into a NBC TV Movie in 1968 starring Peter Falk. In 1971 the character returned in a NBC TV Movie called “Ransom For a Dead Man.†COLUMBO then became one of the rotating series in NBC MYSTERY MOVIE from 1971 until 1978. ABC brought back the cancelled series in 1989 for a series of TV Movies, first as part of ABC MYSTERY MOVIE (1989-1990) series, then as randomly scheduled TV Movies that lasted until 2003.
The resurrection of cancelled TV series is so common there is a book out covering the subject, TV FAST FORWARD: SEQUELS & REMAKES OF CANCELLED TV SERIES 1955-1992 (McFarland & Co. 1993) by Lee Goldberg (DIAGNOSIS MURDER). No doubt the book would double in size if it were brought up to date. To avoid a book long post here, I decided to be extra picky about what I include (feel free to ignore my rules in the comments). What I discovered was how much of TV’s best shows were adapted from other mediums.
So it must be original for TV. No series based on characters from books. Bye Sherlock Holmes, The Saint, Nero Wolfe, Ellery Queen, Mike Hammer, Perry Mason, Dracula, THE UNTOUCHABLES, HOUSE OF CARDS, and even STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO (yes, the two main characters were based on books by Carolyn Weston). No films. Bye LA FEMME NIKITA, ROBOCOP, and MCCLOUD. No plays. Bye CASABLANCA. No radio. Bye DRAGNET and GUNSMOKE. No comics. Bye BATMAN, SUPERMAN, FLASH GORDON, HUMAN TARGET and THE TICK. Not even “pulpsâ€. Bye SHEENA QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE.
The remake must have aired on American TV. No unaired pilots.
I will limit myself to the mystery/crime genre. But every genre has many TV remakes of its own including science fiction with STAR TREK, and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, westerns with MAVERICK, KUNG FU, and BONANZA, action with SEA HUNT and DUKES OF HAZZARD, romance with CUPID and LOVE BOAT, horror with DARK SHADOWS, KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER and THE ADDAMS FAMILY, children’s programs with SCOOBY DOO and BUGS BUNNY, comedies with GILLIGAN’S ISLAND, GIDGET, and ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, and dramas with DALLAS and THE FUGITIVE.
Cancelled series getting remade as pilots is nothing new but perhaps the earliest to make it back on the air was TIGHTROPE (CBS 1959-60) with unsold pilot THE EXPENDABLES that aired on ABC 9/27/62.
Starting in the 1970s the TV Movie became a popular format. The increase demand for content had each network looking everywhere for program ideas including its dead but not totally forgotten TV series.
TV series to return as TV Movies included RETURN OF THE MOD SQUAD (ABC 1979), RETURN OF FRANK CANNON (CBS 1980), RETURN OF THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (CBS 1983), STILL CRAZY LIKE A FOX (CBS 1987), WILD WILD WEST REVISITED (CBS 1979), MORE WILD WILD WEST (CBS 1989), and I SPY RETURNS (NBC 1994).
PETER GUNN returned to TV in a TV Movie (ABC, 1989) starring Peter Strauss. According to TV FAST FORWARD, the PETER GUNN TV Movie was a pilot that, along with MURPHY’S LAW (starring George Segal), would have been part of ABC MYSTERY MOVIE. But ABC went with Universal studios for COLUMBO and KOJAK remakes instead. MURPHY’S LAW (based on a book series TRACE that was a remake of a book series DIGGER, both written by Warren Murphy) was picked up as a weekly series but PETER GUNN was not.
Others to rise from the dead in TV Movies included James Garner in THE ROCKFORD FILES (CBS 1994-99), Angela Lansbury in MURDER, SHE WROTE (CBS 1997, 2000 -2003). Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers in HART TO HART (NBC 1993-94; Family Channel 1996-97).
POLICE STORY started as a weekly series on NBC (1973-77). In 1977 the series changed from 60-minute episodes to TV Movies that ended in 1978. In 1987-88 NBC brought POLICE STORY back for a series of TV Movies.
During the late 1980’s the market for programs exploded with the addition of new networks Fox, UPN, WB, and cable networks such as USA. The number of TV series remakes (the return of at least one of the original cast) and reboots (old series with new cast) increased.
Perhaps the strangest series remake was for ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS. During the series first run (1958-65) it bounced between CBS and NBC with different titles, the one thing uniting the series was host Alfred Hitchcock. Producer Christopher Crowe wanted to do an anthology series but had recently failed with one, DARKROOM (ABC 1981-82). The networks were not interested until he mentioned ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS.
