Comments on: UPDATED: Premiere Week 2010 – CBS

By: Brad Schauer

Brad Schauer — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 00:18:42 +0000

Jonathan — Although the TREK shows aren’t technically remakes, of course, SF does seem to lend itself to successful updating/remaking. But there are plenty of SF flops, too: look what happened a few years ago when Syfy tried to update FLASH GORDON a la BATTLESTAR.

It’s not clear to me that TV remakes of classic shows perform any better in the marketplace than original shows. Sure, remaking a classic show (or movie) is going to give you a bigger initial audience, due to name recognition and simple viewer curiosity. It’s a tactic that works really well in film, where opening weekends are everything.

But unlike films, TV shows need to maintain an audience over weeks (and years), and I don’t think that being a remake helps with this. It might actually hurt, as you lose audience members frustrated by the new show’s lack of fidelity to the original. The Steve McGarrett in the new FIVE-O is nothing like Jack Lord (as one of my students noted, this might be because CBS already has a Jack Lord clone with David Caruso on CSI MIAMIi). I always thought Michael Mann’s MIAMI VICE film would’ve done better if he wouldn’t have called it MIAMI VICE. Don’t set up expectations that you refuse to fulfill.

I’m sure they’ll keep remaking old shows because it seems like a “sure thing” compared to an original show — risk aversion and all that. But do the numbers really bear out that bit of industry wisdom?

By: Kyra Glass von der Osten

Kyra Glass von der Osten — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 03:53:57 +0000

Jonathan, I love your points about whether the writers and others involved with the show are heavy. I think it goes to a really important question about whether Mike & Molly is alienating a very important audience for it. Overweight, let alone obese, romantic leads are ridiculously rare on television and I for one would have really welcomed that if done well. But since so many of the jokes were at the expense of the overweight characters rather then giving us the opportunity to laugh with them and the issues that anyone who struggles with their weight can relate too I felt it could be really alienating too viewers who might not be comfortable with their weight. I also think it is fundamentally different then the Big Bang Theory. Because Big Bang Theory features characters who fully embrace their nerdiness, I know many self proclaimed dorks who enjoy the show and don’t mind the geek jokes. Since the premise of Mike & Molly is centered on a struggle to change and many viewers might identify with that struggles, the jokes at their expense may function very differently.

By: Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 18:09:32 +0000

Brad, you asked "why do networks insist on remaking these old shows, when the track record for nostalgic reboots is so dire?" To be fair, the world of sci-fi suggests it's possible. Think of the numerous Star Treks. Or Battlestar Galactica. Or V. So maybe if Hawaii Five-O had an alien invasion at some point, then it'd get back on track :-)