The Era of Television Reboots and Nostalgia

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek Hello and welcome to Altered Geek I'm your

host Steve Megatron Phillips and in this episode

of the podcast I'm going to be discussing Why

nostalgia is so profitable good and bad reboots

slash revivals and Some of the ones I'm looking

forward to or disappointed by so I thought I

would start this out with a little bit of a monologue

opinion here referring to the whole nostalgia

and reboots and revivals and we've seen our first

share of them coming back now and I think a lot

of it stemmed from the fact that Hollywood is

running out of ideas and they have these properties

and these franchises that they already own that

they don't really have to develop any more to

the character base that they can modify, that

they can pretty easily put back together, and

the thing about it is nostalgia is profitable

because it's tried and true. What kind of prompted

this entire conversation is the fact that I follow

a variety of geeky people online, and one in

particular at its Carly Woods the Cosplayer says

that do you think that our generation is the

generation of Netflix and that they cater and

remake shows targeted mostly towards us because

we are the ones who were mostly binge watching

them and I I Think that that's somewhat true

I think that because it's a tried -and -true

show or format it just makes it easier for content

companies like Netflix or Hulu or any of the

cable companies to almost instantly pull the

trigger on a revival or reboot on those given

series and Animation's been doing it for decades

now At least as far back as the 90s I know that

some shows have been coming back in different

iterations since like the 60s and 70s so For

TV shows to start doing this. It's kind of that

natural progression animation has kind of showed

this as the the new format as time goes on, you

know, we've had, what is it, four Ninja Turtles

programs now. We had the 87, we had the 2003,

we had 2012, and now we've got the 2018 edition.

So, yeah, we've got four Ninja Turtles series

now, and that's just crazy, and each one changes

aesthetically a little bit differently. It changes

the personas a little bit differently, the voices

a little bit differently. And they're still kind

of keeping somewhat true to the original persona,

but they're altering a lot of things and changing

a lot of aspects to it. And that's kind of, I

think, the key to a successful reboot. I think

quite possibly one of the most successful reboots

or revivals or continuations where it constantly

reinvents itself is Power Rangers. You look at

any of the Power Rangers franchise and about

every season or two They change up their outfits.

They change up their their villains. They change

up a lot of a lot of the The aspects of the show

and it just gets more life breathing into it

it keeps it fresh and whether you like or dislike

a certain season or a certain version of the

Rangers, you always can know that there will

be a new set coming down the pipe in like a year

or two. And I think that's been the biggest continuation

revival series we've gotten to date. I mean,

yeah, you've had series that have just kind of

kept going, but none that have kind of reinvented

themselves consistently along the way. And...

We've had the Ninja Turtles, we've had Transformers,

we've had Batman, we've had various X -Men or

Avengers or Spider -Man or any of these comic

book heroes or things that started in comic books

and were later translated to animation that have

gotten consistent revivals because the comics

themselves do it. The source material does it

all the time. But if you're looking at television,

we really haven't had it all that much. until

recent. A few years ago we had Girl Meets World

which was a continuation of Boy Meets World.

Which I think proved to be a successful model

and then Full House did it, Fuller House. And

we've kind of gone into this different universe

now as far as at least the sitcoms. Shows like

Star Trek, Doctor Who, and a few other sci -fi

properties like that. Yes, they've reinvented

themselves and had continuations and revivals.

I don't really count those per se because they've

been a staple of sci -fi culture since the 60s.

So I think that those kind of stand on their

own anyway. That's just how they've always been

modeled. It's the fact that the new current TV

landscape is kind of going this other direction

now. So we have a new Star Trek on TV, we have

a new Lost in Space revival, which is, like I

said in the last episode, awesome. It's the fact

that they reinvented it without too much of the

reinvention of the wheel. You look at Reboot,

the Guardian Code, I don't find that to be a

plausible, very well written... or thought out,

either dialogue or story -wise, to be a very

coherent series. And in all honesty, if you edit

out all of the human aspects, other than the

stuff where they're physically in the internet,

and you keep the bits with the sorcerer where

he's only talking to Megabyte, the series actually

makes sense, still, without the rest of that

baggage. and that's kind of part of that situation.

But no, I mean, you look at it, we've got a new

Murphy Brown coming, we've got a new Magnum PI

coming, we've got Roseanne, which is being revived,

or has already been revived. I think they're

on episode three now. Which, by the way, that

series is actually on point there. It's really

good. I was not a huge fan of the original Roseanne,

but that could have been my age. Like it obviously

wasn't marketed towards me at the time. I was

younger when it was on So it looked very dated.

It looked very meh I didn't really care for it

whereas now I it kind of resonates with me a

little bit on certain levels Almost the way that

last man standing did which speaking of last

man standing that actually may be getting a revival

as well Talking about it kind of reminds me of

the fact that we've we've got Not only that show

possibly getting revived over at WGN, but we've

got a new revival talks of a new Buffy the Vampire

Slayer. We've got Nickelodeon rebooting Clarissa

explains it all with Melissa Joan Hart reprising

her role as Clarissa. We've got That's So Raven

that revived that show on Disney with whatever

the new one is of that with her daughter. sun

taking the key front point on the visions aspect.

