What I mean is: isn't the forthcoming 90210 spinoff on the CW exactly the sort of thing that people would be covering on this blog?
I know it's right up Mike's alley, but, based on a conversation I had with him the other day, he somehow didn't even know it existed. The whole 90210 thing wasn't exactly before my time-- I'm not that much younger than everyone else here-- but it wasn't really my thing either. During its peak I was at exactly the age where I thought it was cool to hate everything that was popular, and was afraid it would turn me gay if I liked the same things girls liked.
Still, though-- I would think the possibility of a new version of 90210 would have at least some of the Barrelhousers buzzing.
Excerpts from the Variety article linked above:
According to reports on casting breakdowns and TVTracker.com, the new take on the Aaron Spelling-Darren Star sudser will focus on the Mills family of BevHills and offer a lot more racial diversity than the original show.
Racial Diversity!
Matriarch of the family is Tabitha Mills, a 60-something actress/alchoholic who was a major star in the 1970s and had been linked to everyone from Warren Beatty to Jack Nicholson. After her latest bout at Betty Ford, Tabitha decides to try to live on her own in her BevHills estate.
Alcoholism!
The couple have two 16-year-olds: Daughter Annie and adopted son Dixon. Annie is an emo/theater kid who's desperate to fit in with the cool crowd. Dylan, er, Dixon is a supersmart bad boy who has lingering social and behavioral issues -- and not an ounce of nerdiness in him.
Emo kids! Supersmart bad boys! Jocks vs. nerds!
Naomi Bennett is Ethan's super-hot, ultra-rich ex-girlfriend. She appears to be a brat but will end up having more layers.
Layers!
Seriously, this is gonna be gold, right? How could it fail?
Two questions for you:
1. What other late-80s/early-90s shows need to make a comeback?
2. Would these revivals/spinoffs be more entertaining if they just used the original cast and followed them through their sad current lives? Let's not pretend Mayim Bialik is too busy to put Blossom back on the air. And she must have a ton of funny hats by now.
6 jibber jabbers:
They could do a remake of Golden Girls starring Andrea Zuckerman. I can only assume she's old enough these days to be an AARP member.
I'm skeptical of the new 90210, for obvious reasons. Incidentally, I just rewatched the high school graduation episode on SoapNet (I'm a little under the weather) -- the one with lots of cheesy flashbacks and tearful hugging and David Silver getting almost weepy remembering his doofus friend Scott who accidentally blew his own brains out.
I just don't see how this supposed remake can recapture that particular style of magic.
It's no "The Cutting Edge 3," is all I'm saying.
That being said: how is this exactly a remake? It doesn't really seem to have a lot to do with the original. (Unlike The Cutting Edge 3, of course, which was a completely necessary reiteration of a timeless tale of ice, woe, Moira Kelly's haughtiness and D.B. Sweeney's hot drunken bare ass.)
Anyway, shows that need to be revived:
1) Herman's Head. I'm serious. No one really seems to appreciate how good that show was. And in today's world of pop-psych meets schizophrenia meets pharmacology, just think how many fun episodes the writers can eke out, like "Get With the (Lexi)pro-gram" or "Cymbalta-gether Now."
2) My So Called Life. I know it's not a real classic, falling in that fucked up in-between time after teen dramas lost their appeal but before they reemerged as thinly-veiled porn. Still, that show fucking rocked. The new version, though, in service of "diversity" should have, instead of the gay best friend, a tranny midget and, instead of Claire Danes, a koala bear wearing a red wig. The nerdy next door neighbor shall remain the same (and be played by the same Sideshow Bob looking dude.)
3) The Joy of Painting. (Also starring the Sideshow Bob looking neighbor dude from My So Called Life.) We all need a little more Bob Rossness in our lives these days, I feel. And anyway, he was great to watch when you ran out of pot, since he sort of produced the same effects.
Lastly, I think a show following the old 90210 cast would be a great idea. Partially because, as fun as it was pretending they were 18 when they were clearly hitting menopause, it will be even funnier pretending that they're, like, 29 (which is how old they would be now, or something around there) instead of the spry 137-year-olds they really are.
Do not slam the Golden Girls, Mike. Show Bea Arthur some love. I fucking adore that show. That's my vote for what needs to come back. That and It's Your Move.
And I love 90210, too. But never really bought the whole Kelly / Dylan thing. It felt not genuine.
I would love to see the cheeziness of 21 Jump Street make a comeback, as well as a madeover Dallas/Falcon's Crest (not a reunion special, but a recast version with Carmen Electra and Pam Anderson replacing Linda Evans and that brit bitch whose name I forget) It would be soooo vampy, so campy, just like the original. And instead of big shoulderpads they'd have big, well you already know what's big on them chicks.
21 Jump Street returning would be genius. Great suggestion.
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