TV: Perfect Strangers Reboot (Why?)

[Babe Ruth]

You're way, way over thinking and over politicizing this.

The original Perfect Strangers is just a forgotten throwaway sitcom. It doesn't offend anyone because nobody is watching it in 2021. The cutoff for even remembering it is around age 40, and even those of us old enough to have watched it barely remember anything about it. "Oh yeah, Balki was kind of funny" is the synopsis of a show that ran 8 seasons.

Rebooting a show like this isn't part of some culture war. It's just a cheap cash grab where a low-end studio exec takes a shitty script, slaps a familiar name on it, and calls it a "reboot" hoping to get some attention from the teenaged kids of people who remember watching the original on TGIF. That's all it is.

Very naive take.. I guess you interpret every replacement of originally White characters as a random coincidence.. The Equalizer, Uncle Buck, Charmed, Magnum PI, Annie, Karate Kid, Charlie's Angels (reimagined twice), etc etc.
The trend is obviously not incidental, but..
And I'm not politicizing the practice, I'm simply pointing out the obvious. Whether u feel the (essentially one way) racial reimagining is good or bad is subjective.

 

[GKJ]

The answer is because it's content, and content is content. Streaming services buying lottery tickets in case they have a hit. Guys thinking way too hard here.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Very naive take.. I guess you interpret every replacement of originally White characters as a random coincidence.. The Equalizer, Uncle Buck, Charmed, Magnum PI, Annie, Karate Kid, Charlie's Angels (reimagined twice), etc etc.
The trend is obviously not incidental, but..
And I'm not politicizing the practice, I'm simply pointing out the obvious. Whether u feel the (essentially one way) racial reimagining is good or bad is subjective.

You are pushing the idea that HBO is spending millions of dollars to reboot Perfect Strangers because someone (???) finds it “offensively too male and white”.

Gonna go ahead and say I’m not the one who’s in la-la land here.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Just make the old shows available to watch again on TV or streaming

That is really all people ask for

Reboots are mostly stupid and awful

 

[Ozz]

I bet it's getting more talk here about whether or not it's a stupid idea, than it'll get otherwise anywhere else on its own merits

 

[Contenderorpretender]

They could have made this a dark comedy and made it more a satire of the original. Getting someone like jason mantzoukas and someone like Patten Oswalt or someone else can play the uptight guy

 

[Rabid Ranger]

I thought we've hit rock bottom and then noticed that there are plans to reboot Turner & Hooch and also to bring out a movie focused on the introduction of the Pop Tart. LOL.

 

[Osprey]

I thought we've hit rock bottom and then noticed that there are plans to reboot Turner & Hooch and also to bring out a movie focused on the introduction of the Pop Tart. LOL.

I actually think that the Pop-Tart movie sounds creative. It's certainly something that we've never seen before and only Jerry Seinfeld would think of it and try to pull it off. Now, what might be creative bankruptcy is if Jim Gaffigan then copies the idea and makes a movie about the introduction of the Hot Pocket.

 

[Roo Returns]

The answer is because it's content, and content is content. Streaming services buying lottery tickets in case they have a hit. Guys thinking way too hard here.

Why not create new content though?

 

[GKJ]

Why not create new content though?

They do

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Why not create new content though?

Attaching known intellectual property to a “new” project is likely to generate more interest, so I get it.

The original Perfect Strangers was an obvious rip off of the Odd Couple - so not like it was some groundbreaking idea anyway.

 

[Roo Returns]

They do

Sort of. It goes into a Stats study. There are more options and more shows. This is like in college when someone would say "I like x band" and someone would tell them "well, they're really not that good".

 

[Roo Returns]

Attaching known intellectual property to a “new” project is likely to generate more interest, so I get it.

The original Perfect Strangers was an obvious rip off of the Odd Couple - so not like it was some groundbreaking idea anyway.

The immigrant/fish out of water aspect made it different. Plus the fact that it was in a shared "Chicago Universe".

