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‘Bewitched’ Remake Eyed By Networks

landtuna said:
The magic in those old shows, if indeed there is magic, is the cast. Those actors created those roles and can never be replaced in anyone who has ever seen them. Like The Little Rascals disaster a few years ago, you cannot simple replace a set of characters and have anything good come out of it.
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What "Little Rascals disaster"?
 
TVCOOL said:
Let's remake Good Times, All in the Family, Gillian's Island, Hogan's Heroes and the Jeffersons with a 21st century twist.
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None of those could be done with a 21st century "twist"...except Good Times...

All in the Family was not PC....half of what it said on the air would not make it to the air today (and the Republicans would not go for an Archie stereotype of themselves anyway...hey, they COULD cast Rush Limbaugh in that spot.....he is already a loudmouthed biggot...ehh but we already know how well Rush did on TV before!!....NOT!)...
Gilligan's Island?? What use MH370 as the ship and not the SS Minnow?? Every ocean going vessel has an emergency beacon on board...as well as radar, constant weather monitoring, etc...so the storm that shipwrecked the Minnow could not happen today to such "pleasure craft"....Hogan's Heroes?? The show was a WWII based show....trying to "update" it to WHAT?? impossible.....

The premise behind the Jeffersons?? Its already been done soo many times over.....Sherman Hensley probably would not do it or want to see it redone if he were still alive....(RIP George J).....Oh gee, I bet Mario will jump on me for not using full names here....well tooooooo bad!! :rolleyes:
 
Mario500 said:
What "Little Rascals disaster"?
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Here is a typical review by a non-professional viewer:

A sad movie indeed. Not because the story is sad it's just that the characters and acting is just so bad .... very unfunny bad. I don't even think a child would laugh from start to finish.

And honestly the children cast as "the rascals" looked as if they had all been weaned on a sour pickle and fed lemons while making this - movie? Doris Roberts as Grandma was more like a robot programed to speak when prompted. Awful!

Not one minute of this disaster was unpredictable. It was more like the Rascals in a time warp ... early 20th century over fed kids finding themselves in the 21st century.

A sad unfunny movie with sad unfunny characters just reading their lines and thats it.
 
ContinuousWave said:
None of those could be done with a 21st century "twist"...except Good Times...

All in the Family was not PC....half of what it said on the air would not make it to the air today (and the Republicans would not go for an Archie stereotype of themselves anyway...hey, they COULD cast Rush Limbaugh in that spot.....he is already a loudmouthed biggot...ehh but we already know how well Rush did on TV before!!....NOT!)...
Gilligan's Island?? What use MH370 as the ship and not the SS Minnow?? Every ocean going vessel has an emergency beacon on board...as well as radar, constant weather monitoring, etc...so the storm that shipwrecked the Minnow could not happen today to such "pleasure craft"....Hogan's Heroes?? The show was a WWII based show....trying to "update" it to WHAT?? impossible.....

The premise behind the Jeffersons?? Its already been done soo many times over.....Sherman Hensley probably would not do it or want to see it redone if he were still alive....(RIP George J).....Oh gee, I bet Mario will jump on me for not using full names here....well tooooooo bad!! :rolleyes:
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The premise of "Gilligan's Island" did not work in 1963 either. A 3-hour cruise from any port in Hawaii would not be uncharted. It was fantasy, pure and simple and to enjoy the show you either had to buy in or discard the explanation. A lot of people over the years have done just that because it is one of the longest running shows in TV history.

"Hogan's Hero's" could not be updated but it could be replicated. But why would anyone want to invest the millions it would take for such a long shot at success? I can't imagine the younger audiences of today being in any way interested in a military-based comedy and us old guys have either seen it or didn't like it when it originally aired.

All In The Family could easily be shown on cable and even more easily updated. Our country has never been more divided since the Civil War period so there is plenty of material to discuss on both sides of the fence. Meathead the Millennial? Archie the RushBot? Probably more possibilities now than at the time of the original show.
 
landtuna said:


All In The Family could easily be shown on cable and even more easily updated. Our country has never been more divided since the Civil War period so there is plenty of material to discuss on both sides of the fence. Meathead the Millennial? Archie the RushBot? Probably more possibilities now than at the time of the original show.
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I've noted to myself any time I see an "AITF" rerun that a lot of happened in the '70s wasn't much different from today's world--incompentent government, very fickle economy, racism, political correctness and so-on.
 
ShawnHill1 said:
I've noted to myself any time I see an "AITF" rerun that a lot of happened in the '70s wasn't much different from today's world--incompentent government, very fickle economy, racism, political correctness and so-on.
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And I would have described both the 50's and 60's with the same shortcomings. Truth is, nothing much really changes. We seem to be stuck in Groundhog Day.
 
Has anyone in here besides me ever been deeply involved in "Pilot Season"? For every pilot that gets picked up and turned into a series, there are dozens and dozens of pilots that never see the light of day. Advance publicity about new pilots is one of the many techniques producers use to hype and promote their pilots. The more creative buzz there is about a pilot, the better its chances. Even at that, it will probably fail.

Besides, if they were going to remake a show about a woman with magical powers in a relationship with a man, why copy Bewitched? A new I Dream of Jeannie would have a much better chance. Cast Kim Kardashian in the lead and pitch it to MTV. The show would suck, but MTV would go for it. Or cast almost any hot looking young actress and put it on HBO or Showtime so it could include bare breasts.
 