So you've got all these different cogs moving

now on reboots and it's kind of interesting to

see that this is the way that television is going.

I mean we've even got the new Carmen Sandiego

coming to Netflix with Gina Rodriguez playing

Carmen Sandiego in that and we've even got new

Sabrina the Teenage Witch coming to Netflix and

The series is apparently going to be done by

Riverdale creator Roberto Aguar Sakasa shared

a photo of it on Twitter the other day of the

new Sabrina and Harvey from the the Netflix series

and It's gonna be called the chilling adventures

of Sabrina So and it's a spinoff of Riverdale,

so you'll probably see characters from Riverdale

show up in that I'm not exactly sure who's who's

playing who like Harvey almost looks like the

Brother of like jughead or whatever on this series

the the twin but anyways Yeah, they Either that

or it's the other kid from Disney that that was

Austin from Austin and Allie or whatever anyways

regardless they haven't said anything about Salem

on that but It's so I mean nostalgia definitely

plays a factor in in films in animation in television

Films, I mean we've constantly got reboots. We've

had what is it three? Spider -man now we've had

I don't even I can't even keep track of Batman

now Because we're gonna have another one with

Matt Reeves. So I mean we we've gotten The that'll

be the like the sixth Batman we've got five on

film if you don't count Adam West if you count

Adam West then it's six but Still like there's

constantly a reboot going on or a revival of

something from old and I think that As long as

our generation is kind of calling the shots on

a lot of the media now I think we're gonna see

a lot more of it Especially when the older generation

is gonna be like hey this this show did awesome

back in the day. Let's bring it back Because

it'll still have some kind of a resonance with

with childhood and everything I think they've

even got another, what is it, Trading Spaces

on TLC coming back with the original cast reprising

after 10 years of not being on the air, which

I remember watching that with my wife when we

first had sat down and moved in together and

it was a lot of fun to watch. We've had crossovers,

like Supernatural with Scooby Doo. So we've had

a crossover between that and that was actually

really entertaining because not only did it play

back to the nostalgia, but the goofiness factor

of some of the show that it allows itself to

do. And then we've got comics, which actually

pull in stuff from the media. So you get Jason

David Frank suiting up as Lord Draken in the

live action trailer for the Power Rangers Shattered

Grid crossover storyline in the Boom Studios

Power Rangers comic books. So it's... There's

there's all kinds of fun and nostalgia. We've

even got Jay and Silent Bob coming up on an episode

of The Flash that Kevin Smith directed Just I

don't know if they're gonna actually be playing

the characters, but they're suited up like the

characters So it's gonna be kind of entertaining

to see that regardless of what happens So I mean,

I think that that the landscape has definitely

shifted from a lot of We've shifted from original

like the 90s were pretty much sitcom in animation,

and then the late 90s and early 2000s through

the early 2010s, the teens of this century, we

were in a lot of reality shows, and now reality

shows are starting to tank and starting to go

by the wayside, and so what are they doing to

revive television ratings but bring back the

90s? sitcoms in the 90s type of media we've got

a new Animaniacs coming to Netflix or not Netflix

Hulu in I believe next year and it's it's gonna

be done by Spielberg again it's gonna have probably

some of the original voice cast if not all who

knows what the aesthetics gonna be but regardless

we're in the age of the reboot and they'll either

be some good reboots or they'll be some bad reboots

Now, I think an interesting thing to talk about,

aside from the fact that, yes, they're rebooting

films too, and things like Men in Black, it's

going to have Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth,

reportedly, and a reprisal with Bill and Ted

3. There's promotional images going around the

internet right now of that, where they're in

a phone booth, and Ed Solomon... one of the guys

that Worked on the the Bill and Ted movies had

a promotional photo online the other day and

then Indiana Jones 5 Will be Harrison Ford's

last obviously he's in his 70s still running

around like he's not but they're Spielberg's

kind of joking that With it being his final time

playing the role that they should essentially

have Indy take a different form, and he says

we'd have to, you know, he talked about if a

woman were to lead the franchise, changing the

name from Jones to Joan, which makes no sense

because Indiana Jones, I equate the last name

to being the last name, so why would you change

that? He says there'd be nothing wrong with it.

but that it will certainly continue after this

film. I think it'd be fine if they passed the

torch on it, but they tried that in the last

one with Shia, and it sucked. I'm not saying

that it would suck with a female in there, that's

not what I'm getting at, but I'm saying that

I don't think that... I think there's a right

way and a wrong way to do it, and I think that

film is just poorly written. But if they're going

to go that route, I don't think that... They

should have to like change Indiana Jones himself.

