In announcing their fall 2010-11 lineup, CBS made official what had been speculated for some time, and that is a revival of one of their cornerstone series of the 70's, Hawaii Five-0.
The original Five-0 aired from 1968-80, with star Jack Lord creating an iconic, indelible image as Steve McGarrett, the head of the Five-0 team, answering directly to the Governor of Hawaii (Richard Denning). The new Five-0 will air on Mondays, meaning that CSI: Miami is being moved to a new night.
However, not all revivals are guaranteed hits. One needs only to reference NBC's dismal failure with reboots of Knight Rider and The Bionic Woman, and ABC's failed revival of Night Stalker, all coming in the last 5 years, as evidence that a familiar brand name doesn't guarantee viewer interest. Basically, today's audience has said, time and again, that older brands are of no interest to them. Battlestar Galactica, which was revived by SyFy, was much more successful the second time around because of a pre-established fan base that the show was geared toward. That same fan base has embraced the prequel, Caprica, it would appear. What made Galactica work this time was that it was no longer perceived as a "Star Wars" derivative, which may have contributed to the original series' demise.
What could work against Hawaii Five-0 in 2010 isn't so much the fact that there are enough police dramas out there now already. That's always been the case, even during Five-0's original run. It's shoehorning the CSI/Law & Order procedural format into the series in order to appeal to fans of those other franchises. In the original, McGarrett had one recurring foe who kept himself two or three steps ahead of the law. You don't see that in crime dramas anymore, and I don't think that it'd be the direction they'd take in reviving the brand.
Meanwhile, NBC had considered a revival of another 70's classic, The Rockford Files, with Dermot Mulroney filling James Garner's gumshoes, but it wasn't picked up. Yet. Maybe they're waiting to see if the new Five-0 takes off, which would give them enough confidence to go ahead, considering past failures noted above. They're better off consulting the works of Santayana.
Yes, I realize that today's youngsters consider me an "old fogey"--but this Hawaii Five-O remake is just wrong, wrong, wrong. I wonder, though--does CBS still maintain those "facilities" built in the 50th state for the original series (and also used on Magnum, P.I.) and is that maybe one of the reasons they're doing the Five-O reboot?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Magnum, Selleck is going to appear a show for CBS this fall--maybe they could return to that well, too.
I think you hit on something, Ivan. They may in fact still have the facilities available to them, which haven't been used since "Magnum" ended his run.
ReplyDeleteNot sure about Selleck's new show, though, and I have even less faith in a sitcom with William Shatner.