Remember "Bewitched"? You know, with Darren and other Darren?

[Witness]

Darren would be an African American no-nonsense hard scientist, cool and handsome along the lines of a younger Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

Just could be the model:

https://i.imgur.com/5NlxL3f.jpg

If I remember well, Gould wrote about him.

[Anaxagoras]

The original was before my time, and I didn't watch the reruns either. I doubt I'll watch the reboot.

In the last paragraph it mentions that CBS is going to reboot Magnum P.I., which I was a fan of back in the 80s. I might check that out.

[Doctor X]

I am trying to think of a remake that worked/s.

Some shows, like All in the Family, were successful but rather loose adaptations of Japanese Limey Originals. Not sure those count. Most attempts to adapt successful foreign shows, such as Red Dwarf, Absolutely Fabulous, Rake, The Streets of San Francisco, and, of course The Office, failed miserably.

Bewitched was before my time as well. When I saw reruns I though "meh." Typical A-B sticom with a laugh-track that had no point.

Many actually successful "sitcoms" of the 70s--like All in the Family or its various successful spinoffs--can you name all of them?

• 1. Maud
  2. The Jeffersons
  3. Yeah . . . yeah . . . "Archie's Place" but . . . no . . . like Railgun and True Detective II and even Terra Formas that never happened
  4. ? Guess!
  Spoiler:

  4. Goodtimes

you could not do today without resulting in major riots and MSNBC imploding upon itself into a singularity of self-righteous virtue signaling.

What then? Remake M*A*S*H? A series that I have felt dirty laughing at as a Wee Spud after I saw the Japanese Original? Loretta Switt cannot hold Sally Kellerman's g-string?








Airwolf?

--J.D.

[Anaxagoras]

I am trying to think of a remake that worked/s.

Battlestar Galactica. The original did not age well, but I thought the reboot was quite good.
Granted, the ending was stupid, but it was pretty good up until they started with the magical plot twists.

Some shows, like All in the Family, were successful but rather loose adaptations of Japanese Limey Originals. Not sure those count. Most attempts to adapt successful foreign shows, such as Red Dwarf, Absolutely Fabulous, Rake, The Streets of San Francisco, and, of course The Office, failed miserably.

Bewitched was before my time as well. When I saw reruns I though "meh." Typical A-B sticom with a laugh-track that had no point.

Many actually successful "sitcoms" of the 70s--like All in the Family or its various successful spinoffs--can you name all of them?

• 1. Maud
  2. The Jeffersons
  3. Yeah . . . yeah . . . "Archie's Place" but . . . no . . . like Railgun and True Detective II and even Terra Formas that never happened
  4. ? Guess!
  Spoiler:

  4. Goodtimes

you could not do today without resulting in major riots and MSNBC imploding upon itself into a singularity of self-righteous virtue signaling.

What then? Remake M*A*S*H? A series that I have felt dirty laughing at as a Wee Spud after I saw the Japanese Original? Loretta Switt cannot hold Sally Kellerman's g-string?

I didn't realize that The Jeffersons was a spinoff of All in the Family. Back in the day, I liked M*A*S*H the TV show. I saw the movie later, and I don't think I cared for it much. In the TV show they never sing the lyrics to the song "Suicide is Painless." They just kept the music without the lyrics. Probably a good choice.

[Doctor X]

Battlestar was so different it is almost like two different series. Sort of like John Carpenter's The Thing and the source novella and first movie.

I will not totally "dog" the M*A*S*H series, but it was basically a "harem anime" whereas the movie followed the original book and the insanity of the whole Korea conflict with residents sucked into it. Funnily enough, the series got better when they dumped attempts to refer to the source material "in a wacky way" by getting rid of Stevenson's character, the useless Trapper John, and let Switt move beyond "Hot Lips." Larry Linville was pretty much beloved and was a wonderful Frank Burns and, frankly, kept the show alive. He knew that his character had gone far enough. Bringing in Potter, Charles Emerson Winchester--the third--and B.J. opened up the comedy, but it never had the nihilistic look at war the source material had.

"Too many yucks."

Some good ones though. I loved Col. "The Wind" Flagg and That Guy from the Quartermasters:



Though still too many "laugh-track yucks."

--J. "The Wind Just Broke His Leg!" D.

[ed]

You remember shows that, right after they jumped the shark, had one of the leads breaking into song? Or doing some sctick that they were known for or was a hopeless caricature of some other thing that was part of their character? I think of the desperately unfunny Laverne and Shirley where some stereotypical Italian goomba breaks into song apropos of nothing.

With MASH it was the pretty unfunny Hawkeye doing a grotesque Groucho impersonation. Jesus, how did they let that happen. I still wince when I think of it. Only thing that Hawkeye was good at was as that crooked senator in The Aviator.

[xouper]

It's disappointing to read people subjectively badmouthing TV shows that I loved to watch. All you are doing is revealing your own prejudices and biases.

On the other hand, now I know what I sound like when I do the same to TV shows that other people enjoy watching.

So thanks for that. :P