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With the news that Battlestar Galactica and Bionic Woman producer David Eick will be revamping yet another NBC/Universal property as part of his new deal with the peacock network comes the expected flurry of expectation. Just what old TV show will be the next to feel the grim and gritty grip of Eick's clammy reimagining mind? We've come up with what we feel are the top five candidates, below.
SeaQuest DSV: The original came with a Spielberg pedigree but, let's face it, it was pretty crappy (The quickest indicator? Darwin, the talking dolphin). While any revamp would be missing Roy Scheider and dreamy Jonathan Brandis, you wouldn't have to change much in order to bring the show back: Keep the whole concept about humanity having to move to the oceans after exhausting the rest of the world of its natural resources, and just play it straight. As long as you have at least one guest-shot from Stephanie Beacham.
The Man from UNCLE: Bionic Woman may not have worked out, but why not go whole hog into the spy game instead of hinting at some nefarious background that lacks Oscar Goldman? Play up the distrust between the various nations' spies and bring in some of the paranoia that makes Galactica so compelling, and all you need is a modern Robert Vaughan for success.
The Man from Atlantis: Both Galactica and Bionic Woman like to go for the "what does it mean to be an outsider" theme, and what's more outsider than coming from an undersea kingdom? As a plus for the straight female and gay male viewers, you get to see the main character in swim trunks for the majority of each episode. Downside, of course, is that people will think you're just ripping off that Aquaman episode of Smallville
ALF: A longshot, admittedly, but it's got the sci-fi background Eick likes and what better to indulge Eick production traditions like occasionally sloppy writing and the urge to analyse humanity than a sitcom about an alien living in suburbia? Replace the muppet with state of the art CGI and get Bill Murray or someone to do the voice and I'm seeing cynical lead in to The Office every Thursday night.
The Golden Girls: Okay, I know, this sounds unexpected, but think what Eick's touch could do with this set-up - Four old women facing up to their mortality, shot with steadicam, talking about how horrible it is to get old and remembering happier days. One of them can have an incurable disease or something, and every third episode, we can have one of them thrown out an airlock when things get slow. The result, a Golden Girls for the 21st Century: Dark, unrealistic and almost endlessly depressing. Mr. Eick, I think we've found your project. I'll be waiting for my 10% finder's fee.
Comments
Dunno if it's property of NBC/Universal, but...
How about Starman?
I don't recall it being the best show, but it could have potential.
Why even choose? Just meld them into a gawdawful chimera.
A super sub owned by UNCLE that is captained by the man from Atlantis, crewed by ALF, the Golden Girls and Darwin the Dolphin who are sent on campy adventures where all the episodes are titled: The "Fill In the Blank" Affair.
Pure TV Gold.
I kind of feel bad for the flack that David Eick gets. His record shows he's a great producer. In terms of getting things done and on the screen in front of audiences he's as good as it gets.
But the poor guy has absolutely no creative vision at all. None. So any time he strikes out on his own without a creative partner the whole thing goes to shit.
And these days the whole all-in-one creator/writer/producer/visionary vibe is so strong there is no respect for someone who is just good at their job.
Oh, and for the record I vote for ALF. An alien with a sinister secret if I have ever seen one :)
Where in hell are they going to get a modern Robert Vaughan.
Oh please. You're just looking for something to get us all riled up.
As long as he leaves Katee Sackhoff out this time, I'll watch any of it.
@Ryan H: Didn't ALF eat cats? I'd totally watch that show....hooo boy...
One word.
Manimal.
What, no comments about the "dreamy" Ted Raimi?
Was the Man from Uncle the one where everyone was monkeys?
Most of you are probably too young to remember this one. How about "Supertrain"? It was NBC's answer to "The Love Boat." Different has-been guest stars every week, attractive crew, a nuclear powered high speed train. How could they go wrong?
Space: 1999. Nothing like a 10-year-old future that still hasn't come to pass.
Or better, imagine a Back to the Future that's been Battlestarred. Marty inevitably succumbs to his mom, becomes his own father, and before long everyone is "going the wrong way!"
"The Man From UNCLE" with Jack Coleman in the lead role.
100% pure awesome.
@Git Em SteveDave: ROFL. you were there for that discussion, too, huh?
