Has a show/movie ever been revisited? (further explanation inside)

Cafe Society
41

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).

That was a mini-series, IIRC. It’s huge ratings prompted a TV movie in which the island is at last discovered, charted, and turned into a resort by the castaways. The Harlem Globetrotters dropped by for a visit!

Then there’s “the Brady Bunch Variety Hour”…but the less said about that the better.

Slightly better was “the Mod Squad” reunion.

In fact, is there a tv show that didn’t get revisited??? I expect to see an updated “Seinfeld” any time now, showing what happened to the gang after they got out of jail. (It WILL happen! You know it will! Accept it!)

42

Star Wars Episode VII. (Subtitle: “George Lucas didn’t realize how easy it was to burn through 100 billion dollars.”)

Or maybe I dreamed that.

43

If it’s a different actress, then it doesn’t fit the criteria.

44

And then of course there was the new Leave it to Beaver, also. I think it was set in the 80s and called Still the Beaver but I really have nothing to go off of. Does anyone else remember it?

45

Mary and Rhoda, a 2000 made-for-TV movie reunited Mary Tyler Moore and Valeie Harper as their characters from The MTM Show. No other regulars from the tv series apeared in the movie.
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0137937/

46

I forget the ep title, but it was actually ten-year-old footage of Rigg which had been edited out of one of her original episodes, not an actual newly-filmed appearance. Her dialogue in the clip was ambiguous enough that they were able to pretend she was speaking of whatever was currently occuring in the new episode, or something like that.

Sir Rhosis

47

To the OP: There were a couple of Father Knows Best reunion telefilms (shot on videotape, iirc) in the late-70s.

Sir Rhosis

48

Maverick and Bret Maverick fit your criteria I think. There were a few one-offs in between and since.

49

The Beverly Hillbillies came back for a one-episode reunion special in, I think, 1984.

50

The Wild Wild West had 2 reunion movies I think, as did I Spy, the latter being alot of fun.

51

The Twilight Zone’s It’s a Good Life and the New Twilight Zone’s It’s Still A Good Life

52

One interesting cross medium example is the Smiths song “This Night Has Opened My Eyes” continues the action of the great but impossible to find in the States UK film “A Taste of Honey”.

53

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).

54

I think he may be right.

While Dragnet went from radio to TV to movie and finally back to TV, I think the only constant was Jack Webb.
There had been spinoffs (December Bride> Pete and Gladys, Danny Thomas > Andy Griffith > gomer Pyle > Mayberry RFD), but that’s different.
There had been a reunion of Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, but it was a TV special, not a recreation of the series, and no other cast members were present.

The first I can really rcall of a TV reunion show was that “Gilligan’s Island” thing.

55

^^^^Nope, Father Knows Best did it in 1977.

Sir Rhosis

Another to add. Cannon returned around 1980/81 with a two-hour movie, again starring William Conrad.

56

The new animated Scooby Doo movies are followups to either the Scooby Doo Mysteries TV show or the various old movies. The first one, which either takes place in Massachusetts or Lousianna, shows all the characters in their current jobs (Velma runs a book store specializing in mystery books, Scooby and Shaggy work airport security, Daphne is the host of a TV talk show and Fred is the producer of the show. Scrappy Doo is presumably still upstairs cleaning his room.)

These are notable just because the gang is now old and cynical, and first assumes that whatever mystery is the cause of things like smoke and mirrors and such (in Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost, they even solve the mystery as such within a few minutes of arriving in town, only to have an actual ghost appear soon after). Of course, my favorite thing about Scooby Doo and the Witches Ghost (in spoiler tags):

One of the special guest celebrities turned out to be the villian

57

Can’t believe I didn’t think of this one before:

Francois Truffaut had a long series of films showing the life of the character Antoine Dionel, all played by Jean-Pierre Leaud (US titles):

The Four Hundred Blows (1959)
Love at 20 (1962)
Stolen Kisses (1968)
Bed and Board (1970)
Love on the Run (1979)

58

If we’re counting songs, then Nina, Pretty Ballerina on ABBA’s “Ring Ring” grew into the “Dancing Queen” on “Arrival.”

59

In 1973, Richard Lester directed The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers, based on Alexander Dumas’ novel, The Three Musketeers

In 1989, Lester re-united most of the original cast to make The Return of the Musketeers, which was based on Alexander Dumas’ sequel *Twenty Years After *

60

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.