Will Harris at Premium Hollywood has a list of “10 ‘new’ shows which in no way matched the shows that inspired them.” Most of these are a type of show we don’t see much these days, the “New Class” or “Next Generation” approach — where instead of remaking the show, you take the original format or setting and introduce a bunch of new characters into it. Harris selects “The New Monkees” as the worst of the worst in this subgenre, and he may be right; that was one syndicated show I mercifully missed. The idea of this kind of show is to sort of fool you into thinking the new show is an extension of the old, rather than just a remake (since a remake might drive you to go back and watch the old show).
Will Harris at Premium Hollywood has a list of “10 ‘new’ shows which in no way matched the shows that inspired them.” Most of these are a type of show we don’t see much these days, the “New Class” or “Next Generation” approach — where instead of remaking the show, you take the original format or setting and introduce a bunch of new characters into it. Harris selects “The New Monkees” as the worst of the worst in this subgenre, and he may be right; that was one syndicated show I mercifully missed. The idea of this kind of show is to sort of fool you into thinking the new show is an extension of the old, rather than just a remake (since a remake might drive you to go back and watch the old show).
This sometimes even happens where one or more of the original actors is around and the original scripts are used (due to a writer’s strike, in this case); the show is begging you to consider it not as a re-imagining of the original, but as a logical follow-up. Part of the idea behind this approach was the hope that the “new” episodes could go into the same syndication package as the old ones, thereby making the whole property more valuable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFGjKBW7cHQ