NBC aired the NEW ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS first as a TV Movie in 1985. Based on the TV Movie’s success NBC made it a weekly series that aired from 1985 to 1986, then NBC moved it to its sister station cable network USA. The series featured Alfred Hitchcock as host which was unusual as Hitchcock had died in 1980 five years earlier. The series colorized Hitchcock’s original black and white introductions and used them with the new stories.
Cancelled TV series that have made the comeback to weekly series include BURKE’S LAW (ABC 1963-66; CBS 1994 -95). An episode from the remake is currently available on YouTube.
Others to return from cancellation as a new weekly series included THE FBI (ABC 1965-74) that was rebooted as TODAY’S FBI (ABC 1981-82), THE HITCHHIKER (HBO 1983-87) waited until 1989 when it aired on USA until 1991. And HAWAII FIVE-O (CBS 1968-80) has returned as HAWAII FIVE-0 (CBS 2010-present).
CHARLIE’S ANGELS (ABC, 1976-81) enjoyed a successful theatrical series run after ABC cancelled the series before crashing in a terrible TV series remake (ABC 2011). MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (CBS 1966-73) got its TV remake series (ABC 1988-90) first before being rebooted into a successful movie series. There are episodes from the remake currently on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISDAXbzuRa8
IRONSIDE (NBC 1967-75) returned in 1993 with the original cast in TV Movie RETURN OF IRONSIDE. NBC rebooted the series in 2013 with Blair Underwood as Ironside. This was not the first rebooted TV series that changed the race of a main character.
THE NEW ADAM 12 (syndicated, 1990) still featured a police car patrolling the city, but the black and white now had two different cops inside, one white and the other black.
KOJAK (CBS 73-78; CBS TVM 1985 and 1987; ABC (part of ABC MYSTERY MOVIES) 1989-90; USA 2005 – weekly series) Kojak, TV’s most famous Greek-American detective played by Telly Savalas (who died in 1994), would be recast with black actor Ving Rhames taking over the role of Kojak for the 2005 USA network series.
As with IRONSIDE and KOJAK, there have been cancelled series that have enjoyed the afterlife as a TV movie and TV series.
GET SMART (NBC 1965-69; CBS 1969-70) has been remade and rebooted in a variety of forms including a TV movie GET SMART AGAIN (ABC 1989) and a TV series sequel (FOX 1995).
KNIGHT RIDER (NBC 1982-86) first returned on NBC in TV Movie KNIGHT RIDER 2000 (1991). Syndicated TV movie KNIGHT RIDER 2010 (1994) kept little but the title. Next was syndicated TV series TEAM KNIGHT RIDER (1997-98). NBC tried one more time and rebooted the original version with a TV Movie and TV series in 2008-09.
While SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN was based on a book, the Bionic Woman Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) was a character created for the TV series in 1975 and spun off to her own TV series, BIONIC WOMAN (ABC, 1976-77; NBC 1977-78). She also appeared in the three TV Movie remakes of the SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN on NBC (1987-94). NBC rebooted the series again for a series in 2007 that had Michelle Ryan taking over the role of Jaime Sommers.
HUNTER (NBC 1984-91) returned on NBC as TV Movies in 1995, 2002 and in 2003. In 2003 a weekly series was attempted but lasted only three hour-long episodes. YouTube currently has the 2003 episodes on line. Here is episode three.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2jT6CrM63Y
The British and American have been exchanging TV series since the 1960s. Today PBS and BBC America make sure American’s see the British originals and British remakes of US series such as LAW AND ORDER UK (2009-present), while other networks are shopping all over the world for shows to Americanize.
THE AVENGERS (United Kingdom 1961-69) aired on ABC (1966-69). The remake THE NEW AVENGERS aired in the UK from 1976-77 and aired on CBS in 1978-79. CBS wanted to do an American version. It was to be produced by Quinn Martin and created by Brian Clemens (THE AVENGERS). It was called ESCAPADE (that may have aired once on CBS in 1978). Here is a YouTube clip of the opening.
British series that had American versions included CRACKER (1993-95) remade by ABC (1997-1999), BLACKPOOL (2004) became VIVA LAUGHLIN (CBS 2007), LIFE ON MARS (2006-07) with ABC’s version airing 2008-09, and ELEVENTH HOUR (2006) remade by CBS (2008). THE PRISONER (1967-68) was shown on CBS in 1968 and rebooted by AMC in 2009. LOW WINTER SUN (AMC 2013) was based on the British LOW WINTER SUN (2006).
Remakes not only come from our past and the United Kingdom, but now from all over the world.
