# So, has For Better Or For Worse completely abandoned the "reboot" idea? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231 "2010-01-16T20:32:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/1 "2010-01-16T20:32:28Z")
I thought the artist was going back to the old strip and republishing it with a little tweaking. That seemed accurate, as I’ve been remembering bits and pieces of it as it goes along. However, I don’t remember squat about this latest stuff about the visiting brother and the lovesick neighbor. Was this in the old strip? Or has Johnston just thrown the whole “reboot” concept out the window and is trotting out new soap opera? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/2 "2010-01-16T21:32:10Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > I thought the artist was going back to the old strip and republishing it with a little tweaking. That seemed accurate, as I’ve been remembering bits and pieces of it as it goes along. > > However, I don’t remember squat about this latest stuff about the visiting brother and the lovesick neighbor. Was this in the old strip? Or has Johnston just thrown the whole “reboot” concept out the window and is trotting out new soap opera? I remember the brother and neighbor story. ---
**Author:** ![statsman1982](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@statsman1982](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statsman1982)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/3 "2010-01-16T21:57:48Z")
I thought the plan was to go back to the time of the childhood of one of the characters. I understood that to mean that there would be a mix of old and new strips telling the story of the young girl. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/4 "2010-01-16T22:22:22Z")
From the [Wikipedia page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Better_Or_For_Worse) > [@](#): > > Cartoonist Stephan Pastis poked fun at Johnston’s decision in his comic strip _Pearls Before Swine_. In the strip, Pig referred to _For Better or For Worse_ as “that great strip that was gonna retire, but then didn’t, then started running repeats, then didn’t, then ran new ones, but then fixed up the old ones, and now is gonna run new old un-new new ones”. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/5 "2010-01-16T22:26:04Z")
I thought she was going back and rewrite it in order to piss off her ex-husband. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/6 "2010-01-16T22:30:43Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I thought she was going back and rewrite it in order to piss off her ex-husband. She is definitely doing that now. Anytime he appears he is shown as a clueless, insensitive dolt. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/7 "2010-01-16T22:49:22Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I remember the brother and neighbor story. Yes, but you didn’t get that exciting strip in which Connie **asked** Elly to look after Lawrence for a week while she went to Montreal to pursue Phil! It’s essential for Lynn to fill in these crucial gaps in readers’ knowledge! Seriously, that’s what LJ is currently doing. Re-running old strips and old storylines, with new strips to fill in details that didn’t need to be filled in. Today’s strip, for instance, is a [slight reworking of an old strip.](http://community.livejournal.com/binky_betsy/682692.html) Don’t ask me why this is necessary. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/8 "2010-01-17T00:08:29Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > She is definitely doing that now. Anytime he appears he is shown as a clueless, insensitive dolt. Is there a popular cartoonist in the entire history of the medium who was more of a psychoanalytical slideshow than Lynn Johnston? The entire strip is an ongoing look into her head, and a lot of it is kind of ugly. Her near-Paleolithic adherence to traditional gender roles - I suspect there’s some Daddy issues there - xenophobia, resentment about not having a third child, her painfully liberal-of-convenience Canadian politics, and of course her attitude towards her husband/ex husband just flows through the strip while she steadfastly denies it’s there. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/9 "2010-01-17T00:23:45Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Yes, but you didn’t get that exciting strip in which Connie **asked** Elly to look after Lawrence for a week while she went to Montreal to pursue Phil! It’s essential for Lynn to fill in these crucial gaps in readers’ knowledge! :: shrugs :: I thought it was funny. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/10 "2010-01-17T00:33:53Z")
Isn’t this is the whole point of a reboot: to be able to rewrite the past? Are you guys now going to tell me that _Star Trek_ isn’t a reboot because they nuked Vulcan? Please tell me I didn’t have to spoiler that. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/11 "2010-01-17T00:37:03Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Isn’t this is the whole point of a reboot: to be able to rewrite the past? > > Are you guys now going to tell me that _Star Trek_ isn’t a reboot because they nuked Vulcan? > > Please tell me I didn’t have to spoiler that. I had successfully suppressed all memory of that movie from my mind, leaving only a command never to watch it again. And now you’ve reawakened the recollection in all its terrifying detail. You bastard. