For TV: Something Old Is New

RCC reported this summer that David Shore of “House” fame would be bringing a reboot of 70s TV show “The Rockford Files” to NBC, but that’s not all.

ABC is bringing back “Charlie’s Angels,” and CBS will be hanging ten with “Hawaii Five-O.”

NBC’s Warren Littlefield claims “It’s a good idea to try.  Movies have proved you can do well with a presold concept.”

The New York Times, however, is skeptical, reminding us that this plan has never worked for network TV (although it has on cable, of course, with “Battlestar Galactica”).

And there is nostalgia for older shows, as RCC reported recently on the planned Tim Burton “Dark Shadows” film – based on a plot that was first seen on TV (twice).

Robert J. Thompson, a television and popular culture scholar from Syracuse University, is wary.  He explains, “The identity of a hit TV series is so intimately tied to the original stars, style, and attitude that made it a hit in the first place that any deviation from that creates a real sense of aesthetic dissonance.”

All three projects are still in the writing stages, so stay tuned to RCC for more specifics as they become available.