Before Dallas and Dynasty and Falcon Crest and Knots Landings captured the imaginations of American viewers, there was a British soap import that was even more compelling.
From 1971-75, PBS aired the British upper crust soap Upstairs Downstairs. And now Upstairs Downstairs is going to be remade. It'll be filmed and shown in England first before coming to America in 2011.
What made Upstairs Downstairs classic television – it won Emmys, BAFTAs and Golden Globes – was the way it depicted of the British class system. Upstairs you had the rich, privileged Bellamy family. Downstairs there were the servants who worked for them. The lives of all these characters intertwined in a well-written, brilliantly acted drama series.
Last year, all the citizens of Transsexual, Transylvania felt a collective disturbance in their fandom force. MTV had announced that they were going to do a remake of the classic cult film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Not only would this be completely unnecessary, but it actually kind of hurt every Rocky fan's soul to hear it. Rocky Horror needs no remake because it never becomes dated. It's so far removed from, well, everything ever, it still holds up perfectly, happily doing the Time Warp again and again in its own little universe.
Well, maybe MTV got lazy or maybe they got freaked out about the insane amount of Internet sad-chatter against the idea of the new version, but MTV's Rocky Horror remake is on hold. Rejoice and prod a gold underwear-clad Adonis with a standing candelabra.
The Rockford Files was one of my favorite shows as a kid. When I got my first car I even looked around for one just like his. So this news that NBC is doing a remake of the show has me both excited and scared. Why try to redo one of the classic private eye shows of all-time?
Maybe because it is one of the classic private eye shows of all-time. House creator David Shore is writing a new, updated version of the show, and if there's one thing that makes me feel better about it is the fact that Shore hates updating shows like this but made an exception because it's one of his favorite shows, too.
He is not a number. He is a free man -- and he's coming to Comic-Con.
The stars of AMC's mini-series remake of The Prisoner are headed to San Diego's mega-convention. The new Number Six, Jim Caviezel, will join Jamie Campbell-Bower (The Twilight Saga: New Moon) and Lennie James (Jericho) for a panel and preview of the six-part series.
The Prisoner tells the story of a retired spy who finds himself abducted and spirited away to a mysterious Village where nameless authority figures struggle to break his mind and spirit while he battles to escape. The show is known for its moral and existential themes as much as its sharp writing and distinctive art design.
John has already told you about the V remake that will air on ABC next season, and that got me thinking about the original 80s version. I clearly remember one scene where head baddie Diana (Jane Badler) chowed down. Here's the clip. I really hope they redo this scene in the new version.
Okay, the other day I applauded Fox for giving Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles a pick up for the remainder of the 2008-2009 season. Even though the critics have been expecting more from the sci-fi series, Fox chose to stick with the show and give it a chance to evolve. Good for them!
That said, the news today that NBC has given Knight Rider a full season order leaves me cold. That's an order for nine more episodes, and it strikes me as throwing good money after bad. Knight Rider has been struggling in the ratings and generally dissed by the critics. It hasn't earned a pick up to be perfectly frank.
So why would NBC give this remake of the 1980's action drama a vote of confidence? Well, it could be that it's considered one of NBC programming chief Ben Silverman's pet projects.
Generally speaking, I'm not an anti-remake person. There are times when a remake is perfectly acceptable and oftentimes can improve upon the best of the original, like Battlestar Galactica, for instance. However -- you knew that was coming, didn't you? -- this remake just sounds like a disaster in the making. MTV is going to turn The Rocky Horror Picture Show into a TV movie. They will take the 1975 cult classic sci-fi, horror musical spoof and give it a 2008 spin.
Oh, please! You cannot strike lightning twice. Rocky Horror was a phenomenon. It was a cult classic because the people who found and supported the movie in all those midnight movie showings felt like they were part of a "with it" crowd. It was like we had all found a diamond in the rough, a film that Hollywood just didn't get. How can MTV possibly think they'll recapture that zeitgeist in a TV movie?
Ali Lohan of E!'s Living Lohan wants to destroy her nonexistent career by starring in the remake of the 1986 movie Troll (the original starred Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Sonny Bono). "How fitting that she already kinda looks like one? Yeah yeah, we're more evil than the creatures she'll fight in the flick, we know," Kate Spencer of VH1.com jokes.
I hope we get to see Ali's audition, rehearsals, shoots, and any other drama that could involve Long Island's resident troll, Dina Lohan, acting like a crazed stage mother.
When I first heard they were going to remake The Day The Earth Stood Still, I think I literally shivered. It's one of my favorite films (I even named a magazine after one of the characters from the 1951 classic), and the thought of it being updated for 2008 really made me grind my teeth. I can picture it now: this one will have a wise-cracking hero, the young boy will have a dog, and Klaatu will destroy whole cities before he tells the world they have to reach peace.
Note that other sites have categorized this as merely a rumor since I first posted this. Update at end of post.
Like most people who wish for dumb things, I've been patiently waiting for someone to remake the 1985 Michael J. Fox movie Teen Wolf, or to at least film my script that re-imagines Beowulf with Scott Baio in the lead role (I call it BaioWolf). Yes, I know Beowulf has nothing to do with werewolves, but in BaioWolf, everyone is a werewolf, something I believe the original epic poem lacked.
Well, apparently it's happening, and Smallville's Tom Welling has signed on for the Teen Wolf remake, but not as the titular werewolf. In this remake, the werewolf will be female. No word yet on who will play the lead, and apparently the filmmakers are still scouting locations.
Although Todd Oldham said, at the TCA panel for Bravo's Top Design this morning, "Copying is boring, but reinventing is quite interesting" ... which really doesn't explain why we have another reality show about home makeovers, ack! It's invasion of the paintbrush wielding contestants this time, with no end in sight.
