If there was an academy award for the best classic television revivals, their would be few winners. Both television itself, and the movie industry, has tried to revive many of the old classics with limited or no success.
Television reviving its classic shows.
Primarily when television itself has tried to revive one of their classic shows, it has been in the form of one and two hour reunion specials. Both "Father Knows Best" and "The Brady Bunch", have done reunion shows that were moderately successful, allowing viewing audiences to catch up on the lives of the characters after their show quit airing.
These shows were successful simply because they were done as limited specials. Had they tried to make for a new series with the old characters all grown, the shows more than likely would have been canceled the first season.
There have been a few television shows that have had a huge success in reviving the show, or the character, or both.
"Trapper John MD", successfully revived the character of Trapper John from "MASH". Using a different actor, placing him in a hospital instead of a war zone, and turning the show from a comedy into a drama seemed to work in this case. What television successfully did was to use a familiar name to produce a completely different show.
Lou Grant was another character that television successfully revived. When the Mary Tyler Moore show completed its very successful run, television producers quickly jumped to revive the character of Mary's boss Lou Grant. They kept the same actor, Ed Asner, kept his profession as the head of a newsroom intact, but changed the format from a half hour comedy to an hour drama. Once again, the revival of the character was successful.
The revival of the "I Love Lucy" show in its many forms worked as well. Though Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez divorced, and the original Lucy went off the air, she returned quickly in the "Lucille Ball Show". This show went through a couple of other metamorphoses but the initial Lucy character did not change, and the show retained most, if not all, of its original humor and appeal.
"Star Trek", has been revived a number of times. Almost always with a complete change of cast and a partial change in title. It seems no matter how many changes this show goes through, it always finds its niche on television, and retains some of its original followers.
The movies attempts to revive classic television
While the motion picture industry has attempted many times to revive old television classics, and make money doing a movie version of popular shows from the past, these shows, for the most part, were destined to failure.
The recent revivals of two classic comedies, "Bewitched" and "The Honeymooners" were, to put it mildly, box office busts.
In the case of "The Honeymooners", this is understandable. The chemistry between Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows in the original series would have been almost impossible to beat. While the actors in the movie version did a good job of acting, they simply could not compete with the original cast's chemistry.
Another problem with the 2005 movie revival of "The Honeymooners", is a bit more subtle. In the original television program both the Kramdens and the Nortons were poor and white. In the screen version, both couples are black. This seems to not only be sending the message that in the 21st century white people cannot be poor and struggling, it also re-type casts blacks into a type of role that is somewhat condescending and offensive.
Other flop revivals include "The Wild, West, West", "The Brady Bunch", "Bewitched", and the "Duke's of Hazzard"; just to name a few. The problem in all these cases are that the movie companies who made them took problems and situations that in the original series lasted an hour to an hour, and stretched them out to last much longer. The result of this were shows that almost put the audience to sleep.
Even the more box office successful revivals had some problems. While "The Fugitive" was at least a moderate hit with new viewers, the viewers who remembered the series found Harrison Ford's portrayal of Dr. Richard Kimball less sympathetic and engaging than that of David Janssen. Not that there is anything wrong with Ford's acting ability, he just could not bring to the audience the brooding, hopeless quality of Kimball's search for the one-armed man like Janssen did.
The three successful revivals of television classics that occurred on the big screen are "Charlie's Angels", "Mission Impossible", and "Star Trek". These three shows were successful for different reasons. "Charlie's Angels" made a big splash in large part to their costumes. Let's face it: any attractive woman wearing tight leather is bound to get the attention of male viewers. And while the original cast of Angels were highly talented, they were far from irreplaceable. Updating this revived version of the show was not harmful to the basic story line either.
The "Mission Impossible" movie's success was due to more and better technology than what the original show had available to them. Since one of the big draws of the original series was the gadgetry which the Impossible Mission Force used to conduct their business, it only makes sense that using more and better gadgetry would make for a successful revival of the show.
"Star Trek" would, however, win the academy award for the best rival of a classic television series. Not only has this show been revived in the past by members of the original cast, but it also had a successful revival on the television as a new generation of star fleet crews took to the galaxies. This is one show that seems to have no need of a special cast, or time period to work.
One reason is that the show takes place in the future, leaving it open to very imaginative storyline that can revive the old series, and provide audiences with a new experience at the same time. Another reason for the latest "Star Trek" revival's success is that it came out at a time when American's were facing economic and other problems, making a movie from a different time and world that much more welcome for the escape it offered.
While few movies have successful revived the old television series, audiences can still experience and enjoy a revival of some of these great classics.
Satellite Television and Reruns.
Satellite television and Classic television type shows have had the only true success at reviving television classics. Their success is due in part to the fact that the show remains the show viewers originally saw, and depends only on the old viewers wanting to see them again, and a new viewing audience interest in television from past eras. With few exceptions, most television shows have been revived through re-runs.
When you consider all the attempts from television, movies, and through re-runs to revive the classic television shows from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and even 80s, there are only two clear cut winners.
"I Love Lucy" and its variations, wins the award for the best revived comedy. Not only did it manage to revive almost intact from the original show, but it has been in continuous re-runs since it first began with the advent of television.
The best revived Drama series is indisputably "Star Trek". It has successfully been revived on television, in film, and in re-runs. Changing cast and characters and even planets, this is simply a show that never dies. It is truly a show that has been revived and revived again, and more than likely, viewing audiences will see new versions of this show in the 22nd century.