An appalling number of shows are now being continued long after their deaths. Revivals (not to be confused with reboots) bring us back to the comfort of old friends, who are now really old. What can a revival’s success tell us about why the show was appealing in the first place? Wouldn’t you rather see a new work by the same creative team than more of the same? Mark, Erica, and Brian consider some successes, failures, and hypotheticals.
We consider Arrested Development, The Twilight Zone, X-Files, Twin Peaks, Will & Grace, Deadwood, Full House, Gilmore Girls, Queer Eye, Doctor Who, Veronica Mars, and talk too much about The Brady Bunch and Alf.
Some articles we looked at:
- “In Defense of TV Reboots and Revivals” by LaToya Furguson
- “TV Keeps Rebooting ‘90s Shows Because Everything Is Bad” by Orlana Schwindt
- “From Arrested Development to Deadwood to Veronica Mars, Fandoms Keep Shows Coming Back From the Dead” by Noel Murray
- “TV Reboots and Revivals” by Emily Longeretta (a current list)
- “Revivals” at tvtropes.com
This episode includes bonus discussion that you can only hear by supporting the podcast at patreon.com/prettymuchpop. This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network.
Pretty Much Pop is the first podcast curated by Open Culture. Browse all Pretty Much Pop posts or start with the first episode.
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