"Bewitched" Reboot

[+ Avalon]

On the radio just now I heard that ABC and the people who make "Black ish" are working on a reboot of "Bewitched". Samantha will be black and Darrin will be white.

 

Hopefully there will be a gay character. Maybe Uncle Arthur?

 

I'd like to see this reboot!

 

I think everyone in the original series is dead except for the actresses (twins) who played Tabitha and the actor who played Adam.

[bnm73]

On the radio just now I heard that ABC and the people who make "Black ish" are working on a reboot of "Bewitched". Samantha will be black and Darrin will be white.

 

Hopefully there will be a gay character. Maybe Uncle Arthur?

 

I'd like to see this reboot!

 

I think everyone in the original series is dead except for the actresses (twins) who played Tabitha and the actor who played Adam.

Here's a thought....stop rehashing shows from the past [Magnum PI, MacGuyver, Bewitched, Full(er) House, Will & Grace, Roseanne, Hawaii Five-0, Charmed, Lost in Space, S.W.A.T., One Day at a Time, ad nauseam] and try to come up with something new.

[+ Avalon]

Here's a thought....stop rehashing shows from the past [Magnum PI, MacGuyver, Bewitched, Full(er) House, Will & Grace, Roseanne, Hawaii Five-0, Charmed, Lost in Space, S.W.A.T., One Day at a Time, ad nauseam] and try to come up with something new.

 

I like to watch old b&w shows from the 1950s. Instead of making new shows just begin airing shows from 60 years ago. So for the 2019 tv season just air shows from 1959.

[bnm73]

I like to watch old b&w shows from the 1950s. Instead of making new shows just begin airing shows from 60 years ago. So for the 2019 tv season just air shows from 1959.

A minor guilty pleasure of mine most evenings is to watch the original Perry Mason, which is broadcast on one of the "higher number" channels on my TV service. I'm finding that Perry's tactics are a bit slimier than I remember them being when I watched the shows when I was younger.

[Moondance]

Here's a thought....stop rehashing shows from the past [Magnum PI, MacGuyver, Bewitched, Full(er) House, Will & Grace, Roseanne, Hawaii Five-0, Charmed, Lost in Space, S.W.A.T., One Day at a Time, ad nauseam] and try to come up with something new.

AMEN TO THAT!

[bostonman]

On the radio just now I heard that ABC and the people who make "Black ish" are working on a reboot of "Bewitched". Samantha will be black and Darrin will be white.

 

As I become more aware of the world of microagression, I do much wonder if making the witch the black half of the couple is not really a good idea. (Much as I'm all for color-blind casting, a lot of people won't see it as such.)

 

That said, I'll echo other sentiments in this thread and say that I don't like this whole re-make idea in general - especially in a case like this when the deservedly classic original series is readily available in syndication.

 

Plot devices can and are constantly recycled - so if they want to produce a NEW sitcom about a family with a witch, sure. But why try to replicate the specifics of Bewitched? (Don't forget there was also I Dream Of Jeannie, which had an obviously similar theme, but was not really the same in any other way. The two shows are forever linked, but they're actually quite different in feel.)

[+ Avalon]

I've heard it said that there are just so many storylines out there. Like much of Laverne & Shirley was a rehash of Lucy & Ethel.

[bnm73]

I've heard it said that there are just so many storylines out there.

 

 

Whoever said that was a lazy writer. The world is always changing, and there is always something new to write about.

[+ Avalon]

Whoever said that was a lazy writer. The world is always changing, and there is always something new to write about.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots

[bostonman]

I've heard it said that there are just so many storylines out there. Like much of Laverne & Shirley was a rehash of Lucy & Ethel.

 

I don't really see the connection, other than the "slapstick-ish" nature of both teams.

 

More properly, L&S was really a spinoff of Happy Days - and spinoffs have always been a popular way to keep things going. That group of shows also included the successful Mork and Mindy - the other spinoffs in that group didn't catch on nearly as much.

 

I'd include "Lucy" in the pantheon of classic "couple" shows - one can see a line leading from, say, The Honeymooners to I Love Lucy to The Flintstones and beyond...one might include The Dick Van Dyke Show...certainly All In The Family (and its spinoffs like The Jeffersons and Maude)...all using the basic formula of two married couples who are also close friends (or, relatives, in the case of All In The Family). And one can also see the link to shows such as Friends, Will and Grace, and even Seinfeld, even though by that point, the "couples" idea isn't quite the same - though still with a lead cast of 4.

 

Interesting that the 2 Lucy spinoffs (The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy) never came anywhere close to her original classic series. Even though Vivian Vance co-starred with her again in The Lucy Show, and in both those shows, Lucy got her wish of getting to work with the fabulous Gale Gordon. Getting to re-watch both shows fairly recently in syndication, I'm actually amazed they survived as long as they did, lol.

[bnm73]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots

Like I said....a lazy writer.

 

Please also note that "comedy" and "tragedy" are genres, not plots.

 

And I defy anyone to put "A Chorus Line," "Company," "Follies," etc., in any of those.