Israel has inspired two American series. HOMELAND (SHOWTIME 2011-present) is based on PRISONER OF WAR (aka HATUFIM) (2009- present). HOSTAGES (CBS 2013-present) is airing at almost the same time as Israeli version of HOSTAGES (BNEI ARABA).
Other countries supplying programs for American remakes are Denmark with FORBRYDELSEN (2007-12) rebooted as THE KILLING by AMC (2011-2013). THE BRIDGE (F/X 2013-present) is based on a Denmark-Sweden coproduction (Danish: BROEN; Swedish: BRON – 2011-present). While Netherlands PENOZA (2010-12) inspired RED WIDOW (ABC 2012). And coming soon to FOX is RAKE, based on the Australian series (2010-present).
With the increasing number of places and ways the audience can find programs, places such as Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube where you don’t even need a TV set to watch, new programs need to find some way to stand out in the crowd. The remake is a quick easy way to attract attention, but just the title will not make any series successful. The series still has to be good enough to make viewers want to watch it next week.
SOURCES:
TV FAST FORWARD by Lee Goldberg
IMDb
TV Tango
Wikipedia
November 12th, 2013 at 7:45 am
And you say Hollywood has an absence of imagination? Nonsense!
Just kidding. The latest guaranteed to bomb remake coming is a “new” MURDER SHE WROTE with Octavia Spencer as Jessica Fletcher.
WTF?
November 12th, 2013 at 8:40 am
THE FUGITIVE is crime drama by any reasonable standard, I’d suggest…and while less relevant, surprised you didn’t mention THE TWILIGHT ZONE revivals in passing (though certainly the UPN revival is best forgotten). Also peripheral, among Israeli adaptations, IN TREATMENT. Also notable…one of the things that drove the tv revival of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE was a writers’ strike, and the ability to remake old episodes of M:I as reasonably “fresh” programming w/o strikebreaking.
November 12th, 2013 at 8:54 am
For that matter (&, fwiw, GALACTICA is typo’d above), THE OUTER LIMITS would be an sf/fantasy series with occasional criminous content you might mention, with the revival more durable if less memorable than the original series…the US and UK THRILLERs shared little more than title and general subject matter…and, utterly peripheral at best, the amusing passage through FRIENDS to COUPLING to the abortive COUPLING remake in the US…though Vertue and Moffat of COUPLING certainly have had further remake adventures, with DOCTOR WHO and SHERLOCK…and, of course, your no-comics proviso rules out more than passing mention of TALES FROM THE CRYPT in its various encryptions (koff).
November 12th, 2013 at 8:57 am
Disenterments? (For TALES/CRYPT…but things aren’t really buried in a crypt, but less literally, it works…)
November 12th, 2013 at 9:02 am
Very peripheral, albeit with the occasional criminous element in both cases, the sitcoms THE MONKEES and WKRP IN CINCINNATI and their inferior revivals.
November 12th, 2013 at 9:25 am
And, absolutely fwiw, GIDGET was already disqualified by being a tv adaptation of a film .
November 12th, 2013 at 10:36 am
I read that in that retooled MURDER SHE WROTE series Octavia Spencer will play a *self-published, true crime* writer (not a mystery writer) who turns amateur sleuth. WTF squared!
I was going to mention the TWILIGHT ZONE remake but Todd, of course, beat me to it.
There was also a MUNSTERS remake with Lee Meriwether and John Schuck that I remember vividly for being so awful. I had to look up the ADDAMS FAMILY remake because I never knew it existed. Turns out it was a Canadian production with mostly Canadian actors I have never heard of. Must’ve been syndicated and never aired in Chicago…or on some obscure cable channel.
November 12th, 2013 at 10:47 am
#1. Jeff, NBC never considered having Octavia Spencer play Jessica Fletcher but a new character. They hoped to get Lansbury back. Lansbury as recently as 2011 in Entertainment Weekly has said she wanted to return to MURDER SHE WROTE. Lansbury’s representatives were in talks with NBC about her to return to the series. Then Lansbury came out against it and surprised Hollywood.
Deadline was one of the first to cover the story. It began with NBC wanting to work with the talented Octavia Spencer. They asked her what she wanted to do. She replied a mystery like Jessica Fletcher meets Columbo.
I am not a fan of MURDER,SHE WROTE but I would have checked out a remake that had Lansbury in it. Without her the title is a negative to any new series.
