Reboots: YAY or NAY?

-Do you prefer Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, Judy Garland and James Mason or Janet Gaynor and Fredric March in A Star Is Born?

-Did you pin a rose on your nose, grow out your mullet and tune in to Fuller House, the reboot of the sitcom that catapulted the Olson Twins into superstardom? Have Mercy!

-Are you waiting in anticipation to see Michael Gandolfini play the younger version of the character his father made famous in the upcoming Soprano’s prequel? Fuggeddabout it!

Reboot, Remake or Revival, whatever you call it, is everywhere. Will & Grace (and Jack & Karen) have all proved to stand the test of time, Karen is still swigging martinis and rich AF , Grace got divorced and moved back in with Will and Jack is still, thankfully, Just Jack! And we wouldn’t have it any other way . . . or would we?

Can it be that it was all so simple then or has time rewritten every line? If we had the chance to do it all again, tell me, would we? Could we?

Amanda (30-Something Millennial)
Remakes of TV shows, movies and songs keep coming. You’d think that by 2019 we’d have more original ideas, but instead we can’t seem to resist a great throwback. Not even the Brady Bunch is safe as we are giving their house an HGTV update and COPS was too tame so we’ve replaced that with LIVE PD.

Reboots also aren’t just for media, fashion is circling back to the 80s and 90s. High-waisted denim, headbands, square-toed shoes, scrunchies, crop tops and off the shoulder sweatshirts are all the rage from Nordstrom to Target.

Any time I see something old being born again I can’t help but wonder what from this time will be remade? Then I worry, is there anything worthy right now of a remake down the line? The year is 2030: women are back to wearing “power suits” to work and Athleisure when they’re not. Judge Judy’s granddaughter is presiding, the second generation of “How I Met Your Mother” is the new Monday night Must-See TV, we’ve hit a milestone of having 15 different actors play Batman and there are talks of remaking A Star is Born . . . AGAIN.

Boy bands and Teen Queens dominate the iTunes charts – the formula works but thankfully we’ve got some new blood there. HGTV is going to renovate The Full House(or if you’re late to the party and on Netflix, Fuller House) residence. Grey’s Anatomy is STILL on TV but we are all eagerly awaiting the teased episode where McDreamy and McSteamy are now patients at Seattle Grace instead of ruling it.

Of course I don’t possess a crystal ball so who knows what will be hot or not going forward. I hope that we can keep shoulder pads out of the mix and may The Real Housewives of wherever the heck they are live on!

Brooke (60-Something Baby Boomer)
The recent spate of reboots seems to point to America’s thirst for nostalgia – or perhaps it’s just the further dilution of original thought among Hollywood tastemakers. I vote for the latter. I’m just not a big fan of nostalgia so these usually lame retreads leave me cold.

Additionally, it seems none of the shows being rehashed ran during my childhood, a prerequisite for a successful reboot, I think. I was almost 17 when the Brady Bunch debuted. 90210, The OC, Gossip Girls? I was in my 50’s so. . .not my jam.

I think Thomas Wolfe had it right, you can’t go home again. Did you ever revisit your childhood home? I do not recommend it. Your sweet memories of a Tara-like homestead are replaced with the reality of a sad and somewhat ramshackle abode reminiscent of Casa Clampett before they loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly. Picking through the detritus of your memories with the divining rod of high expectations will inevitably lead to disappointment.

Lest I be labelled callous or cold hearted, I did enjoy the recent remake of A Star Is Born. However, I was chagrined (though not surprised) to find most didn’t even know it was a reboot, much less the 4^th outing. After all, most of the audience wasn’t even yet born when Babs and Kris Kristofferson offered their iteration in 1976. And as we all know, nothing of any import occurs outside of the brief lifespan of the average millennial. This fact also explains the epic failure of almost all reboots.

In the end though, the real reason most reboots fail is that talent doesn’t improve with age. 20 years does nothing for hack actors except make them older hack actors. Why have we not seen reboots of The Office? Friends? Cheers? Because those actors launched. They have actual careers. And/or pride. For the cast members of these reboots, this is a huge step up from soft porn, slasher movies and that gig as “alternate stunt double” on Dancing With The Stars.

Oh, Tom Wolfe! Where are you when we need you?

Lindsay (Fabulous Forties)
The reboots of shows, songs, and movies just keep coming. I recently watched part of Footloose, the reboot. Not for me. No one can replace Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer. It was the same movie, so why reboot it? Let me stick to my love for THE Ren McCormack of my youth. Why do we have to push our youth to the side in one more way? Some may say you are reliving it, but I say just watch the reruns or pull out the VCR tape (to the millennials…that was something you could record movies and shows on before the DVD and “on demand”). I did not watch the sitcoms, or shall I call them night time soap operas, that are all the reboot rage today, so I certainly am not watching them now.

Now I’ll contradict myself a bit and say, I would love to reboot some shows with new topics, tawdry under tones, and issues that impact us today. For instance, remake Bewitched. Let me submit some ideas of all the things, in a course of ONE day, I would love to change.

Twitch my nose and:
-Women are paid as much as men

-Work Life Balance actually happens rather than us spending more time “working” on it

-Understanding every word Brooke uses in this blog, and in real life, so I know what the heck she’s talking about without Googling it

-Eating vast amounts of fattening food and drinking countless carbs, and I am a size 4 and healthy

-Forcing the narcissists in our lives to SEE they are narcissists

-Seeing someone who is mean to someone else get a gigantic pimple on the end of their nose

Now that’s a reboot I would watch. Of course, I would add some other mean things but for the purposes of keeping readership I’ll censor myself.

Karen (F’ing Fifties)
I am obsessed with reboots! I want to see what became of all of my favorite fictional characters. Are they successful? Did they get Married? Divorced? In Jail? Did they return to their home town to open up a community theater or flip houses?

Speaking of houses, I am really enjoying watching the Property Brothers help all six Brady kids rebuild their childhood house on HGTV’s A Very Brady Renovation. Will Peter and Bobby finally be able to play ball in the house ? Will the Jack and Jill bathroom actually have a toilet this time? Do Greg and Marcia still hook up as adults? So. Many. Questions.

Roseann Barr really screwed up her reboot opportunity, but so many others are killing it. Ok, maybe not killing it, but are certainly entertaining to me. Watching Tori Spelling make fun of herself on the Beverly Hills 90210 reboot strangely made me happy and don’t get me started on seeing Kelly Taylor and Brandon Walsh “back in the saddle” again after 19 years.

Sadly, The Hills is boring without LC and Kristen, but, there are so many more reboots I would like to see:

Seinfeld – Do they still celebrate Festivus? Did Elaine ever find that special, sponge-worthy somebody? Did George move back in with his parents? Did Kramer and Newman become roommates and move to Palm Springs?

Sex And The City – Are Carrie & Big still married? Is Samantha on Tinder? What age did she use in her profile? Did Miranda get divorced, become a lesbian and run for office in New York?

I could go on and on . . .

As for A Star Is Born, I definitely preferred the intoxicated, long-haired, unkempt Bradley Cooper version.

Are you a fan of the reboot?

Do you prefer to not mess with success? If it ain’t broke, don’t reboot?

Are there any movies and/or tv shows you wish to see redone?

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