I think they should just create like a daughter

for him or something or like a long -lost daughter

that kind of comes along the way that that he

meets and or Knows about or something. I don't

know. I don't think that it's right to Change

the characters original origin and turn them

into something. They're not when it comes to

any film or television series that That would

be like making Roseanne a dude. Like, would you

want Roseanne as a dude? No, not really. It's

the same mentality applies. Because technically,

if you want to be really technical about it,

Tomb Raider is technically the Indiana Jones

with a female lead. It really is. So moving on

to something that's not so heated and crazy.

What would be... Some reboots or revivals that

you would want to see happen Now for instance,

we've gotten all different kinds of series over

the last hundred years of Almost almost hundred

years of television. We're getting close I would

love to see a gargoyles reboot or a mighty max

or war planets Because those were three series

I really enjoyed as a kid. I forgot to mention

we even had a DuckTales revival and, you know,

Dragon Ball Super. Well, actually, DuckTales

was a reboot. But still, there's plenty, plenty

to go back and redo from the 80s and the 90s.

Or even some of the early 2000s stuff and give

it a new look and new feel. But there's always

this instance that you have to be careful when

you're modifying the original source material.

And that's... And point in case I leave it to

to reboot the guardian code and I have to point

to that because When you look at that series,

it's nothing like the original they're trying

to appease People it's like they just slapped

the reboot name on it and some of the reboot

graphics Just because they own the property already

and and tried to completely It's it's basically

nothing like reboot Except for a cameo episode

and and so like I I feel like they They didn't

really know what they were doing in that aspect

Whereas you look at series, you know again like

Power Rangers to some of these other ones or

Ninja Turtles, especially because a lot of the

graphics have jarringly changed same with transformers.

We got transformers. We got Beast Wars We got

Beast Machines. We got robots in disguise Armada

energon Cybertron animated prime robots in disguise,

and then whatever else, you know, then you've

got the Combiner Wars stuff. So I mean, every

series has a different set of aesthetics and

different style to it, but essentially all the

characters are still their core purposed selves.

A lot of the core of the show is still the same.

That's what I mean by, if you're gonna reboot

it and redo the entire design of the show, Either

a create something new or or keep true to some

of the the aspects of the original stuff and

that's that's kind of where I see Where things

can kind of go good or bad in the the reboot

revival world? So I don't know what you guys

think on this I think it's kind of an interesting

concept to kind of play around with Series that

you'd like to see revive. I think that I think

it's time that Babylon 5 came back. I wasn't

a huge fan of the original series, but I think

that it definitely had some merit And it could

have lived up to the greatness of Star Trek in

some degree. Plus you had Walter Cohen playing

a different character on that and that was the

first time that I realized that he didn't have

a Russian accent Because I saw him on the head

and he didn't have it and I was like, oh So that's

just an entire act the entire time. I thought

he actually had the accent, just like Scotty.

I thought he had the accent for the longest time

until I saw him in a movie later on in the 90s.

And I was like, oh, he doesn't have it. It's

it's it's an act. And then I started kind of

realizing more that, you know, you can do an

accent when I was a kid. And so I thought it

was just kind of interesting to kind of notice

those things. But anyways, you know, I would

love to see a revival of like Babylon five. I

think that. I think we've seen a revival of V

before, which would be kind of cool to see again.

I don't know, there's a lot of sci -fi properties

that I could see coming back. I can't wait for

Star Wars to have its own television series,

which I know is in the works, just because it'll

be able to kind of add to the same pool of writing

and greatness that sci -fi has gotten. not only

back in the 90s, but we've gotten it now. It's

kind of the revival of that with the Orville

and Lost in Space and Discovery and things like

that. I will be talking about Discovery Season

2 and the CBS Viacom merger in Future Imperfect

next week, so stay tuned for that. It may come

out late in the week just because Birdman Dodd

and I have to schedule a time together to record

it. but that was the plan. This week it just

didn't line up. There was a lot of stuff going

on, scheduling -wise. So, I think that about

rounds it out for this episode. I'm really interested

to see what series you guys would like to see

return and why. I really can't think of anything

else off the top of my head because a lot of

the stuff that I watched, I really don't mind

if it comes back or not. I am happy with the

nostalgia that I have, but... I realized that

it is that age of reboots and revivals and nostalgia

kind of coming back to visit us, whether it's

by testing it out through mass binging of the

original series on a streaming service like Netflix

or Hulu, or if it's just them kind of just looking

at how well the original series did and then

bringing it back. I wouldn't be opposed to a

home improvement revival. I wouldn't be opposed

to a step -by -step revival or Family Matters

or some of those things, which I think we could

see some of that come into play on Fuller House

just because a lot of those were all produced

by the same companies anyway, way back in the

90s. I think that we're in for an entertaining

last few years of this decade as far as television

is concerned and in film, but I look forward

to seeing how the spectrum is going to change

when we get into the 20s of this century. It's

kind of wild when you sit and think about it,

how things... you know the more they change the

more they stay the same you know the seeds of

the future like buried in the past it's uh everything's

relative everything comes back so history repeats

itself as it were so until next time get altered

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