The links to the Deadline articles…
http://deadline.com/2013/10/murder-she-wrote-reboot-series-octavia-spencer-nbc/
http://deadline.com/2013/11/angela-lansbury-opposes-nbcs-murder-she-wrote-remake
November 12th, 2013 at 11:00 am
Todd and John, thanks. This was the longest post I have ever written for Mystery File and I still left many remakes out. I agree with those you mentioned, but I had to nitpick or I would have turned this into a book.
TWILIGHT ZONE was more horror/sf than mystery but it was a mystery too. OUTER LIMITS was originally mentioned in the radio group but got dropped for space. THE FUGITIVE series centered around a crime but the episodes leaned more to drama and less to mysteries.
I hope more series I left out get mentioned and discussed.
November 12th, 2013 at 11:42 am
That’s cool. THE OUTER LIMITS wasn’t actually spun off from a radio series. It’s a nice survey!
November 12th, 2013 at 12:41 pm
Writing “comic books keep…THE MIDDLEMAN alive” is rather like writing that comic books kept Batman alive after the cancellation of the Adam West series. THE MIDDLEMAN began as a comic book.
November 12th, 2013 at 12:43 pm
Oh, and the pilot for STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO was based on Carolyn Weston’s novel POOR, POOR OPHELIA. ROUSE THE DEMON was a later novel featuring the same detectives (named Al Krug and Casey Kellogg, rather than Mike Stone and Steve Keller as on TV).
November 12th, 2013 at 12:56 pm
Not an outright revival, and only occasionally a crime show, but: Halfway through its run, the TV series J.J. STARBUCK (Dale Robertson as a billionaire who liked to personally help out people in trouble) brought in Ben Vereen to reprise his role as “Tenspeed” Turner, the con man turned private detective from TENSPEED AND BROWN SHOE.
November 12th, 2013 at 1:40 pm
Bosworth Fields, thanks. I knew THE MIDDLEMAN started as a comic book, but I am glad you made it clearer. Did you join the recent crowd funder to restart the comic book and have a table read of a new TV script?
I wished I had had more time to research this subject. I find Wikipedia and IMDb great places to start but not always reliable. Thanks for the info on STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO.
As for #13, crossovers of characters is a popular trope in TV worthy of a book of its own.
November 12th, 2013 at 1:43 pm
10. Todd, you are right. THE OUTER LIMITS was a TV original, it just seems like a type of series radio loved. I should have known better considering the famous opening of the series would not have worked on radio (We are adjusting your set…).
November 12th, 2013 at 4:16 pm
In case I did not make this clear: “Tenspeed” Turner was added as a regular character on J.J. STARBUCK. This was not simply a guest shot.
November 12th, 2013 at 4:44 pm
Now that I think of it, I wonder why the detectives’s names were changed for THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO (there is no great difference otherwise between the characters in the novel and in the movie). My best guess is that it was because of the names themselves. The producers probably thought that “Mike Stone” was a name more likely to appeal to a star than “Al Krug” (though Karl Malden might not have minded; his next series had him playing someone named Skag), and a character named Kellogg might have kept the network from selling commmercials to Post and General Mills.
November 12th, 2013 at 6:00 pm
This is a tricky subject, because we’re really talking about several different types of shows. To use terms like reboot, remake, reimagining, and suchlike interchangeably can confuse the issue.
Here’s how I do it:
– When the original stars return to do a follow-up story several years after the original series ends, it’s always been called a reunion show. The passage of time is acknowledged, but the same type of story is presented. In the above examples, the TV-movies that appeared based on such shows as I Spy, UNCLE, Wild Wild West, Cannon, Mod Squad, and a few others fall into this category; so would the years-later revivals of Columbo, Burke’s Law, and Mission: Imposssible, as well as the Perry Mason movies of the ’80s/90s.
These shows had at least some of the surviving stars,as well as behind-the-scenes talent at work.
SideNote:
The Peter Gunn/Peter Strauss TV movie sort of half-counts, because of Blake Edwards’s involvement, he decided to set this story in the past (mid-’60s), which I guess qualifies it as a remake.
– On the other hand, the new spate of “reimaginings”, which take the title and character names but change everything else, such as character interrelationships and storytelling styles – well, I’ve said elsewhere that theses shows are almost always doomed to backfire. THe reasons are obvious: fans of the original shows resent the liberties taken with their old favorites, while younger viewers won’t get it anyway.
And it’s not because the younger ones aren’t”familiar” with the originals:
between sndicated reruns, cable marathons, and especially DVDs, it’s impossible not to be at least somewhat familiar with the older shows.
Just a few weeks before NBC unveiled its “new”Ironside, MeTV began rerunning the original show every morning, back-to-back with Perry Mason.
The dichotomy I explained above applies here in spades.