It pretty much goes without saying that this list really isn't much of a list. The only show on it that had a truly kick-ass concept, yet the hair-raisingly cheesy production necessary to make it ripe for remake, is seaQuest. That show was SO *ALMOST* awesome. And in terms of Eick, it certainly had a great deal of potential for "grit-ifying".
It would have to be "The Woman from Uncle". No show where the hero is a man would get past the corporate sponsors. Gots to elevate the ladies.
...or possibly 'Alfette'
@EBone:
Useless trivia on 'Supertrain'.
NBC paid model railroad company Athearn over a million bucks to build the working model of the train.
After the show was canceled, Athearn auctioned it off for a bit over $10,000 for NBC.
Seinfeld - a future where nothing happens.
ALF a longshot? Yeah how could they pull real and legitimate themes from that story in today's climate of anger over illegal aliens, the increase in power of foreign lands like China and India, and a crippling fear of foreign terrorists. I mean, a strange foreign alien lands in small town America and is hidden by a family.
Hell they wouldn't even need to change his catchphrase. What suicide bomber probably hasn't said "HAH! I kill ME!" right before detonating.
Wow, this article is so full of fail it can only be flamebait. Golden Girls? Really?
Alf can never be remade, it's that campy kind of show that could only exist in the 80s.
And shame on you for disparaging Darwin. He and Lucas were the whole reason I got into that show.
How could you skip 'Misfits of Science'? No sci-fi show in the history of television is in more need of a remake. And a gritty, angst-ridden take on that ensemble would rock. Now is the time to ride the coattails of Heroes and X-men for all they're worth.
OTHERWORLD!!! Do it!
Ran on CBS, but produced by Universal. Come on... do it, robot world, other dimension, pyramid portals. Family friendly.
@Git Em SteveDave:
"Was the Man from Uncle the one where everyone was monkeys?"
Nah, that's real life.
-Kle.
Ah, when I used to work for Disney, our TV (about 5 writers in our room) was on the Golden Girls EVERY morning on the dot. Strangely enough, I did become fond of that show, which will tend to happen when something is forced into your brain day in and day out.
@Chiper: Are you serious? You...really took that seriously?
Not sure who fails here. It's not Graeme, though.
I wish they'd produce that Quantum Leap sequal I keep hearing rumors about.
Outside of that, it's got to be Airwolf. And yes, it must have Jean Bruce Scott make a guest appearance.
You're all doing it wrong. First off you have to work out who is sponsering the show then work out which old TV series best fits.
So, Ford or GM...
Nice ideas, all, but the winner will be the American version of Dr. Who. They'll make a two-hour pilot, patiently explaining to Americans what Dr. Who is and revealing his super-secret, yet bizzarely abundent, weakness. Jeff Goldblum wil be paired with alternating Olsens. The Tardis will resemble a PolyJohn but, hilariously, will have no working toilet.
Because of the length of the NCAA lacrosse playoffs, the season will actually start with Episode Five, a continuation of the cliff-hanger from Episode Four that was deemed too suspenseful to be a lead-in to the Celebrity Apprentice Rehab Island mid-season talent show.
BJ and the Bear. Totally.
BJ McKay, the last surviving freelance trucker in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and his fun-loving pet iguana Bear foils the treacherous schemes of Warlord Lobo (recast as a black pirate hooker) and Deputy Perkins (now played by the robot Maximillian from The Black Hole week after week after week....
@Klebert L. Hall: There was a show where they had chimps as actors, and it was a spy show. I remember seeing it! Don't I?
@Git Em SteveDave: Lancelot Link: Secret Agent Chimp maybe?
Dear god yes, bring back SeaQuest. I downloaded the whole series not too long ago, and have been quite enjoying it.
I'd go with Emergency because they had the cool alarm noises in the firehouse. They might have some synergy with the upcoming riots after the next election.
Or how about St. Elsewhere but have it happen in the imagination of a virtual gamer instead of a snowglobe.
@ElijahDProphet: damn, beat me to it.
Arg! It's so obvious!
BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY!!!
Seriously: no Twiki, no humanoid/alien princesses, no kitsch, no crap. Just good old-fashioned post-singularity, transhuman stories seen through the eyes of a 21st century test pilot. I nominate Adam Warren as chief creative consultant for the series.