Many shows took place in either NYC or Cali so it was cool that Chicago got some dap in the 80s.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

The immigrant/fish out of water aspect made it different. Plus the fact that it was in a shared "Chicago Universe".

Many shows took place in either NYC or Cali so it was cool that Chicago got some dap in the 80s.

They put a twist on it, but it was still more or less a rip off of the Odd Couple.

I liked the show as a kid but it would irritate me now TBTH and I doubt I’ll check out the reboot either.

Has there ever been a successful reboot.. trying to think of some but nothing is coming to mind.

Battlestar Gallatica? Think that did well but never watched it.

I know there are a few like Fuller House, but I don’t think it was a big hit was it?

 

[Roo Returns]

They put a twist on it, but it was still more or less a rip off of the Odd Couple.

I liked the show as a kid but it would irritate me now TBTH and I doubt I’ll check out the reboot either.

Has there ever been a successful reboot.. trying to think of some but nothing is coming to mind.

Battlestar Gallatica? Think that did well but never watched it.

I know there are a few like Fuller House, but I don’t think it was a big hit was it?

Reboots are as successful as NHL draft picks in rounds 2-7. Yes, and I'm sure someone is going to say something about this statement but you know what I mean.

Fuller House and Girl Meets World are more sequels or continuations. MacGuyver.

And then the "success" goes up if you count imports like The Office or Sandford and Son which were originally UK Shows redone with US Casts.

There are successful reboots. As some pointed out, Magnum PI with Jay Hernandez. Lethal Weapon did ok for a few years. Hawaii Five-O. I'd even throw in the 2003-04 version of Dragnet even though in season two, it was basically a different show.

Perfect Strangers is such a niche thing. It's "fish out of water" or "stereotypical European immigrant humor". It was meant to be somewhat annoying but it was also a product of 1986-1993. And Balki did grow and evolve.

 

[Socks]

How has this not been posted yet

 

[Osprey]

They put a twist on it, but it was still more or less a rip off of the Odd Couple.

The intro does end with a shot of a Chicago theater with "The Odd Couple" on the marquee, so the producers were aware of the similarities, but they were also the same producers who made Mork & Mindy. I imagine that they wanted to duplicate the success of that show, but instead of an alien from another planet moving in with an American woman, they made it an "alien" from a foreign country moving in with an American man. As for Mork & Mindy, it was inspired by My Favorite Martian, which predated The Odd Couple. This suggests that Perfect Strangers' lineage is separate from The Odd Couple, so I wouldn't really call it a "rip off," but it was probably inspired by it.

Personally, I think that putting a twist on a familiar setup and calling it something else is fine. Perfect Strangers could be called a rip off of Mork & Mindy, yet it's just as enjoyable of a show. You might call ALF a rip off of Mork & Mindy, as well, but that, too, was a good show. I, personally, don't care if a series or movie is a "rip off" as long as there are some compelling differences that it banks on instead of on name recognition.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

The intro does end with a shot of a Chicago theater with "The Odd Couple" on the marquee, so the producers were aware of the similarities, but they were also the same producers who made Mork & Mindy. I imagine that they wanted to duplicate the success of that show, but instead of an alien from another planet moving in with an American woman, they made it an "alien" from a foreign country moving in with an American man. As for Mork & Mindy, it was inspired by My Favorite Martian, which predated The Odd Couple. This suggests that Perfect Strangers' lineage is separate from The Odd Couple, so I wouldn't really call it a "rip off," but it was probably inspired by it.

Personally, I think that putting a twist on a familiar setup and calling it something else is fine. Perfect Strangers could be called a rip off of Mork & Mindy, yet it's just as enjoyable of a show. You might call ALF a rip off of Mork & Mindy, as well, but that, too, was a good show. I, personally, don't care if a series or movie is a "rip off" as long as there are some compelling differences that it banks on instead of on name recognition.

I already said I enjoyed the show as a kid, but my original point was who cares if they reboot it?

It wasn’t some original show or idea that rebooting it would put a stain on it’s legacy.