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/12 "2010-01-17T01:01:43Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Isn’t this is the whole point of a reboot: to be able to rewrite the past? Sure, when you change enough to make it interesting. If you tighten up the story, or create a backstory people actually want to know about, that’s a reboot worth reading/watching. But Lynn is just floundering around. Like a few months ago when she had first-grade Deanna move away. Lynn apparently didn’t remember until afterwards that in the original run, Deanna didn’t move until during or after **fifth** grade. So she had her abruptly move back…and all that did was eat up time. (Well, that and give us some creepy strips with six y/o Mike channeling Hugh Grant.) The problem is, in the early years of the strip, it was a linear story about a bland suburban family. Michael had a teasing crush on a classmate; it wasn’t supposed to be a foreshadowing. Connie was interested in Elly’s brother, but she was simply a lonely divorcee. Lawrence was presented as being the offspring of her ex-husband; this jazz about Connie getting knocked up in South America by a doctor, and then coming back to Canada and marrying a totally different guy was a later invention. Unfortunately, Lynn is stuck with the soap-opera plot points that were established in the '90s. She and her readers now know Deanna will marry Mike, so every strip with the two of them has to be out of a rom-com. Lawrence’s disappearing dad had to be referred to, which means Connie is more damaged than she was originally portrayed. It just doesn’t work. She can’t, and I’m not sure anyone else could either, splice the heavy and involved later era with the lighthearted early years. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/13 "2010-01-17T02:14:08Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Is there a popular cartoonist in the entire history of the medium who was more of a psychoanalytical slideshow than Lynn Johnston? The entire strip is an ongoing look into her head, and a lot of it is kind of ugly. Her near-Paleolithic adherence to traditional gender roles - I suspect there’s some Daddy issues there - xenophobia, resentment about not having a third child, her painfully liberal-of-convenience Canadian politics, and of course her attitude towards her husband/ex husband just flows through the strip while she steadfastly denies it’s there. She definitely has issues. She was quite badly abused as a child by her mother. She pissed readers off no end when she married Liz (in the strip) off to bland Pornstache Anthony, thrusting him upon us like a demented matchmaker (“look at this solid, hard-working single dad - he has a good job! your parents have known him for years! he will give you a good middle-class life just like your mom’s! what’s not to love, he is perfect for you!”) So Liz gave up her interesting teaching career way up North, and her interesting romance with First Nation hunky cop Paul, and came back to Dullsville and married her perfect match with about as much passion and enthusiasm as you would expend buying a case of TP at BJ’s warehouse. … I don’t know what Lynn is thinking she’s doing, but she has a lot of dim fans who clip out her strips to tape on the refrigerator. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/14 "2010-01-17T03:20:17Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > She definitely has issues. She was quite badly abused as a child by her mother. That’s interesting, because the strips of late that drive me freakin’ nuts are the “OMG what an awful mother I am!” ones, like [this.](http://www.fborfw.com/strip_fix/archives/004210.php) ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/15 "2010-01-17T03:23:03Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I had successfully suppressed all memory of that movie from my mind, leaving only a command never to watch it again. And now you’ve reawakened the recollection in all its terrifying detail. You bastard. /sneaks up behind Skald and applies a Vulcan nerve pinch, then a Vulcan mind meld. /wipes memory of latest Star Trek movie and replaces it with happy, happy afternoon at Rosecrucian Unicorn Barb-B-Q and Empire Raising. **Skald** , should you have a sudden urge to send me fine Belgian chocolates, just go with it. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/16 "2010-01-17T03:33:28Z")
I gather the consensus is… “worse” ? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/17 "2010-01-17T04:44:35Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Is there a popular cartoonist in the entire history of the medium who was more of a psychoanalytical slideshow than Lynn Johnston? Cathy Guiswite? ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/18 "2010-01-17T07:32:30Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I thought she was going back and rewrite it in order to piss off her ex-husband. Hell, I would have left Johnston if it meant I didn’t have to read her crappy comic strip anymore. I don’t care how much money she has. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/19 "2010-01-17T13:30:36Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I had successfully suppressed all memory of that movie from my mind, leaving only a command never to watch it again. And now you’ve reawakened the recollection in all its terrifying detail. You bastard. It’s an excellent movie. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231/20 "2010-01-17T19:59:54Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > It’s an excellent movie. My respect for you is sufficient that it survives your occasional tendency to spout such non-sequiturs. In other matters, does anybody know why I have this urge to send \*\*phouka \*\* a box of chocolates? Because I can’t figure out whether I should send the exploding or the non-exploding variety. Ah well. I’ll just make it half and half. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-has-for-better-or-for-worse-completely-abandoned-the-reboot-idea/525231.md?page=2)