Any number of you can come up with examples of your own.
SideNote II:
As to nuHawaii-Five-O, remember that CBS (which owns the property outright) put the show on as part of a syndication deal; they have to make X number of episodes for later use, or lose a shitload of money.
The original Five-o, with Jack Lord in his blue suit and wrought-iron hair, is also on MeTV every day (right after Ironside); the comparison is right there (and the newbie simply doesn’t fare as well).
For Bosworth Fields:
As it happens, I read Sweet, Sweet Ophelia some years back.
QM Productions didn’t just change the names.
In the novel, “Kellogg”, the younger cop, is the level-headed one; his older partner “Krug” is a kind of hothead with a very short fuse.
Edward Hume, who adapted the book into Streets Of San Francisco, reversed this: Karl Malden’s “Stone” became the level-headed one, while Michael Douglas’s “Keller” was more impulsive. This was obviously done with the actors’s personalities in mind.
That’s all I have for now.
Anything else I can think of, maybe tomorrow …
November 12th, 2013 at 6:08 pm
17. Bosworth, name changes are usually caused by legal reasons. Every TV studio pays a research company to find out if the producers can legally use the name. While dealing with the people at REMINGTON STEELE they checked to see if there was an opening for me at their research company (there wasn’t, but I learned some about what they do).
In this case, maybe the producers wanted to distance themselves from the book.
Maybe the names didn’t test well with test audiences. I attended a preview of a film called 5000. One of the questions was about the title. Preview audiences agreed the title “Pretty Woman” was better.
Your guess is equally possible, but I always thought Malden never fit with Mike Stone.
November 12th, 2013 at 6:46 pm
18. Mike, I tried to keep things simple with remake meaning at least one of original cast and reboot means new cast or premise/history.
If you noticed of those I listed remakes were more successful than reboots. But it is important to remember the failure rate of all forms of television series are high. Most new series fail, and even fewer live long enough to (80-100) episodes to make money for the producers. So the remake/reboot does about the same as other source ideas.
Nobody has said it yet, but this post was more in answer to the current whining that Hollywood is not as original as it used to be. Remakes and reboots date back to when humans first started to tell stories. Humans have always put their own spin to the original story.
I don’t have a problem with remakes, but I admit I disliked reboots (get off my lawn and create your own dang STAR TREK). Then I read a comparison of the Star Trek universe to folk tales. What would Grimm brothers think of Disney? Where would storytelling be without writers rebooting ROMEO AND JULIET?
The question is becoming which famous titles are helpful and which ones handicap a new series. MURDER. SHE WROTE did not have a new original premise (writer turn amateur detective) nor title (MURDER, SHE SAYS). It had Angela Lansbury. With her the title helps, without her it hurts.
The question now is can NBC do the mystery series with Octavia Spencer and called it another name? Will audiences accept it or is this yet to be written story been branded forever?
The only advantage to a reboot title is it attracts attention in a sea of countless other titles to choose from. Yet one of the more successful sources is the reboot with a different title such as MATLOCK (PERRY MASON) and MAN FROM UNCLE (James Bond).
Titles and source of premise is not where it is important to be original or creative. Originality is vital when it is about what you do with the idea and story.
November 12th, 2013 at 8:25 pm
Well said, Michael, and thanks for writing this piece — and allowing me to post it here.
Typos and other small glitches that have been fixed include the spelling of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (Todd, comment #3) and the source material for the TV show STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO (Bosworth, comment #12).
And as a short aside, I may be the only one who enjoyed the new IRONSIDE — fast and glitzy, yes, but as much as I admire Raymond Burr in almost everything he did, I’ve been watching episodes of the older series on the rerun channels, and I find them slow-moving and clunky.
November 13th, 2013 at 11:22 am
Thanks Steve. Do you think the Blair Underwood series would have had a better chance with viewers if it had been called something else? Did you try it because of IRONSIDE or because it was a new cop show?
Odd that all the attention on the failed remake IRONSIDE and nothing about the successful reboot SLEEPY HOLLOW.
I find it strange for the internet media to focus on the remake pilots of MURDER, SHE WROTE, CHARMED and REMINGTON STEELE, but pay little attention to the five or six series that that have been bought for summer or the next fall.
How about HIEROGLYPH? Fox has ordered 13 episodes of a series set in ancient Egypt. A thief is released from prison to work for the Pharaoh. Mystery or soap opera, the setting is certainly new to TV series not on the History Channel.
