New sitcoms are the old sitcoms?
March 10, 2016
The hottest trend in Hollywood seems to be the remaking of old sitcoms and television dramas with the same cast from prior seasons, but older and with a different storyline.
Netflix has recently released the new series Fuller House, a spin off of the 90’s family- friendly sitcom, Full House.
The original cast is back in action with actors like Candace Cameron Bure, Bob Saget, and John Stamos, not to mention the other family member characters that will be making appearances throughout the sitcom.
Unfortunately, for the many original fans of Full House, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, who played Michelle Tanner, were not involved in the first season.
The story line along the new Netflix original series revolves around D.J. Tanner-Fuller, now grown up, widowed and with three children.
Tanner-Fuller is welcomed back into her old childhood home, with her long-time friend and neighbor, Kimmy Gibbler, and her sister, Stephanie Tanner.
The series was released on February 26, 2016 and had an initial order of 13 episodes, but was shortly renewed for a second season due to the high volume of interest on the Netflix website.
“I like how it reminds me of my childhood,” said Laura Meaux, “It brings back nostalgic memories of watching Full House with my sister.”
The reason for the success of remade television shows like Fuller House, seems to play into the nostalgic presence, channeling young adult and childhood shows that had disappeared instantaneously.
“I think it is a great idea for Hollywood and certain TV channels to bring back old shows,” said senior Catherine Mead-Smith. “This gives the opportunity to hold onto millennials that could be turning away from generic television.”
Fuller House seems to be a tag along in the trend of remaking old sitcoms with The X- Files, Heroes Reborn, Twin Peaks, and Gilmore Girls also joining in on the bandwagon.
Hollywood is looking to give a second life to some of the shows with high fan counts in hopes of the continuing growth of the media industry.
“In December, Nielsen Co. confirmed that traditional television viewing has been in decline since 2010,” according to Fortune Magazine.
Because of the increase of smartphones and other streaming devices, the decrease in traditional television viewing has dropped exponentially, by about 10%.
The revival of favorite television shows, allows the audience with a familiarity, making the shows stand out more amongst a large pot of new, unknown shows that are continually being thrown into media during this Golden Age every day.