On August 1, NBC will premiere the summer fill-in show, The Rerun Show. In it, a comedy troupe will re-enact parts of “classic” sitcoms word-for-word. The difference being that the actors will rely on physical comedy and exaggerated mannerisms of the actors they are portraying.
This could be funny or this could be the stupidest thing ever broadcast in the history of television.
Ooh wow. Sounds intruging, to say the least. Do you know which sit coms will be featured?
I agree, it could go either way. But I’ll take a look.
I saw a commercial for it.
I think it’s the final piece of evidence I need that network programming executives have officially run out of ideas.
From what I’ve seen, it’ll be NBC comedies: Facts of Life and Different Strokes were featured in the ads. I think my TV will explode, along with my head.
Ugh. I saw some stuff searching on google, and it did mention those two shows.
I’m sorry, but I hardly think either of the above mentioned sitcom is classic. Memorable for the screwed up lives of its child stars (at least with Diff’rent Strokes), but I have a great hatred of these shows. They’re just too smarmy.
As they are the producers of the show, it will feature comedies from the Columbia-TriStar library. I’ve read articles which mention I Dream of Jeannie and All in the Family will be included as well.
When TV starts parodying itself quaTV, you know it’s died as a medium.
Seriously…the show might be funny, but what this means for creativity frightens me.
Will the do the Diff’rent Strokes where Arnold and his friend get molested? I hope not…
ResIpsaTooLong Yeah, like when we have parodies of rants about parodies of rants, you know the message board medium has died.
I enjoy watching, but I shudder to think what this will mean to the continued relevance of postcount parties in MPSIMS.
The inevitable return of the great green 
I think that’s part of the reason they are doing these particular shows. They’ll be making fun of their smarmy-ness. I did laugh at the commercial with some fat guy playing Mrs. Garrett, but I agree with Mr. Blue Sky that it could go either way.
And yes, they have officially run out of ideas, Atreyu…my thoughts exactly!
This show seems to be the same as “The Brady Bunch Show”, a live theatrical presentation that has run here in Boston (and, I’m sure, elsewhere – it probably originated elsewhere). They took the original script and went through two or three BB episodes without changing the words, but with a completely different emphasis and playing for laughs. For instance, much was apparently made of the Brady Dad actor’s gayness in the way people reacted to certain lines. It was, I think, partly the modern-day reaction to the squeaky-clean innocence of the time of the original script, combined with the naughtiness and incorrectness of the reading. How they expect to get away with this on the still relatively bland an deliberately inoffensive medium of TV (and without the advantages of audience feedback and topicality) I do not know. You can’t get by on gay jokes alone.
Is this Gus Van Sant’s fault for remaking “Psycho”?
I think the fact this is debuting in the dog days of summer says a lot about what we can expect from this show.
Network Executive: How can we show reruns and dupe people into thinking they’re new? How can we get more mileage out of our old shows without having to pay more residuals or hefty appearance fees for clip shows and reunion specials? How can we generate new shows without commissioning pilots that we’ll air only a few of, and proceed with even fewer? How can we lure in that 18-34 demographic by appearing hip, self-aware, and cutting edge?
And thus an idea was born.
/Mr. Hand/
What are you people, on dope??!!
/Comic Book Guy/
Worst Idea For A TV Show Ever!!
Maybe Jeannie will be, but in order to get Sony to agree to let them do the show, they had to agree not to do All in the Family or I Love Lucy. Or so says this week’s TV guide.
I thought Fred Berry had been given a new variety program.
Actually, the other show they are not allowed to do is Seinfeld, not I Love Lucy (which is actually a Viacom property).
“Squeaky-clean innocence of the time of the original [Brady Bunch]?”
You know, the phrase “squeaky-clean innocence” is seldom associated with the year 1969.
One thing latter-day Brady mockers (and fans) fail to understand is that the show was widely mocked for being out of touch with reality when it originally aired.