How about BATTLE CREEK? CBS mentions CHARMED and social media starts hunting for virtual pitchforks. But CBS buys 13 episodes of a cop drama created by Vince Gilligan (the man who created and ran BREAKING BAD) and the social media is quiet. The show will be run by David Shore who was responsible for HOUSE and the two TV pilots of THE ROCKFORD FILES.
Here is the report about BATTLE CREEK because I am still not totally clear what the series is about.
http://www.deadline.com/2013/09/vince-gilligandavid-shore-detective-drama-gets-series-order-at-cbs/
November 13th, 2013 at 3:10 pm
(Meanwhile, as Mike Stamm has alerted the Horror list at Indiana University:)
Or, as Bill Crider put it, “Who Says Hollywood is Running Out of Ideas?â€
http://variety.com/2013/tv/news/the-cw-developing-tales-from-the-darkside-reboot-1200824633/
November 13th, 2013 at 3:14 pm
Also notable how much of VARIETY is about whining about sexuality on US television of late. Because we have such problems with spontaneous sex acts breaking out in crowds today…Canadian, much less European and Japanese, tv being rather more explicit on balance w/o the societies tumbling…meanwhile, people I know are more likely to whine about the sexuality on BOARDWALK EMPIRE too often involving Steve Buscemi…I must admit, in such sequences, my attention tends to wander to Buscemi’s scene-partners.
November 13th, 2013 at 6:00 pm
Re #22:
Was there a long-running Sleepy Hollow TV series that I missed somewhere along the line?
Because if there wasn’t, this new proposal isn’t a “reboot” in the sense that we’ve been talking about it here.
NuIronside took a title and character name that had a lot of film and an iconic star attached to it, and tried to piggyback a totally different conception of character and style to it.
Had they simply given the character and show a different name, much of the annoyance could have been avoided; The fact of a cop-in-a-wheelchair would be seen as coincidence (which is all it would have been) and Blair Underwood as Watzisfaisch could have been judged as its own entity.
This is what comes of trying to get “scientific” about our entertainments.
Every type of series that’s ever been on TV could be seen to bear at least a superficial resemblance to something that’s come before. That’s not the kind of “rebooting” that this post has been concerned with, i.e., the gratuitous imposition of a “pre-sold” name on a completely different show.
The problem with this is something I went into above: the original shows are still very much with us, in many forms. In fact, thanks to cable marathons and DVD binge-viewing, the “reimagining” is far less likely to take root.
But the pseudo-scientists who come up with these shows can’t seem to grasp this. They keep repeating the same mistakes in the hope of getting a different result (see as one example, the repeated attempts to “reboot” Twilight Zone, each one a greater flop than the last).
#21:
I seem to recall that Steve had a similar reaction to the earliest episodes of Mission: Impossible, when he saw them in reruns not long ago.
I gave him an answer then,and I believe it applies now: what seemed fast and fresh forty years ago is naturally going to seem slow today, because we’re used to it.
Anytime I see some movie or TV show from an earlier time, I make an effort to adjust my expectations – to recall as best I can the temporal context of the original.
I learned how to do this as I was growing up, watching movies that had been made before I was born, comparing them with shows that were new (in the ’50s and ’60s).
It’s called a sense of history.
Funny, but I thought that most of us here had that.
Oh well …
November 13th, 2013 at 6:50 pm
And from the Oh, yeah (or, Beaten to death) file…looking at IMDB reminds us that GIDGET was actually not only a film series before a tv series, but the first film adapted a novel…
Though the criminous aspect was usually subsumed, particularly in the rather better revival (and it’s a rare revival on tv that’s better), FANTASY ISLAND might just squeak into consideration here. (A vastly better but unpopular revival.)
November 13th, 2013 at 6:51 pm
Subsumed by the eponymous fantasy element, that is…
November 13th, 2013 at 11:33 pm
#23. My point is Hollywood is not running out of ideas. In fact because the number of markets showing TV shows has greatly increased there are more original ideas today with the same number of old ideas that has always existed in Hollywood and fiction.
Nothing Hollywood has ever remade has been as wrong as another writer than Agatha Christie writing a new book featuring her beloved Poirot, a character she wanted no one else to write so strongly she killed him.
November 13th, 2013 at 11:34 pm
#24. Todd, isn’t it amazing how the same critics who claim today is the greatest era of television can still find things to whine about?
November 14th, 2013 at 12:01 am
#25. Mike, did you read my post? I love it when you are snippy. SLEEPY HOLLOW is a reboot of a short story written by Washington Irving entitled “Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
My post is about all remakes and how originality is not in the title or premise but what the creative team does with it. We have two hits new shows this fall, THE BLACKLIST (slightly inspired by Thomas Harris’ character Hannibal Lecter) and SLEEPY HOLLOW. All those new original ideas have not done any better than the rest.
