It seems that every day, cartoons and sitcoms receive a reboot. It might sound like good news since it’s basically a free nostalgia trip, but could these companies be overdoing it a little?
Of course, there are good reboots like Disney XD’s Ducktales and Discovery Family’s My Little Pony, but there’s also a REALLY long list of reboots that were not as successful because they were so disliked by viewers.
In Rick Porter’s article “Are TV Reboots Losing Their Luster With Viewers? (Exclusive Poll)”for The Hollywood Reporter, an online news and movie review site, he reports on a poll that was given to 2,201 adults to see if they would be interested in seeing reboots of iconic shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Office, Alf, Seinfeld, and Friends. The results showed that “Only 35 percent said they’d be very or somewhat likely to watch a reboot with a new cast and storyline versus 51 percent who would be unlikely to do so.” In the same article, NBC and Fox Executive Preston Beckman said, “Shows are about characters and the actors who play the characters. Another actor could not play Tony Soprano or Jack Bauer […] Just slapping a title on a show with different actors in beloved roles is sort of cynical.”
In an article titled “Reboots are ruining our shows” by Lea Douglas at windup, a school news magazine that covers stories and issues in the world, a reboot of the 1989 sitcom Saved By the Bell was met with mixed reactions because “[s]ome viewers described the show as funny or similar to the original, while others wished the show incorporated the original actors.” Additionally, a reboot of the 2007 show Gossip Girl was set to release in 2020, but due to the COVID pandemic, it was delayed. Even then, when the cast was revealed and production was set to begin, fans were already quite disappointed as Douglas reported that “[m]any viewers believe a reboot is unnecessary, unwanted, and will ruin the accomplished legacy of the original series.”
I myself have a very long list of reboots that I’ve watched and disliked. One example is Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans Go! It’s supposed to be a goofier version of Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans from the 90’s, but everything about it is cringe. I kid you not! There is an episode where Beast Boy becomes obsessed with Raven’s legs. My biggest pet peeve is that it’s just another cartoon focused on gross-out humor and wacky facial expressions, much like SpongeBob SquarePants, nowadays.
Some people might say these reboots are necessary because they bring nostalgia, and I’m glad they feel that way. However, an article titled “Why are there so many reboots? Are TV reboots good?” by Margaret Darby on Deseret News, an online news site, makes a good point when it says, “When people wonder why reboots keep happening, it’s this kind of project they have in mind: an update for an update’s sake, an intellectual-property extension that lacks a clear creative impulse.”
Bottom line: We don’t need all these TV reboots. They don’t sit well with fans and sometimes they ruin the original. It’s time to put these old shows to bed at last.