Along the same theme of failed pilots, there are also a lot of failed series where the pilot was picked up, but the series didn't make it. Since everyone just loves lists of things, here's a list of TV shows that only lasted for one episode. This list is not complete, but it's long enough to make the point about most new TV shows are crap.

Incidentally, to whoever gave me a hard time about repeating the observation that most TV shows are crap, I was simply alluding to this bit of conventional wisdom.
 
Norman Lear attempted a remake of "All in the Family", which was set in the old Bunker house, but "Archie (different name)" was a staunch black liberal and "Meathead" was his Young Republican son complete with white girlfriend (as would have been stereotypical). I think it lasted 4 episodes.
 
I think that they shouldn't redo anymore remakes of TV shows whether it be classic TV shows turned into feature films that flopped ("The Mod Squad", "Leave It To Beaver", "The Honeymooners", "McHale's Navy") or TV show remakes of classic TV shows ("Bionic Woman", "Charlie's Angels", "Knight Rider", "Ironside", "Kojak", "Family Affair", "Fantasy Island"). Although some TV shows that turned into feature films turned into huge successes such as "The Fugitive" and "Mission: Impossible" it turns out that there are more flops than successes in this department.

"Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie" should be left alone myself. Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York can't be replaced and so is the case with Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman. You can't recreate the magic that both shows had so why duplicate it to start with.
 
gr8oldies: that little diddy was called "704 Hauser" using the address of the Bunker house as its title. Starred John Amos, James Evans Jr. from "Good Times", and aired for 5 episodes. Seems like this was in the springtime of 1994, maybe '95. Anyway, it was a complete and utter failure, and so were Sanford & Son's re-dos "Sanford Arms" and "Sanford".

It's extremely difficult to recapture the magic of the original, and most sequels fall miserably short. Maude & The Jeffersons were two that bucked that trend. Many others never stood a chance.
 
Again, I remind everyone of Sturgeon's Law. Most movies and TV series fail. Most pilots never get made into TV shows, and most shows get cancelled and replaced with new shows in a relatively short period of time. This goes for ALL movies and TV series. There are hundreds and hundreds of failed TV pilots and series that were not remakes, spin-offs, or sequels. So any claim that shows that are remakes, spin-offs, or sequels are more likely to fail than shows that aren't is simply wrong.

Need I remind everyone that the original Battlestar Galactica was a dismal failure, and the recent remake was one of the best series in the SF genre ever made? How about the shows that were remakes of failed shows where the producers had the good sense to change the name of the show while keeping the premise? I'll wwager that most folks don't even know which successful shows were remade (and renamed) versions of earlier failed shows.

If there is a pilot made for a new show called "Bewitched", you can be sure that there will be at least two other pilots made about a marriage between some sort of magic person, though maybe not called a witch, and a non-magic person. There will be enough minor details changed to avoid lawsuits, but there will be no shortage of such pilots. I doubt if any will get picked up, but it's easy to be pessimistic about pilots getting picked up, since very, very few of them are ever picked up.
 
JoshTheRadioDude said:
Yes, I didn't mean to say that the upcoming version was the only remake. Of course, that was the product of a writers' strike, which is rarely a good thing, as evidenced by the fact that it didn't even make it out of that season.
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The writers' strike was in 1981(a year after the actors). Thus, 'The New Odd Couple' was simply a lousy idea, without the 'benefit' of blaming it on being desperate for ideas because of a strike.
 
landtuna said:
Here is a typical review by a non-professional viewer:

A sad movie indeed. Not because the story is sad it's just that the characters and acting is just so bad .... very unfunny bad. I don't even think a child would laugh from start to finish.

And honestly the children cast as "the rascals" looked as if they had all been weaned on a sour pickle and fed lemons while making this - movie? Doris Roberts as Grandma was more like a robot programed to speak when prompted. Awful!

Not one minute of this disaster was unpredictable. It was more like the Rascals in a time warp ... early 20th century over fed kids finding themselves in the 21st century.

A sad unfunny movie with sad unfunny characters just reading their lines and thats it.
Click to expand...

I believe you were referring to the movie titled "The Little Rascals Save the Day".
 
purpledevil said:
gr8oldies: that little diddy was called "704 Hauser" using the address of the Bunker house as its title. Starred John Amos, James Evans Jr. from "Good Times", and aired for 5 episodes. Seems like this was in the springtime of 1994, maybe '95. Anyway, it was a complete and utter failure, and so were Sanford & Son's re-dos "Sanford Arms" and "Sanford".

It's extremely difficult to recapture the magic of the original, and most sequels fall miserably short. Maude & The Jeffersons were two that bucked that trend. Many others never stood a chance.
Click to expand...
"Maude" and "The Jeffersons" were spinoffs, not sequels. For "All in the family", the sequel was "Archie Bunker's Place", which wasn't as good but actually lasted quite a few seasons". "MASH" had "AfterMASH".

And John Amos didn't play James Evans Jr. That was Jimmie Walker.
 
ContinuousWave said:
All in the Family was not PC....half of what it said on the air would not make it to the air today (and the Republicans would not go for an Archie stereotype of themselves anyway...hey, they COULD cast Rush Limbaugh in that spot.....he is already a loudmouthed biggot...ehh but we already know how well Rush did on TV before!!....NOT!)...
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We do have "Last Man Standing", though the blowhard conservative is an executive dressed for the outdoors, not a blue-collar worker ("Edith, I don't woik. I'm a foreman.").
 
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