I do agree TV remakes do better if they remake the title and then let the series develop its own path such as MATLOCK (PERRY MASON).
But remake titles can work. STAR TREK, STAR WARS, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA etc. Look at the worst idea for a remake ever, TV wanted to do a successful anthology series. It was 1980s and the latest try, DARKROOM with James Coburn didn’t last a year. But bring Hitchcock back from the dead and NBC had a hit TV Movie and a less successful TV series that failed but lasted longer than those with an original title.
November 14th, 2013 at 12:05 am
#26. FANTASY ISLAND is a great example of the originality of TV in the past. It qualifies as a remake but probably not mystery/crime.
But don’t let any limits stop you (or anyone else) from commenting on any remake. I had to limit myself for space, but there is no space limits in the comments.
November 14th, 2013 at 1:08 pm
Mike Doran, comment #25
You have a better memory than I do. I’d forgotten that I’d once mentioned that I find the original MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE series to be slow-moving also. (As well as the first IRONSIDE series, reference comment #21.)
The funny thing is, is that I do enjoy both shows, and I have purchased both on DVD. I’ve been thinking about this, and what I’ve come up with is this.
When I watch one of these older series I can enjoy them in the context of when they first made (as you suggest) but also through the eyes (and critical judgment) of someone a lot older and maybe a bit wiser.
If this sounds like my brain is doing double duty when I watch an old TV show, or even a movie, so be it. That’s the way it is!
Michael, comment #22
You asked whether I tried the new Blair Underwood show because it was called IRONSIDE or because it was a new cop show?
Yes and yes. The first out of curiosity, and the second because it was a new cop show. I think the reason it didn’t last long is because it failed as a new cop show. The primary TV audience probably never watched any of the original series, and the name IRONSIDE really meant very little to them. Another title for the series wouldn’t have made much difference. I don’t think the success of the new HAWAII FIVE-O has anything to to do with the old Jack Lord version. Maybe even in spite of it.
November 14th, 2013 at 1:41 pm
#32. I recently talked to someone who is a fan of the new HAWAII FIVE-0. She was not a fan of the original but enjoys the new one because of the good looking guys with their shirts off. Any male who remembers the original CHARLIE’S ANGELS understands.
November 14th, 2013 at 1:52 pm
Whenever I write one of my screeds, I always worry that I might not be making myself clear – and most of the time I’m not.
“Reboot” is what I call an unword – a term made up to make something sound “all-new” when it’s anything but (same with “reimagining”).
In the case of Sleepy Hollow, I would stick with the perhaps archaic term adaptation – perhaps modified with modernized in this case.
Same with Elementary (which I’ve not been able to get into) – they aren’t the first ones to try and “modernize Sherlock Holmes, and they certainly won’t be the last.
“Reboot” is, as I undersatnd it, a term from computerland, referring to having to stop your confuser and start it over from scratch, often losing whatever you might have had on the machine before. I TV terms, the people who do these shows have that attitude – that all you need is the title and the names, and after that anything goes (and everything does).
Flashback to 1963:
Warner Bros.’s TV operation has crashed; its long-standing sweetheart deal with ABC has come to an end.
Jack Warner has fired his son-in-law Wm.T. Orr and replaced him with Jack Webb.
All that remains of WB-TV is 77 Sunset Strip, which ABC has kept on, just barely.
What Webb decides to do is scrap the 77SS format in toto, retaining only Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and the old title – because, as Webb says in an interview, “It’s presold.”
So in the fall, Webb and his new producer, William Conrad (yes, that William Conrad) move Stu Bailey out of the old address and into LA’s famous Bradbury Building, and change the whole tone of the show from lighthearted and occasionally funny to dark and a bit grim (the term noir was not in common use in ’63, but that’s what they were shooting for *NPI*).
If you’re my age, maybe you remember “5” – the five-part season premiere that launched the newer, darker 77SS, replete with a whole gang of big-name guest stars, and a dark script by Harry Essex, and world travel (all over the Warner lot), and I don’t know what-all …
… and then you might also remember what a spectacular flop it turned out to be.
No one wanted a “newer, darker” 77 Sunset Strip.
The show stumbled through that one season.
Jack Webb was shown the door, and Bill Orr came back to try and lighten things up, so to speak (One trade paper headline: “The Son-In-Law Also Rises.”)
At its end, the summer reruns were all from the old show.
I put in this nostalgic interlude as a way of pointing that there really isn’t anything new about any of this .
