Now that Heroes is due a reboot next year, we thought we'd cast our eye over TV Land and see what other shows could be dragged back from cancellation and given a fresh coat of paint.
7. CHEERS
Yes, really. Just imagine what it'd be like. Cliff and Norm are probably still there, although Norm's probably retired from the Postal Service by now. Woody's lost his hair but he's still got the charm. Frasier could probably drop in every now and then and talk about how Roz is being a wagon or something. They could probably drop in a few jokes about how Ted Danson's gone totally grey or the fact that Becker was a load of crap. This literally writes itself.
6. THE INCREDIBLE HULK
You could argue that The Avengers pretty much ruled this out, what with recasting Mark Ruffalo as the green giant, but just imagine what it'd be like if they remade the series. The TV series was quite ahead of its time; dealing with a lot of heavy issues like race, alienation, government corruption, PTSD and more. If it was given a serious writing staff and made for an adult market, like say HBO or something, you could really have something. Plus, any excuse to put that piano music at the end in.
5. BAYWATCH
Look, there was more to this show than just the slow-mo running. Alright, fine, it was all about the slow-mo running. The show was cheesy as hell and it knew it. It totally didn't a crap about making sense or even being remotely clever. That's something, believe it or not, that's missing from TV nowadays. Everything has to be darker or more serious than the last. Very few TV shows that have been remade - Hawaii Five-O being a chief offender - don't embrace the cheese they came from. Imagine somebody like Will Arnett in David Hasselhoff's role with the writers of say, 30 Rock or even Arrested Development. It'd be bigger than Pamela Anderson's you-know-whatsits.
4. THE CRITIC
If you ask any working film critic under the age of 40, they'll probably mention The Critic as being one of the reasons why they started. Written as a sort of spin-off to The Simpsons, or at least set in the same universe, The Critic was a late-night animated comedy that starred Jon Lovitz. He's the rival wedding singer in The Wedding Singer or the Tartlet Guy from Friends. Anyways, The Critic was a fantastically funny comedy series that was WAY ahead of its time in terms of content and humour. If you've never watched an episode, give yourself twenty minutes and watch one. It still holds up after nearly twenty years.
3. THE TWILIGHT ZONE
You could argue that Charlton Brooker's Black Mirror is pretty much the same thing, but if it was done with US actors and US production values, it could be incredible. Rod Serling's classic TV series is still just as potent as it was in the 1960's and the message it put forth still ring true today. This isn't so much about bringing back the idea as it is about bringing back that kind of clever writing. If somebody like Dan Harmon from Community or David Chase from The Sopranos or even Vince Gilligan from Breaking Bad was given a 45-minute show and a blank slate, imagine what they'd come up with. The experimental nature of The Twilight Zone, unfortunately, doesn't lend itself to TV nowadays. But just imagine what it'd be like.
2. TWIN PEAKS
Seriously. Why wasn't this given a third season? Keeping Up With The Kardashians got a third season. Yes, it went totally batshit in the second season but you could feel they were trying to correct the ship before it got cancelled. Twin Peaks is absolutely ripe for a remake. David Lynch isn't up to much nowadays, Kyle MacLachlan's turning up in The Good Wife and Portlandia and being amazing in both. Lara Flynn Boyle would totally be up for it (we're guessing) and you could even see if you can get Ray Wise to be the creepy dad again. You just know David Lynch has thought about in that hairdo of his.
1. STAR TREK
Much like The Avengers, the idea of getting the cast to do a TV series is highly unlikely. But that doesn't necessarily mean it has to be about the USS Enterprise. You could have another ship from that parallel universe-timeline-whatever thing they've created and populate it with the same updated aesthetics the new movies had. Not only that, JJ Abrams has a shit-ton of experience working in TV land and by the looks of it, his new show Almost Human apparently isn't doing amazingly well. Trekkies across the globe are crying out for a new TV series. There had been talk of Worf from The Next Generation getting his own series but that appears to have gone quiet. There's an opening there. Just don't mention Enterprise and your man from Quantum Leap. F*ck sake.