On Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 11:56 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 3:38 PM, Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote: > >> http://thewrap.com/tv/article/cbs-conjures-bewitched-revamp-29957 >> >> Whole item (except for Elizabeth Montgomery picture: >> >> CBS Conjures Up a 'Bewitched' Revamp >> >> Add another re-imagined TV classic onto the heap. >> >> Following on the heels of its "Hawaii Five-0" revamp -- not to mention >> ABC's upcoming "Charlie's Angels" remake -- CBS has ordered a script >> for a "Bewitched" revamp, an individual with knowledge of the project >> confirmed to TheWrap. >> >> The script will be penned by Marc Lawrence, who wrote the screenplays >> for "Miss Congeniality" and "Did You Hear About the Morgans," and >> produced by Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher -- who also produced 2005's >> big-screen adaptation of "Bewitched" starring Will Ferrell and Nicole >> Kidman. >> >> The original "Bewitched" ran on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring >> Elizabeth Montgomery as witch Samantha Stephens, and Dick York (later >> replaced by Dick Sargent) as her mortal husband Darrin Stephens. >> >> News of the "Bewitched" revamp was first published by the Hollywood >> Reporter. >> > > I am less irritated by the re-pumping of old TV shows than I used to be. A > cops and robbers show set in Hawaii makes good sense. I guess CBS could have > pretended they were not ripping off Five-0, but in many ways that would > really be irritating. A few years ago I thought they were going to give us > CSI: Hawaii; I am happier with a Five-O reboot. > > Wat does make me scratch my head is when they choose to re-make shows that > were not very good in the first place. With all due respect to affectionate > fans of the original, Knight Rider, A-Team, and Wonder Woman were all really > rotten shows the first time around. > >
I'm not sure I get this at all. You remake a bad show/movie exactly because the original was bad (or unknown) and you hope you can do it better. Why remake a good or great film or TV show, if you don't think you can improve on it? Was it a better idea for "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" to become a Adam Sandler movie? And their hearts were in the right place, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" was not improved with substituting Ashton Kutcher for Sidney Poitier and Bernie Mac for Spencer Tracy. If you remake something good and can't improve on it, it sort of devalues the original, but worse, it harms the new take on it in ways worse than if it was a standalone bad film/program. Remaking a good show or film is perhaps much, much harder because it will always be compared to the original, and unless you ace it, it will be viewed negatively. Now, I think Wonder Woman is a bad example here because the plan was not remaking a show but adapting a character. I'm sure a lot of people your age see Lynda Carter as the canonical Wonder Woman, but there are a growing number of people who first saw WW from her comic, from the Justice League cartoon, or from the last of the 'Superfriends' series "The Super Powers Show" or the later 80s Superman cartoon. (Any more and I'm liable to drift far off topic). Now, what may lead people to decide on whether to do a remake or to just lift an idea is how specific the elements they want to use are. Show about magical girl and how she and mortals interact is at a high enough derivative function to describe "Bewitched", "I Dream of Jeannie", "Wonder Woman", "Sabrina the Teenage Witch", "Sailor Moon" and who knows how many other programs. Make it specific enough like "Witch marries mortal, over disapproval of her family. She and mortal conspire to keep her powers secret from other mortals" and it is probably close enough to Bewitched to make them consider just going ahead and using the name. (Yeah, of course development starts from the opposite direction. We own "Bewitched". Make a new TV show out of it!) -- Wesley McGee http://www.ambivi.com http://drawing-a-blank.tumblr.com -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
