Thursday, June 19, 2014

EDREWtorial: REVIVALS. Who Needs Em?

If you went on the internet this past week, then you heard some very surprising news. Some TV shows are coming back in a year or two. Almost all of these shows originally aired in the 80's and 90s, and now, because of some demand, these shows are getting a reboot. This notably reached a point last year when Disney Channel announced that classic sitcom Boy Meets World would be getting a sequel/spin-off/continuation/respawn titled Girl Meets World, in which Cory and Topanga grow up, move to New York, have kids and and watch them grow, with the story taking place from the point of view from their 12-year-old daughter Riley.

In fact, you could call this year "The Year or the Reboot". Just this and last month alone, some other shows are getting reboots including (but not certainly limited to):

and Heroes with a miniseries event called Heroes: Reborn. Also, the biggest one of them all:
!!
That's right. Reading freaking Rainbow is coming back too!! Thanks to a hugely successful campaign for funds on Kickstarter and a very popular mobile app, the Levar Burton-hosted PBS icon has come a happy, long way since its 1983 premiere. So when I heard that there was a Kickstarter campaign to bring it back on TV, I was super excited, and so was the rest of America, who chipped in a lot of money to the campaign, and within 12 hours, it already reached its goal.

And it's not just TV that's getting into the recreation area; movies are getting into the game, too. MGM already has the Jump Street movies with Columbia Pictures, and it announced that its Stargate franchise is getting a movie reboot with Warner Bros. next year.


I have one question about this: WHY?!?
Why are all these shows (and movies for that matter) getting a reboot? Who are the people who think it was a good idea? What's the point of rebooting them in the first place? And why is this a good thing?

We don't need them. They won't hold a candle to the originals. Maybe it's just me, but the procession of reboot stories across the Internet has annoyed me. They just come so fast, with one more coming after the other, and it probably annoys a lot of other people too. I am excited to see the reboots, but I won't enjoy them as much as I had the originals,and how they impacted not only me, but also all of television. You know, it's sometimes okay to start over a TV show or movie but only if it started off corny, and everyone (maybe) wants it to be better. But if the reboots bomb, people will laugh and mock. Producers will lower their heads in shame, actors will be pissed, and fans will be angry more than cry. But we as a society are used to these things; there are just as much reboots as there are original projects. We shouldn't ask so much for reboots if they're not going to last long.
I'll take some reboots than others; I'm looking forward to the Danger Mouse and PPG ones, and I'm definitely looking forward to Reading Rainbow Girl Meets World, mostly because Cory, Topanga and Mr. Fee-hee-hee-hee-heeeneey(!!!) are in the pilot.
I don't care for Teletubbies, though.

No comments:

Post a Comment