3 posts tagged “revival”

Interesting commentary on ABC’s brand-new hit shows for 2008 in the American TV Week:

Buzz projects: Game show “Opportunity Knocks,” which takes the game show out of the studio and into contestants’ front yards, is gaining steam. An adaptation of British crime drama “Life on Mars” is virtually on the air, although producer David E. Kelley’s involvement is in doubt.

   We know Life on Mars is a remake, but Opportunity Knocks? Talk about reviving something very, very old.
   It began on BBC Radio in 1949 and the Hughie Green TV version on ITV began in 1960 in the UK.
   While this version sounds a bit different (‘contestants’ front yards’?) I can’t help but think it’s somehow the same show—it certainly sounds like a talent show with everyday contestants, as with the original.
   The original was infamous for having a young Su Pollard beaten by a dog and some dude called Gerry Dorsey (Engelbert Humperdinck to most of us) getting rejected at auditions. But it was a solid ratings’ hit for ITV and Thames in its day.
   It was so famous that Benny Hill did a parody of it in 1971, pretending it was on German television:

   Again, I shall be interested to see what transpires, and I mean that most sincerely, folks.

Isn’t it far too early to be nostalgic for a Beverly Hills, 90210 revival?
   American networks don’t think so: it’s back in the (northern) autumn, called 90210 and produced by Rob Thomas (who’s also doing the US version of Outrageous Fortune, called Outrageous Behavior).
   More at Canada.com.
   Normally revivals take some 20 years though they seem to come around the time of Hollywood writers’ strikes.
   And will fans of the old watch the new if it doesn’t have returning stars? That would be like Grease 2 not having Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta.

Will Ashes to Ashes kick off a revival in 1980s fashions? Probably not—or so I say today in the Lucire Insider blog.