I just have to wonder, what is the most redone (perhaps even overdone) TV show? In other words, a show that has been done again and again and again, to receive that title?
I at least think it might be the Twilight Zone. I am way too young to remember the 1960’s series. But I know, it was then redone shortly after that, perhaps (this time in color). Then there was a 1980’s series, which was a little more successful. And I think it was redone, maybe about 10 or 15 years ago, this time less successfully (there are only so many remakes that people will tolerate, after all).
It might have gone by slightly different names, Twilight Zone. But they all had “twilight” in their name, and were clearly remakes. But I could be wrong. Was the Twilight Zone the most remade series? As I said, please feel free to prove me wrong. Also, notice my search is limited to TV. I am sure we all know movie topics that have been way overdone. But my question does not include that (including movie remakes of the Zone, BTW).
Thank you, Grrr!. Those all sound like good candidates to me:)!
Also, back to my original point: What is the most outstanding example of this group? Your reasons need not be entirely scientific. But please provide an explanation, though. As I said, I suspect TZ. But that could just be my view, of a complicated question:cool:.
The Odd Couple: The original series with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. The New Odd Couple with Demond Wilson and Ron Glass. The 2015 remake with Matthew Perry.
Dragnet: The 1951 original. The 1967 revival. The syndicated Dragnet series which didn’t have the Joe Friday character. The 2003 series with Ed O’Neill.
[ul]
[li]Star Trek[/li][li]Star Trek: The Animated Series[/li][li]Star Trek: The Next Generation[/li][li]Star Trek: Deep Space 9[/li][li]Star Trek: Voyager[/li][li]Star Trek: Enterprise[/li][li]Star Trek: Whatever the one coming out next year is going to be called[/li][/ul]
Don’t forget Dragnet. It started out as a radio show, then moved to TV in the early 1950s. They made a movie (in color!). The show revived in the late 1960s.
All of these incarnations were the creations of (and starred) Jack Webb. But even after he died (and afer a send-up spoof movie, also titled “Dragnet”, with Dan Aykroyd doing a Webb imitation, and Harry Morgan back as Bill Gannon) there was a 1989 TV series, then a Dick Wolf (Law and Order)- created series starring Ed O’Neill (!!) as Joe FRiday, playing it very straight in 2003.
That’s four different TV series called “Dragnet” (not to mention two movies, a TV movie, and a radio show, all with that title). The TV shows ran for an aggregate 13 years.
Sherlock Holmes (1951) Sherlock Holmes (1968) (Italian TV Series) Sherlock Holmes (1968) (UK TV series starring Peter Cushing) Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (1980)(UK-Polish TV series) Young Sherlock (1982) (UK) Hound of the Baskervilles (1982) (UK miniseries starring Tom Baker) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1985) (The Jeremy Brett series0 Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century Elementary Sherlock
There were also Russian and Japanese animated versions as well as a web show.
Sherlock Holmes and Superman seem to be the two who have been in the most. I suppose you could count Superman’s time in Superfriends and Justice League as well, but those shows weren’t all Superman focused.
AFAICT, the voice actor for Superman was top-billed in the Superfriends cartoons, but not in the Justice League cartoons, which is why I counted one but not the other.
While some of them are not nearly as prolific as a few other candidates on this thread, I put forth another few game show nominations…
Hollywood Squares
NBC Daytime Hollywood Squares (1966-80)
NBC Primetime Hollywood Squares, (1968)
NBC Saturday Morning Hollywood Squares (1969)
Syndicated Hollywood Squares (1971-81)
Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour (1983-84)
John Davidson Hollywood Squares (1986-89)
Tom Bergeron Hollywood Squares (1998-2004)
Jeopardy!
Original NBC Jeopardy! (1964-75)
70’s Syndicated Jeopardy! (1974-75)
Revived NBC Jeopardy! (1978-79)
Alex Trebek Jeopardy! (1984-now)
Jep! (1998-2000)
Rock and Roll Jeopardy! (1998-2000)
Sports Jeopardy! (On Crackle, 2014-now)
Match Game
The Original Match Game (1962-69)
Classic Match Game ('73-'79) (1973-81)
Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour (1983-84)
Ross Shafer Match Game (1990-91)
Michael Burger Match Game (1998-99)
Password
Original Password (1961-67)
ABC Password (1971-75)
Password Plus (1979-82)
Super Password (1984-89)
Million Dollar Password (2008-09)
Pyramid
$10,000 Pyramid (1973-76)
$25,000 Pyramid (1974-79, Bill Cullen hosting.)
$20,000 Pyramid (1976-80)
$50,000 Pyramid (1981)
(The New) $25,000 Pyramid (1982-88, Dick Clark hosting.)
$100,000 Pyramid (1985-88, Dick Clark emceeing.)
$100,000 Pyramid (Revived briefly in 1991, John Davidson hosting.)
Pyramid (2002-04, Donny Osmond emceeing.)
The Pyramid (2012 GSN revival, Mike Richards hosting…only lasted several weeks.)
$100,000 Pyramid (Supposedly making a comeback to ABC this fall…Michael Strahan slated to be the emcee.)
To Tell The Truth
The original TTTT with Bud Collyer (1956-68)
The revived/syndicated TTTT with Garry Moore (replaced by Joe Garagiola for the final season) (1969-78)
The Robin Ward TTTT (1980-81)
The Gordon Elliott/Lynn Swann/Alex Trebek TTTT (1990-91)
The John O’Hurley TTTT (2000-01)
The upcoming ABC revival of TTTT with Anthony Anderson.
Your a little wrong. The early 1970s color series was Night Gallery, which focused more on spooky, supernatural stuff and more or less stayed away from the beat-you-over-the-head morality tales. Call it half a remake.
Let’s also consider My Favorite Husband, a radio sticom starring Lucille Ball.
It came to television remade as* I Love Lucy*
Followed by The Lucy Show
Then Here’s Lucy
And finally* Life With Lucy*
On top of that there was an abortive attempt to do a radio version of ILL and an unsuccessful TV version of MFH.
Hanna-Barbera/Warner Brothers has been spitting out endless variations on Scooby-Doo for over 45 years
[ul]
[li]Scooby Doo, Where Are You?[/li][li]The New Scooby Doo Movies[/li][li]Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo[/li][li]The New Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show[/li][li]The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries[/li][li]The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo[/li][li]A Pup Named Scooby-Doo[/li][li]What’s New, Scooby-Doo?[/li][li]Shaggy & Scooby-Doo, Get A Clue[/li][li]Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated[/li][li]Be Cool, Scooby-Doo - the current incarnation[/li][/ul]
That’s 11 series right there. And I’m leaving out all the repackagings with other characters to fill an hour (The Scooby-Doo/Richie Rich Hour, etc), spin-offs like Laff-A-Lympics, direct-to-video movies and live-action theatrical and TV movies.
BTW, as an aside, for an actual fresh version of an animated show about “kids investigating paranormal stuff”, I’d say the go-to show is Gravity Falls. My kid loves this show, and so I’ve been watching it too. Much higher quality in every possible way than any version of Scooby-Do I’ve seen.
Would those count though? Shared universe, but that’s about it. Only the original and the animated series were actually the same characters. Otherwise, the relationship between the original Star Trek and Voyager is only that they’re all in the same universe, and that Janeway and crew are part of Starfleet, just like Kirk and co.
Dr. Who might not count for the flip reason; same show, just different seasons of it, with fairly decent continuity between them.
Something like the Scooby Doo or the various Sherlock Holmes shows would count, having no continuity between shows, and being complete reboots each time.
"If it were not for those meddling kids … "