Which is just one of the reasons we all love the topic, isn’t it?
November 14th, 2013 at 5:05 pm
Hm. Harris’s novels and the films might’ve inspired THE BLACKLIST rather distantly, but the Reddington character isn’t remotely like Lecter, despite both doting on a younger woman. Reddington is a sane, if bitter and functionally sociopathic criminal and head of a successful syndicate of undetermined size. Lecter, particularly in the Hopkins portrayal, is lunatic cartoon, and a loner.
The mid-’80s did see rather a boomlet of dramatic anthologies on US broadcast television, with 1985 seeing the revival of TWILIGHT ZONE as well as AH PRESENTS:, and the debuts of GEORGE BURNS COMEDY WEEK (winner for most awkward title, and the first cancelled) and AMAZING STORIES (the worst of these)…TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE began in syndication the season before, and PBS’s TRYING TIMES, the syndicated FRIDAY THE 13TH (almost not an anthology, but basically one, and one of the series that led directly to the formation of UPN) and a few others wafted in over the next several seasons. The HITCH revival was almost as much a mayfly as the Burns antho, but if Spielberg hadn’t had a two-season contract, his clunker would’ve disappeared at least as fast, and USA cable commissioned some further episode of AHP after NBC dropped it…
November 14th, 2013 at 10:05 pm
#34. Mike, I have seen 77 SUNSET STRIP mini-series 5 on YouTube. It was good but the original version was more entertaining.
I recommend TV FAST FORWARD by Lee Goldberg. I wish someone would bring the subject up to date. The book contains some interesting stories such as the executive involved with the remake of SEA HUNT convinced the premise was more important than the star of the original series and CRAZY LIKE A FOX being remade because a network executive believed the show just need a new time slot and other chance to be successful.
Then there was the thought behind THE TWILIGHT ZONE remake. Originally it was an idea many wanted to do, but the series failed in the first season. The series had 30 hour episodes done, not enough for syndication where CBS and MGM/UA would make their money back. They cut the 30 episodes into 60 half-hour shows but it was still short of the 80-100 episodes needed for local stations to be interested in airing it. It was 1987.
Goldberg wrote, “About that time just when it seemed the television industry was running out of old series to revive, CBS and MGM/UA came up with an answer: revive the revivals. They mounted a syndication version of THE TWILIGHT ZONE the first revival of a revival.”
So 30 more episodes were made on the cheap and they had enough to syndicate.
The book quoted Norman Horowitz, the former president of MGM/UA Telecommunications, “Our decision to do THE TWILIGHT ZONE was based on history. It’s a memorable name and it gives us a leg up, a genuine marketing advantage. If it was called EXOTIC ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN we wouldn’t do it.”
Ah, the good old days.
November 14th, 2013 at 10:13 pm
#35, Todd, critics compare THE BLACKLIST to the characters in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS – the relationship between Jodie Foster’s character and Anthony Hopkins Hannibal.
I agree with you. THE BLACKLIST is the only new series I am still watching. But I wouldn’t claim its bursting with originality. The standard case with occasional breaks for the arc reminds me of the other series I am watching at the moment, PERSON OF INTEREST.
November 19th, 2013 at 9:00 am
In comment 37, Michael, I think you mean “critics” (v. critics)…indeed, despite the additions to the cast I approve of, I can’t bring myself to give much attention to a J. J. Abrams project, such as POI. POI certainly greased THE BLACKLIST’s path onto the schedule, I’m sure, though.
November 19th, 2013 at 11:58 am
#38. Todd, POI owes more to The Batman than Abrams. Abrams did the theme but the series has the voice of Jonathan Nolan. As Abrams focuses on films his name means less and less when connected to a TV series.
I realized recently how more and more episode television is adopting the background arc. THE MENTALIST is a terrible murder of the week series that is about to solve the series long arc mystery of Red John. I found nothing interesting about the Red John arc while the arc story in POI and THE BLACKLIST is the reason to watch both shows (though the arc in THE BLACKLIST works because of James Spader).
December 3rd, 2013 at 11:07 pm
Thank you for the great article about my book. I’m glad to know that someone besides my Uncle bought it 🙂
I thought you might get a kick out of this:
http://www.leegoldberg.com/eleven-original-opening-reboots/
December 4th, 2013 at 2:02 am
I follow your blog and always enjoy the TV theme posts, especially this last week of groups of TV themes.
Not only did I buy your book (as well as your other works from Tie-in paperbacks and unsold pilots but your fiction as well) I bought the book twice once in e-book and once in print.
You might enjoy an earlier post I did here about TV themes.
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=20220