I can think of numerous old TV series that have been brought back, but most were short-lived busts. “Battlestar Galactica” is one of the few success stories.
I can think of:
Monte Markham’s short-lived “Perry Mason”
“Bionic Woman”
Malcolm McDowall’s “Fantasy Island”
Ed O’Neill’s “Dragnet”
Then, of course, there are the sci-fi anthology shows like “Twilight Zone” and “Outer Limits.”
Any other remakes you can think of?
There are a few that have been made into (reasonably) successful movies - the Fugitive was the first one that came to mind, but Starsky and Hutch and the Brady Bunch Movie both did ok at the box office.
I’m still waiting for the updated, dark and edgy Small Wonder remake. Instead of pre-teens the kids and robots could be mid to late teens and they could go on local crime adventures evry week. Throw in a little sexual tension between the kid and his “sister” robot maybe a lesbian subplot with the redhead next door and you got a hit.
In 2000, there was a TV remake of “The Fugitive” starring Tim Daly. It only lasted one season.
I’ve heard they were working on a new Dark Shadows, but I don’t know if it ever made it onto the air, or if it’s still in production, or what.
There was a not-very-good remake in 1991, starring Ben Cross as Barnabas Collins.
The revamped Doctor Who seems to be doing pretty well.
That’s not really a re-vamp, though, so much as a continuation of the original series. All the episodes with the other doctors are still more-or-less in continuity with the new ones.
I’d argue the same logic keeps Star Trek: TNG from qualifying for this thread.
It only counts if they pretend the first series never happened? That ain’t right!
“Dragnet” also had a reasonably successful mid-60s revival with original star Jack Webb.
If you include game shows, there’s several candidates, such as Jeopardy (50s/60s Art Fleming years vs. 80s-and-beyond Alex Trebeck era).
WKRP in Cincinnati came back in the early 90’s and ran for two seasons. Probably not that successful since there weren’t enough episodes to rerun in syndication. Gordon Jump, Frank Bonner, and Richard Sanders returned as Carlson, Herb, and Les, and there were guest appearances from alums Loni Anderson, Tim Reid, and Howard Hesseman. French Stewart was introduced as a new DJ.
The main thing that makes Battlestar work is that it was a re-imagining.
I’ve never seen the original and my wife and I essentially pretend it is a new show. Even though I’m aware of some plot references and so forth, it doesn’t even need the original. I think at this point, it’s safe to assume that in the future, people will examine the current Battletstar far more than the original.
By the way, we all need to watch The Mole this summer, which is being revived after 6 years off the air.
“Star Trek: The Next Generation” did pretty well, as I recall.
Can we use cartoons? Batman, X-Men, Superman, etc., etc, etc.
Degrassi lives on, and on, and on…
Mission Impossible from the late 60s/early 70s came back in the late 80s. The second incarantion only lasted two seasons, but I don’t recall it being too awful.
Y’know, I’m a bit ambivalent on this one – is it really a “revival” if it’s an explicit sequential sequel or spin-off? Maybe we should have subcategories – Revival-Remake (Galactica), Revival-Renewal (Doctor Who*, Dragnet 67), Revival-Sequel (TNG)
(*And doesn’t the Doctor Who premise essentially contain within itself that periodically you can do a running renewal of the show, changing the entire cast and going off on different directions? )
Night Stalker managed to ooze out 12 episodes.
The original Twilight Zone ran from 1959 to 1964 (156 episodes). It was revived twice; once from 1985 to 1989 (63 episodes) and from 2002 to 2003 (18 episodes)
Sixties supernatural detective show** Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) **was remade in 2000 and lasted two seasons.