Did anyone mention these three films? They’re about the most obvious examples, to me:
If a single decade is OK there was a popular British Sitcom called The Likely Lads from 1964-1964. From 1973 to 1974 there was a sequel series Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?. Finally a 1976 Film called The Likely Lads. All starred James Bolam and Rodney Bewes as the titular lads.
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A better, as in longer lasting, Sitcom.
Til Death Us Do Part ran from 1965 to 1975. Returned as simply Til Death in 1981 on a rival channel. Then came In Sickness And In Health from 1985 to 1992 which returned to the original channel. All starred Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett and many of the other cast also returned.
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Extremely long lasting Australian Soap Opera Neighbours started in 1985 and finally shuts down this year. To celebrate the end some of the famous alumni are making cameo appearances including Kylie Minogue who originally starred in it back in 1986-1988.
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Harrison Ford and others from Blade Runner reprised their roles in Blade Runner 2049.
They even brought back all the jokes from the original film!
Similarly, David Cross and Bob Odenkirk and most of the original supporting cast from Mr. Show returned for W/ Bob & David, released back in 2015.
Not quite decades, but in 2015 just about all the actors from 2001’s ‘Wet Hot American Summer’ were brought back for a Netflix miniseries ‘Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp’-- amusingly, a prequel with actors who were 14 years older. It helped that most of the actors hardly looked like they had aged a day.
Then they did it again in 2017, in more age appropriate style with ‘Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later’.
didn’t jack Webb play joe Friday in 3 different eras starting on the radio?
Jay and Silent Bob have been making appearances for over 25 years in various Kevin Smith projects.
The character ‘Alpha Centauri’ in Doctor Who was played by Ysanne Churchman in 1972, 1974 and 2017, which must be some kind of record. The character Jo Grant first appeared in 1971 and last appeared in 2010, which is nearly as long.
If we count Doctor Who audio plays, William Russell and Carole Anne Ford have played their characters from 1963 to 2020 (so far).
I am surprised no one has mentioned Sex and the City.
And one franchise I would love see revisited is Back to the Future…
The Bob Newhart Show ran until 1978. Suzanne Pleshette revisited her role as Emily Newhart in 1990, for a single episode of Newhart’s subsequent show.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife reunited the original cast of Ghostbusters after 32 years.
As did Bob Newhart as well! That’s a good example
Clark Gable played the same character in Red Dust (1932) and in Mogambo, the 1953 remake.
Paul Newman played “Fast Eddie” Felson in The Hustler (1961) and in The Color of Money (1986), both based on novels by William Tevis
Kevin McCarthy played the same guy trying to warn everybody about the alien invasion in the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and in the 1978 Phikli Kaugman remake. And, arguably, in Joe Dante’s Looney Toons: Back in Action (2003)
The episode of the TV show Murder She Wrote entitled “The Days Dwindle Down” (1987) had three actors – Henry Morgan, Jeffrey Lynn, and Marha Scott – reprising their roles from the 1949 film Strange Bargain, clips from which were showb as “flashbacks”
There are LOTS of actors who played the same character in multiple movies and TV shows. We’ve had threads on those before
Back To The Future 4 was filmed in 2087, released in 2076.
Mad Wednesday/The Sin of Harold Diddlebock had Harold Lloyd playing the older version of the character he had played in The Freshman twenty-two years earlier. The movie even begins with scenes from The Freshman.
MAY ran from 1992-99, and had a revival in 2019 with most of the original cast.
Speaking of The Freshman, the 1990 Matthew Broderick film of the same name featured Marlon Brando in, if not the same role, a deliberate copy of his Vito Corleone role from the 1972 Godfather film. But I suppose that’s more parody than a reprise.
Along the same lines, the 2019 Horrible Histories film has a Derek Jacobi cameo as Emperor Claudius, who even manages to say “I, Claudius” in reference to his role in the 1976 series.