Classic Telly Reunions: Re-make or Break?

A recent analysis of reactions to the possibility of classic TV reunions showed the highest interest in these top five programmes:

1. Buffy the vampire Slayer
2. Community
3. Breaking Bad
4. That ‘70s Show
5. Scrubs

This assessment also showed that there are certain things that most fans feel ended on a high, such as the US Office, which was felt by many to have run its course. It got me thinking of all the things I would love to see brought back now. This is harder than you think since often, TV of your younger years was not as good as you remembered, partly because your brain has developed, but partly because, well, it was of another time.

But are there some that might just work?

Here are some things I’ve been giving thought to as a 70’s kid and 80’s teenager:

1. Grange Hill

This was such an important part of growing up for kids of my generation. It was considered so raw and edgy that some children weren’t allowed to watch it. As a kid from a council estate, being able to watch it made me feel superior back then, (ha, I got that wrong). Grange Hill tackled all kinds of issues – most memorably for me was Zammo’s drug addiction. OK, that may have been gritty and too much for some, but by golly, was that a significant factor in why I, aged 13, was more afraid of drugs than I was about giant tarantulas.

            Just say no to a reunion? I think this one is tricky. I would love to see these long-lost friends all grown up: Trisha, Tucker, Gripper, Stewpot, Pogo Patterson. I think it would be as interesting as a school reunion of my own. For kids of today, it would be a great way to show the transience of those teenage years, that at the time feel like permanence. I say do it like they did Cobra Kai. If they can do this to the Karate Kid, surely, they can do this to Grange Hill?

Re-make or Break: Re-make!

2. Eldorado

For those who remember Eldorado – a soap about the lives of Brits who have moved abroad to live in Spain, you will recall that this was a failure that should not have been. Back in its day, (or year of 1992), it was subject to all kind of problems: gloriously bad acting, troublesome acoustics, scheduling wars with TV mafia. Does this mean it was not a viable proposition? Hell no! Who doesn’t know some folks who have retired to a Costa del something? Who doesn’t want to add a post Brexit twist? OK, as I write this, I considered comparing it to Love Island and thought better of it, but still, real life Love Island?

Re-make or Break: Re-make!

3. Ally McBeal

This one I’m going all out for. I absolutely loved this series. It made me want to work at work. I wanted to waft into an office building like that of Cage & Fish, I wanted a little power suit with block heeled brogues. (I bought a pistachio two-piece from Principles and these exact shoes from Next). I wanted my colleagues to be quirky, deep, odd, and wonderful. But most of all, I wanted to finish work every day and waft downstairs to a chic bar, with low lights, clinking ice cubes in beautiful drinks adorned with olives and listen to a beautiful singer sing songs relevant to the angst of my heart.

I was a marketing assistant for a shampoo company in Basingstoke. I needed this then, we all need it now and not on Zoom either.

Re-make or Break: Well, dur!

4. The Bill

You are currently picturing two pairs of feet walking assertively, possibly menacingly, along a street, right? The Bill ran for 26 years! Why would something that successful ever need to end? The police are always going to fascinating. What has been one of the most successful telly programmes in the past few years? Line of Duty! Maybe back in 2010, The Bill, as it stood had run its course, but maybe it just needed a pause. Think of all the new things the police have to deal with now. It’s a new time, new issues, new attitudes. It’s not all bent coppers, it’s just coppers!

Re-make or Break: Re-make, ma’am.

5. Why Don’t You?

So, this will only work if presented by kids, so a remake using old presenters now grown up, could not work. This has to be a conceptual resurrection with whatever they are calling the current generation of young teenagers – Gen-Z? Is it a sign that the originals were Gen-X? All they need to do is update the presenters, casting with criteria of ‘over-confident swagger’ and ‘accessible but aloof’. I mean seriously, no wonder children of today are addicted to screen time. They simply do not have kids showing you how to make a papier mâché frog colony or a lightning conductor from an egg box. In fact, I think we need ‘Why Don’t You?’ for all life stages – it would be the TV version of Pinterest.

Re-make or Break: Re-make, why…don’t you?

OK, I’m ready. TV people, I’m waiting. Taps fingers.