@Im a people person. Who drinks.: I'm going to say that is the one, unless there were more than one chimp performed spy shows.
@Git Em SteveDave:
I don't know... I tend to avoid all shows with monkeys in the cast. Cartoons are okay, but no live action.
No sir, I do not like the monkeys.
-Kle.
That is, the other monkeys... Humans can be okay.
-Kle.
No, I'm sorry, but you'd also need a modern David McCallum to play off the modern Robert Vaughn.
@Git Em SteveDave:
Lancelot Link; I used to watch it every Saturday morning.
It would go well with the remake of Captain Simian.
I agree with Lord Maim. Jack Coleman would be fantastic in The Man From Uncle. I hope Mr. Eick reads this blog and goes with it.
@Goodnightbabytron: Space: 1999 may be unsalvageable but its predecessor, Gerry Anderson's UFO, might work. (Probably should leave out the purple wigs though...)
ARK II
@Chiper: That Alf comment sounds like just the kind of challenge I'm up for. Script in the works.
Just imagine if ALF's appetite for cats concealed a larger, darker hunger. And would anybody really care if that obnoxious little brat down the street went missing?
Talking dolphins have been done well. Brin's "Uplift" series, Alan Moore's "Halo Jones" and Larry Niven's Known Space universe had them, I think.
Darwin the dolphin would have been 500 times better if his voice translator just gave him a normal voice. I mean... it was a translator. Why design it so that the voice is still dolphin-like, ANNOYING and hard to understand at times. It was firmly in "Twiki" territory.
Give it a British accent or something. "I say, old bean, could you do me a royal and toss out one of those fish over there? Right-o, old chap! Mmmmm. Cracking good fish!"
The Golden Giorls idea sounds horrible. Something dark like BSG is fine because it's a tragedy of a type and scale far enough removed from the every day that it can be viewed dispassionately. Four old people sitting around dying is too real, and would not make real great entertainment.
I agree with others who mentioned Quantum Leap. They could really get into a whole time war idea by building on the "evil leaper" concept which they never really fleshed out well. Really sit down and work out a complicated series of time travel one-uppmanship for each season. Maybe even have more than two sides at play. One side is trying to maintain the "true" timeline while other sides try to subvert it to their own ends. Oh, wait, that's Poul Anderson's "Time Patrol"... :-)
I'd have to say that "My Mother the Car" is about due for a remake.
@EBone: Wow, I totally want to see David Eick's take on a nuclear-powered high-speed train.
@Ryan H: Wasn't the problem with Bionic Woman that it had about 10,000 creative visions? And producers kept quitting/getting fired/taking too much valium and going all bendy?
I don't think it was NBC's, but "Tales of the Gold monkey" would be a good show to revamp with the new Indy movie and lego game coming out soon.
SeaQuest DSV, definately. The Setting fits the curret theme of global warming.
And the original ship was awesome.
They already remade Golden Girls: it's called Sex and the City.
Forget Seaquest. Go all the way back and redo Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea. That is old school.
@KiddChaos: And they even remade that and called it "Desperate Housewives".
I know, they could recreate Red Dwarf. They tried it once but maybe they could get it right.
It depends, is it going to be good like BSG or crap like BW?
How about an Americanized live-action version of "Cutey Honey"?
Darker, nudier, flashier...with attitude.
"Honey Flash' Damn You!"
The Prisoner? No. That would suck. They'd suck out all the cool, trippy, psychedelica and leave a dry cold husk of a semi-spy programme...
I guess I'd have to second UFO. That has the potential to be way cool if done right. [I said "IF"...]
Planet of the Apes? They could ride the simian-wave created by Marvel Apes...
[no, i really don't see that happening, either.]
Breaking news: Eick is going to remake Lost, thats right, he's going to revolutionise how we think of remakes by doing something still in production.
then he'll have a sandwich
My vote for exploitable NBC series would be "Something is Out There." Seriously, this one has totally vanished into the collective ether, and (alongside Stingray), I have a devil of a time finding anyone who remembers it, or is willing to admit to, whereas I had the VHS of it into and beyond my college years.
Come on, shapechanging evil alien vs. British Accent good alien who gets drunk off of coffee and stereotypical L.A. cop? And the series didn't even need the shapechanging one, even I don't remember what or who they were up against instead.
@