A Look at Ten 80s/90s Sitcom Reboots

 

When I was young in the 80s we had reunion movies. Where classic sitcom casts would reunite for one last hurrah in two hour format. Everything from Gillian’s Island to The Brady Bunch to Andy Griffith. But in the last ten years as 90s shows are now old enough for reunions, someone decided “hey why not another run with a series?”

Ok it’s not that strange. In the 90s we had “New Leave it Beaver” and “New Addams Family” and even “New WKRP in Cincinnati” to name a few (we won’t mention “The Brady’s). But thanks to streaming services, Though some were network, we got several reboots. I mentioned a couple before but a lot I’ve never gone over. So now that this trend seems to finally be waning, let’s briefly discuss ten reboots and whether they were worth the reboot.

Famous Sitcom Scenes:Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

 I had a new idea I thought I would try. Rather than just discuss an episode, I would take a famous scene from a sitcom and go over it. Sometimes a scene can leave such an impact that it transcends the show and becomes a part of pop culture. Chances are you can never see the show, but you have heard of this scene. And the impact is real even if you just watch the scene without any context for the rest of the show. So, I wanted to go over famous scenes and discuss why it worked (or possibly, failed).

Today I wanted to discuss a scene from a little show called..

This scene comes to us from episode 24, season 4 called "Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse". (yep, that one!) aired May 9, 1994. Yeah almost thirty years ago, how scary is that! -

Five Curious Things We Had in the 90's!!

I have talked a lot about the 80's, but this is 80's and 90's Central so it's only fair I spend some time talking about the 90's. It was a crazy time for me, I went from being a kid in high school to a married man with a crummy job. Quite a busy ten years. Today I want to discuss five things that were big during those ten years which today seem silly or just flat out don't exist anymore!

#5.Beanie Babies

Ah, what cute little wastes of money these things were. Seriously, what the hell? I get why they were popular, but why in the world were they soooo popular?? These were cute little teddy bears which came in all sorts of colors and designs. And they were HUGE!! I mean people went crazy collecting these things! How crazy? McDonald's used to give them away in happy meals and there were reports of people buying happy meals just to get the beanie babies. Then they would throw the food away which is deplorable in my opinion. At least give the food away! These things faded away but have been coming back. As for the value of them...yeah, unless you have a rare one in mint condition good luck making a profit on these "collectors items".

#4.Pagers & 1-800-COLLECT

Call 1-800-Collect rather than dialing 0 and save money! Yeah, right. Did anyone ever actually use this? 1-8oo-Collect was simply an MCI access code to get around making collect calls. It saved a buck or two!! Well golly gee! What made this popular were the clever and memorable ads featuring all sorts of silly characters. There were knock off's like 1-800-Call Att. I guess this is still around though I haven't seen a new ad in ages. What was worst? Before we had cell phones, we had pagers. What was up with this? Everyone wanted to pretend to be doctors I guess. Thankfully this ended when cell phones became popular, but for a time everyone wore these things. I never got it into but I know it was huge.

Top 5 Underappreciated 90's Sitcoms

Ok so let’s look at some sitcoms from the 90’s which were really good but kind of forgotten over the last several years. Like those I discussed yesterday these are shows which for some reason their popularity just doesn’t seem to survive the test of time. Now of course these shows are not quite as old as the one’s I talked about from the 80’s. It may not have been long enough yet to really qualify any of them as “forgotten”. But here we go anyway.

#5.Step By Step

While not as forgotten as shows like “Going Places”, I think this is the TGIF show that a lot of people forget about. Everyone remembers Full House and Family Matters. There are those that still love Perfect Strangers and even Hogan Family. This show always kind of flies under the radar. It was a Brady Bunch of the 90’s except this time the kids did not like each other, which was the source of the conflict. At least in its premise because every time I watched an episode the kids seemed to get along pretty good. This was a great way to get Patrick Duffy an audience who does not stay up until 10:00, and Suzanne Somers some much needed credibility (anyone remember She’s the Sheriff? Anyone??). This was a really good show and is sadly often overlooked.

#4. Just Shoot Me

Yes, that other NBC sitcom that aired in the 90’s on Thursday nights (for a little while anyway). It did last till 2003 but I am including it here anyway. I feel like the only person who feels this way sometimes, but I actually like David Spade. I think he can be pretty funny, and he was in this show. This was, again, a great cast with George Segal, Laura San Giacomo, Wendy Malick, and Enrico Colantoni. The truth is none of these characters were likable people, especially Dennis Finch, but somehow the writing and acting worked and the show was actually really funny in its first few years. I am a huge fan and made sure I got the dvd’s knowing the re-runs would disappear (and they did). True the show suffered its last few years but when it was good, it was really really good.

#3. Dave’s World

I wanted to include a show from every network, and was torn which one from CBS to talk about. I considered The Nanny, but I don’t think that has been really forgotten. Cosby, Hearts Afire, Cybil, and Love & War are other shows which have kind of been forgotten, but they are forgotten with good reason in my opinion. Then I remembered this little show which followed The Nanny, and yet despite that no one really watched it and after four years the show just kind of disappeared from everyone’s radar.  Based on the writing of Dave Barry, Dave’s World was Harry Anderson’s other sitcom, not to mention MeshachTaylor.  The show was a basic family show which was based on the silly articles that Dave Barry was famous for writing. Truth is I could have used this slow for almost anything CBS came out with in the 90’s, when the network was a struggling one which no one watched while NBC was king. Man, how things change.

#2.NewsRadio

I will always remember seeing the pilot episode of this show and loving it. Then there was an episode about a rat which I clearly recall laughing out loud at. And if you’ve never seen the sci-fi parody they did, you have to hunt it down and watch it. Just brilliant. This show was only on for five years but it was  very funny (well, ok the last season wasn’t but we’ll get to why in a second). Dave Foley, Maura Tierney, Stephen Root, Andy Dick (yeah I know, Andy Dick likable in something??). The cast was rounded out by the amazing Phil Hartman who was killed shortly after the third season ended. I still remember where I was when I heard that news; I loved Phil’s work on SNL and many other programs and movies. The show tried to move on but it just wasn’t the same. However, the three seasons prior were gold and, in my opinion, some of the funniest television at the time.

#1.Wings

Why wasn't this show a bigger hit? It was created by the same people who created Cheers and Frasier, it had a real solid cast including Tim Daly, Thomas Haden Church, Peter Shaloub, and Crystal Bernard.  It even had a time slot after Cheers (the same time slot that Seinfeld started in). Despite all of these things, this show was never a monster hit. True, they had the time slow behind Cheers only a part of the time. In fact I think this show had has many as eight different time slots during its run. This is the same thing that killed Dear John which also wasn't that bad. To be honest I was one of the many who never really gave this show a chance, only watching it when the time slot was convenient or they did a stunt like having a Cheers crossover. I guess as funny as the show could be it just didn't have that special something that forces people to tune in day in and day out, no matter where the show is scheduled.