Pop Culture

King: TV reboots cannot match quality of originals, should stay in past

Every day, it seems there is another Buzzfeed post titled “23 Moments ‘Boy Meets World’ Got Way, Way Too Real” or “How Well Do You Know The Theme From ‘Full House’?” Someone will share a link with me and I’ll roll my eyes and then click on it anyway because I have a problem.

When TV is good, people love it, and they don’t want to see it go. Characters they have been invested in for years, whom they care about, leave without saying goodbye. It feels good to reconnect with shows you used to watch. That’s why everyone had a meltdown when “Gilmore Girls” started streaming on Netflix. And that’s why we’re always asking ourselves, “How can I have more of that?”

Well, studios have our answer. Within the past month, we found out we’re getting TV revivals of “The X-Files,” “Twin Peaks” and “Heroes,” among several other titles from the past, including the rumored reboot of the beloved 90s sitcom “Full House.”

But Candace Cameron Bure’s long awaited comeback doesn’t come without some “growing pains” — a show that, unfortunately, has not been picked up for a reboot. This trend is innocent, for now, but it has the potential to bring to an early close what many people agree is the new Golden Age of TV.

These studios are reaching deep into their creative vaults, and reservoirs of compassion maybe because they want us to be happy, but probably more so because it makes them money. Audiences today have so many options. Way more than they would have had even five years ago. Studios of the Netflix and Amazon variety are adding to the thousands of cable channels that are producing better shows than the networks. The shows we are watching are much, much better than they’ve ever been. But as the pool grows bigger, it becomes harder for shows to stand out. That’s why, when execs are taking pitches, it’s a lot easier to say yes to a familiar title that they know will get at least solid base ratings.



Rock, meet hard place. Another industry did this not too long ago and ended up thwarting itself in the process. It was the movie business. And, right now, it’s plagued by awful tent pole franchises and dreadful rehashings of either superhero or Disney princess stories. After these box office monoliths are done pillaging the studios’ bank vaults, only then are smaller, better, operations allowed to pocket the scraps.

TV execs need to fight off the urge to say yes to every “M*A*S*H*” reboot that walks in the door. Don’t remake a show just because people love it. At the end of the day, they ring hollow to the people who wanted them in the first place. Take the “Boy Meets World” spinoff “Girl Meets World” on the Disney Channel. We may have Corey and Topanga back together at last, but the new show isn’t for the people who watched the original.

If anything, it just makes us sadder that we can’t have the real thing.

Eric King is a sophomore magazine journalism major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @erickingdavid.





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