Why nostalgic television reboots have a hold on Hollywood — and viewers of all ages
CBC
What's old is new again as television studios revert to the classics, tapping into the lucrative nostalgia market.
This fall's TV lineup is flooded with reboots of shows that were popular decades ago — from popular sitcom Frasier and legal drama Matlock, now starring Kathy Bates, to And Just Like That, a continuation of romantic comedy Sex and the City, which aired from 1998 to 2004.
And plenty more are on the way.
Selena Gomez will return to Disney's 2007-12 Wizards of Waverly Place as executive producer of the spinoff Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, launching Oct. 29, while other hits from the 2000s, such as small-town drama One Tree Hill and mockumentary sitcom The Office, also have new seasons in the works.
Gen Xers and older millennials can also look forward to Baywatch and Married... with Children in the future, as well as new episodes of animated FOX series King of the Hill.
Amil Niazi, a Toronto-based columnist and culture critic, said part of the reason for the flood of reboots in a world of seemingly endless shows is that people have "content fatigue," so when they're overwhelmed with options, they'll often default to something that feels familiar.
TV streaming services and studios feel the same way about creating and paying for new content, she said, which is why they often stick with tried and tested options.
"It's great for their bottom line. They don't have to invest in new characters, in new sets, in new universes. They're giving us something that they know that we already want," Niazi said. "That's kind of the capitalist, harsh, bottom-line take."
Niazi said people develop emotional attachments to their favourite shows, so it's natural to want to see those characters' storylines continue while rekindling the feelings they had from watching the original series.
Millennials are now at an age where they want to share things with their children as well, which presents opportunities for shows from the 1990s and 2000s to to appeal to different generations.
Niazi said she enjoyed watching last year's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem feature-length reboot with her kids, because they know the story and could get excited about it.
"It sort of makes intergenerational family viewing, which is very tricky these days, easier," she said. "And I know that the pandemic showed that we love to retreat to comfort when we are feeling anxious. Lord knows the world is a little bit hectic and crazy right now, and having familiarity in our programming is just nice and it's something we like to retreat into."
Kelsey Grammer was in talks for years to reprise his role as Frasier Crane in Frasier, the hit NBC sitcom that originally ran from 1993 to 2004. After the COVID-19 pandemic and Netflix streaming led to a revival in interest, the show returned last fall on Paramount+ in a new location with a new supporting cast.
"Frasier's familiarity is actually a real bonus, I think, because people have gone without this kind of comedy for a while now, and there's a generation of people that have come up since," Grammer told CBC News. "What's interesting about the [pandemic] lockdown that we all experienced is we kind of cultivated a whole new audience, a younger audience."