I'm not the kind of person who gets her panties in a twist over a favorite book being brought to the screen, a movie being turned into a television series or Shakespeare getting a modern revamp. Different mediums. Different stories. Different times. In the hands of the right artist, you get an equally exciting cultural product to hug, love, squeeze and call "George." Even crappy re-tellings don't have to denigrate the original. They're not necessary - High Fidelity didn't need to be a Broadway musical; Gus Van Sant didn't need to remake Psycho shot-for-shot; and no one needs to see The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. But, for the most part, these things come and go. They haven't bothered me any... until now.
The planned movie remake of the hit '80s primetime soap Dallas has encountered numerous road blocks on its slow crawl to production. Jennifer Garner said no to role of Pam Ewing, then Jennifer Lopez, who was set to play Sue Ellen, dropped out of the project. Meg Ryan came in to take her place, but she has also left the project, along with Shirley MacLaine and Luke Wilson. That leaves John "JR Ewing" Travolta as the only one left out of the main cast. Apparently focus groups only liked the JR character, and director Gurinder Chadha was not happy with the casting choices. The abandoned roles will be recast, but it's not clear whether Chadha will stay with the project. Sounds to me like it might be time to put this particular dog to sleep for good and start working on a movie people really want to see: an animated version of Falcon Crest.
In 1990, when I was in middle school, ABC aired a two-part miniseries based on Stephen King's gargantuan novel IT. I had a television in my room, so I had a place to watch shows my parents didn't want to watch, so I stretched out on my bed and watched the movie. Perhaps I was just a wuss (and I was) but the movie scared the living crap out of me. Fast forward to college, and my then girlfriend and I decide to rent IT, which I had not seen since those two nail-biting nights in my room back in 1990. I have to say I didn't have the same reaction as before. I found it to be rather mediocre, and mildly frightening at best. Also, by that time I had actually read the book, so I knew what most fans of King's work already know, which is that movie and television adaptations of his work can be very hit and miss, but mostly miss.
But that's not going to stop them from trying it again. Peter Filardi, who already adapted 'Salem's Lot for TNT and is helming "The Road Virus Heads North" segment of the upcoming Nightmares and Dreamscapes series, told Fangoria he's developing IT for the SciFi Channel. Originally he was to make a two-hour version of the novel for TNT, but will instead stretch it out to a four-hour movie for SciFi. The article further states that the adaptation will tell the story "through the eyes of the character of Beverly Marsh."
Either I had completely forgotten about this, or I never actually knew about it in the first place, but back in the 1980s, Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi worked on an updated version of Bob Clampett's Beany and Cecil, one of the best cartoons ever made. Now, Clampett was a huge influence on John K's style, so if anyone was going to try and bring this old cartoon back and revamp it for a new audience, I figure he was the best choice. Of course, I think it would be impossible to ever duplicate the brilliance of the original, but based on this full episode I found on YouTube, they did a pretty decent job. There seems to be very little information on this cartoon, and as far as I can tell, IMDb doesn't even have a listing for it. I'm fairly certain voice actor Stan Freberg provides the same voices (Cecil, Dishonest John, etc.) in this cartoon as he did in the original, though I can't be positive about that.
Before Dallas and Dynasty and Falcon Crest and Knots Landings captured the imaginations of American viewers, there was a British soap import that was even more compelling. 
The Rockford Files was one of my favorite shows as a kid. When I got my first car I even looked around for one just like his. So this news that 
He is not a number. He is a free man -- and he's coming to Comic-Con.
Okay, the other day 
Generally speaking, I'm not an anti-remake person. There are times when a remake is perfectly acceptable and oftentimes can improve upon the best of the original, like Battlestar Galactica, for instance. However -- you knew that was coming, didn't you? -- this remake just sounds like a disaster in the making. 
Ali Lohan of E!'s 
When I first heard they were going to remake 
Although Todd Oldham said, at the TCA panel for Bravo's 
I'm not the kind of person who gets her panties in a twist over a favorite book being brought to the screen, a movie being turned into a television series or Shakespeare getting a modern revamp. Different mediums. Different stories. Different times. In the hands of the right artist, you get an equally exciting cultural product to hug, love, squeeze and call "George." Even crappy re-tellings don't have to denigrate the original. They're not necessary - High Fidelity didn't need to be a Broadway musical; Gus Van Sant didn't need to remake Psycho shot-for-shot; and no one needs to see The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. But, for the most part, these things come and go. They haven't bothered me any... until now.
The planned movie remake of the hit '80s primetime soap Dallas has encountered numerous road blocks on its slow crawl to production. Jennifer Garner 
In 1990, when I was in middle school, ABC aired a two-part miniseries based on Stephen King's gargantuan novel IT. I had a television in my room, so I had a place to watch shows my parents didn't want to watch, so I stretched out on my bed and watched the movie. Perhaps I was just a wuss (and I was) but the movie scared the living crap out of me. Fast forward to college, and my then girlfriend and I decide to rent IT, which I had not seen since those two nail-biting nights in my room back in 1990. I have to say I didn't have the same reaction as before. I found it to be rather mediocre, and mildly frightening at best. Also, by that time I had actually read the book, so I knew what most fans of King's work already know, which is that movie and television adaptations of his work can be very hit and miss, but mostly miss.
Either I had completely forgotten about this, or I never actually knew about it in the first place, but back in the 1980s, Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi worked on an updated version of Bob Clampett's Beany and Cecil, one of the best cartoons ever made. Now, Clampett was a huge influence on John K's style, so if anyone was going to try and bring this old cartoon back and revamp it for a new audience, I figure he was the best choice. Of course, I think it would be impossible to ever duplicate the brilliance of the original, but based on
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