[bostonman]

And I defy anyone to put "A Chorus Line," "Company," "Follies," etc., in any of those.

 

Actually, Follies takes the classic "two couples" idea (prevalent in a lot of classic musicals too - Oklahoma, for example) and puts it in a very different and dark setting.

 

Also - I'm sure this was not deliberate - but I've always thought it was funny that one of those couples is Buddy and Sally - the same names of Rob Petrie's comedy-writing cohorts on "The Dick Van Dyke Show." Surely coincidence, but still...

 

(Wouldn't it have been fun to imagine Morey Amsterdam clowning his way through "Buddy's Blues" lol? And Rose-Marie might even have made an interesting, if more caustic, Sally Durant. It would have been cool to hear her take on "Losing My Mind.")

[bnm73]

Actually, Follies takes the classic "two couples" idea (prevalent in a lot of classic musicals too - Oklahoma, for example) and puts it in a very different and dark setting.

 

 

Which is not one of the 7 possible plots outlined in the referenced website.

 

It's neither comedy nor tragedy. No monster to overcome, no rags to riches, no quest, no voyage/return, and no rebirth.

[bostonman]

Which is not one of the 7 possible plots outlined in the referenced website.

 

It's neither comedy nor tragedy. No monster to overcome, no rags to riches, no quest, no voyage/return, and no rebirth.

 

I wasn't attempting to make Follies one of "7 possible plots" - rather, alluding to the fact that it borrows from a lot of ideas and puts them in a new light - and a dark light at that. Follies couldn't exist without the world of the real Follies that came before it.

 

No monster to overcome? I disagree. All 4 of the leads battle with extreme and debilitating inner monsters. Sally's is the one we may follow most, but Ben is the one that has the breakdown. We see Buddy struggle with his marriage and affair, knowing that "I don't love the right girl" and having to live with that - and Phyllis, who has spent her life scrambing to become the upper crust woman Ben wanted her to be, now questions all of it, in the face of a loveless marriage. Fay Apple can "slay a dragon, any old day - easy" - but these poor folks can't.

 

No rage to riches? I give you Ben, whose empty rise to the top now leaves him with nothing - and Phyllis, who is his "partner in crime" through all of it.

 

No quest? What is this, Man of La Mancha lol? Not to say that all 4 of these characters don't have their impossible dreams. Sally has dreamed impossibly of Ben for 30 years. But she was never his Dulcinea, not even after sleeping together 30 years ago, and certainly not now.

 

No voyage/return? I think the entire party, culminating in the Twilight Zone-ish world of Loveland, is the voyage - and the bleak final scene is certainly a return.

 

No rebirth? Well, those empty promises in the final scene might fill in for that. Though I tend to think that neither couple is going to wind up any better than they were at the start of the night. And, the final image of the show - the 4 younger selves - remind us that even if there's no "rebirth," the old memories and longings never go away. Heidi may admonish us to "never look back" - but the end of the show intimates that such a thing isn't possible. Sondheim would explore this same theme in Merrily We Roll Along.

 

I'd agree it's neither tragedy (in the classical sense) nor comedy - but I do think it's tragic nonetheless. With an acerbic wit throughout to boot. A lot of wonderful entertaining moments but always with a bite.

 

Anyway, back to sitcoms lol.

Edited August 24, 2018 by bostonman

[bnm73]

I wasn't attempting to make Follies one of "7 possible plots" - rather, alluding to the fact that it borrows from a lot of ideas and puts them in a new light - and a dark light at that. Follies couldn't exist without the world of the real Follies that came before it.

 

No monster to overcome? I disagree. All 4 of the leads battle with extreme and debilitating inner monsters. Sally's is the one we may follow most, but Ben is the one that has the breakdown. We see Buddy struggle with his marriage and affair, knowing that "I don't love the right girl" and having to live with that - and Phyllis, who has spent her life scrambing to become the upper crust woman Ben wanted her to be, now questions all of it, in the face of a loveless marriage. Fay Apple can "slay a dragon, any old day - easy" - but these poor folks can't.

 

No rage to riches? I give you Ben, whose empty rise to the top now leaves him with nothing - and Phyllis, who is his "partner in crime" through all of it.

 

No quest? What is this, Man of La Mancha lol? Not to say that all 4 of these characters don't have their impossible dreams. Sally has dreamed impossibly of Ben for 30 years. But she was never his Dulcinea, not even after sleeping together 30 years ago, and certainly not now.

 

No voyage/return? I think the entire party, culminating in the Twilight Zone-ish world of Loveland, is the voyage - and the bleak final scene is certainly a return.

 

No rebirth? Well, those empty promises in the final scene might fill in for that. Though I tend to think that neither couple is going to wind up any better than they were at the start of the night. And, the final image of the show - the 4 younger selves - remind us that even if there's no "rebirth," the old memories and longings never go away. Heidi may admonish us to "never look back" - but the end of the show intimates that such a thing isn't possible. Sondheim would explore this same theme in Merrily We Roll Along.

 

Anyway, back to sitcoms lol.

 

I could argue at least some of those points.....but I agree that we would be hijacking the thread further than need be. Moving on!