# Has a show/movie ever been revisited? (further explanation inside) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 25, 2006, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-show-movie-ever-been-revisited-further-explanation-inside/377841 "2006-10-25T14:43:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2006, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-show-movie-ever-been-revisited-further-explanation-inside/377841/61 "2006-10-28T19:11:03Z")
[QUOTE=Cerowyn] _Spenser For Hire_, a series starring Robert Urich and Avery Brooks (based on my favourite guilty pleasure, the Spenser series written by Robert B. Parker), was brought back as a series of TV movies after it was cancelled. Almost all of the same actors were in it. [/QUOTE] The same was done with **Alien Nation** , but the movies were aired only a year or so after the show was cancelled. **Homicide: Life on the Street** came back with a movie a year or so after it was cancelled. What was notable was that all the cast members returned (including those who died in the course of the show) – and the show had a lot of cast turnover during its run. ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-show-movie-ever-been-revisited-further-explanation-inside/377841/62 "2006-10-30T04:52:40Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] The New and Improved Superman writes: \> Of course, we’ve all forgotten the original “revisited” special that sparked off \> the whole syndrome of reuniting-old-tv-show-casts-and-showing-what \> happened-after-the-show-was-cancelled phenomenon: “Escape from Gilligan’s \> Island” (or “Rescue from…” or “Return to…” or something or other). Is this really true? Was _Gilligan’s Island_ the first American TV show to have a special (i.e., a TV movie) in which the cast was reunited? There were certainly cases before it where a character (and the actor) was brought back for a new series that was more or less a sequel (like _Dragnet_, which ran 1951 to 1959 and then was brought back to run 1967 to 1970). [/QUOTE] I seem to recall _two_ such specials: one in which the castaways build a raft and return to civilization (_Rescue From Gilligan’s Island_, if memory serves), and a later special in which Thurston Howell IV, after his father’s successful _second_ rescue from the island, has built a resort on it and must enlist the aid of both the original castaways _and_ the Harlem Globetrotters to save it from being bought out and/or foreclosed upon. It was this second special that I remember being called _Return to Gilligan’s Island_. OK, a quick check of the Internet Movie Database shows that I was close, but not exactly spot on. There were _three_ such specials:[ul][_][Rescue From Gilligan’s Island](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078155/) (1978)[_][_The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078945/) (1979)[\*][_The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082502/) (1981)[/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-show-movie-ever-been-revisited-further-explanation-inside/377841/63 "2006-10-30T13:49:27Z")
Um, psiekier, what was the point of quoting my post? You were replying to The New and Improved Superman’s post, not mine. Also, psieker and The New and Improved Superman, I wonder what was the point of your writing a post before you bothered to look up the facts in the IMDb. Wouldn’t it make more sense to look up the facts first before you post? ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-show-movie-ever-been-revisited-further-explanation-inside/377841/64 "2006-10-30T14:05:01Z")
_Due South_ was off the air for a year after its second season, before Paul Gross took over as executive produce and the show returned with most of the original cast (and one of the stars replaced). ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-show-movie-ever-been-revisited-further-explanation-inside/377841/65 "2006-10-30T15:14:19Z")
[More American Grafitti](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079576/) is a very bad movie that revisits the characters from [American Grafitti](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069704/) after the passage of several years. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-show-movie-ever-been-revisited-further-explanation-inside/377841/66 "2006-10-30T16:09:25Z")
About ten years after the **Six Million Dollar Man** series ended, there was a [new made-for-TV movie](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0096931/) with Lee Majors, Lindsay Wagner, and a new bionic kid. And about five years after that, [yet another movie](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0109274/), where I believe the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman finally got hitched. I remember one line from the first movie, where someone called Steve Austin a “six million dollar man,” and Steve replied, “With inflation, it’s more like 13 million now.” ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-show-movie-ever-been-revisited-further-explanation-inside/377841/67 "2006-10-30T16:55:40Z")
[QUOTE=Max Torque] About ten years after the **Six Million Dollar Man** series ended, there was a [new made-for-TV movie](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0096931/) with Lee Majors, Lindsay Wagner, and a new bionic kid. And about five years after that, [yet another movie](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0109274/), where I believe the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman finally got hitched. I remember one line from the first movie, where someone called Steve Austin a “six million dollar man,” and Steve replied, “With inflation, it’s more like 13 million now.” [/QUOTE] The last time I saw him was in a commercial for something or other. He and some other guy were sitting in a diner talking, and when Lee took a swig from his coffee, you could hear the “da-dadadadadadadadadauhhhhh” sound effect. I LOL’d. I’m also very economically amused. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-show-movie-ever-been-revisited-further-explanation-inside/377841/68 "2006-10-30T18:15:13Z")
> [@](#): > > The last time I saw him was in a commercial for something or other. He and some other guy were sitting in a diner talking, and when Lee took a swig from his coffee, you could hear the “da-dadadadadadadadadauhhhhh” sound effect. > > I LOL’d. I’m also very economically amused. How about the preview for **The Six Million Dollar Man Saves Christmas** that appeared in the movie **Scrooged**? “Incoming!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-show-movie-ever-been-revisited-further-explanation-inside/377841.md?page=3)