Ostrow: TV’s future looks a lot like its past with popular series remakes
TV programmers are picking through yesterday’s hits in order to concoct tomorrow’s schedule.
It’s a rule of the industry, “imitation is the sincerest form of television.”
Nothing will be more sincere next season than the TV network hype promoting newly cast knockoffs and modernized nods to old hits.
Remakes, remakes, everywhere.
You’ve probably heard about David E. Kelley’s upcoming “Wonder Woman” reprise on NBC, with Adrianne Palicki in the Lynda Carter role. The script leaked online months ago, a gossip contest surrounded the casting of the new superheroine, and the photo of Palicki in her “Wonder Woman” get-up is already risking overexposure. The network is betting young viewers will welcome the new series the way their parents embraced the forerunner in 1975, which took off from their parents’ DC Comics character before it.
NBC promises a non-campy version of the classic.
If that were the only rehash of an old idea coming to the TV networks, maybe it wouldn’t seem so craven. however, the number of retreads being recycled as new is shocking. Never has the industry seemed so desperate, stumped for ideas and eager to raid the vaults.
Does the world need another “Charlie’s Angels”? ABC thinks so and has ordered the action-drama clone for fall. The premise is a modern-day version of the classic, this time set in Miami. Annie Ilonzeh, Minka Kelly and Rachael Taylor have been cast as the Angels, with Ramon Rodriguez as Bosley and Robert Wagner as the voice of Charlie (the late John Forsythe was the original). The producers of “Smallville,” along with Drew Barrymore, are behind the long-rumored revival.
Just as “T.J. Hooker” and “MacGyver” already were remade for the big screen, a host of vintage TV hits are in the works as new TV entries.
Not that this old gimmick has usually been successful.
Remakes are a frequent fallback option for desperate networks because of the pre-marketing, name recognition, supposedly guaranteed tune-in for familiar concepts.
“Time after time, they have failed,” TV historian Tim Brooks noted.
But the winning, new version of “Hawaii Five-O” is the exception that reignited the trend.
“Now that there’s been the first successful one in 40 years,” Brooks said, “TV’s jumping on the case.”
One of a kind
The reasons “Hawaii Five-O” works, many have suggested, is that the producers didn’t try to reproduce the chemistry of the leads but created something new. Also, the original is far enough back in time, and not widely in reruns, so the comparison is not top of mind for most viewers.
Add the beautiful Hawaiian scenery and even more explosive action, and you’ve got something.
“I will bet the people who own the rights to old shows are crawling all over Hollywood these days,” Brooks ventured.
Next up, a “Dallas” remake from TNT and a “Dynasty” redo from ABC . . . there’s no end in sight.
The remake of “Prime Suspect,” also from NBC, could be particularly grating for hardcore fans of Helen Mirren, who memorably created the character in the British miniseries. Maria Bello (“A History of Violence”), Kirk Acevedo, Aidan Quinn and Peter Gerety are signed to the drama which reimagines the Jane Tennyson cop character as Jane Timoney, this time working in a tough new York precinct. Lynda La Plante, who wrote the original British version, is creator and writer on this project.
“Billion-dollar franchise”
At least the hand of the inventor will be involved in that reinvention. in most, it’s strictly a case of ripping off a ratings winner.
Is the success of “Hawaii Five-O” on CBS responsible for encouraging a lame trend? When that remake was announced, the usual moaning began, with nostalgic fans predicting the new cast could never live up to the old Detective Steve McGarrett and Danny (“Danno”) Williams.
Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan proved them wrong, with muscular action framing the buddy comedy, and scripts that blended old and new, even winking at the original catchphrase, “Book ‘em!”
Turns out, the action-filled procedural is one of the top-rated hours of the season, already sold in syndication to TNT (reruns begin on the cable network in 2014). CBS boss Les Moonves claims “Hawaii Five-O” is “a billion-dollar franchise for us.”
Recently the upside of the trend has appeared in worthy remakes of the 1945 film “Mildred Pierce” (by HBO) and the Danish TV miniseries “The Killing” (by AMC).
They are the rare positive examples of a trend that more often feels like a desperate reach in place of a new idea.
Will any of the coming redos achieve success on the order of “Hawaii Five-O”?
Kick-ass women’s shows like “Charlie’s Angeles” haven’t been doing very well — just look at CW’s “Nikita.” and fantasy or comic- book shows like “Wonder Woman” are hard to pull off; witness the meager ratings for NBC’s “Heroes” and “The Event,” and Fox’s “Fringe.”
They’ll need luck. Also charismatic actors, an advantageous time slot, a promotional push by the network and a debut at just the right moment in pop-cultural history.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or
<a href="http://www.denverpost.com/television/ci_18002808tag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.denverpost.com/television/ci_18002808Fri, 06 May 2011 20:58:22 GMT 00:00″>Ostrow: TV’s future looks a lot like its past with popular series remakes