If a psychologist could study the minds of network television executives in the 80's, we wouldn't have all these reboots & remakes based on the concept of the product being "pre-sold".
One such case was ABC's 1982 reboot, The New Odd Couple. Someone decided that they could try to re-do the series with two African-American leads. Ron Glass, fresh from Barney Miller, was cast as Felix Unger. With Miller in syndication at the time, viewers could not see Glass as anyone but Detective Ron Harris. Demond Wilson was shoehorned into the role of Oscar Madison, who was as different as night & day from Lamont Sanford (Sanford & Son). Nice idea, but ABC put the show on the wrong night.
It didn't help, of course, that the original Couple was also in syndication, and viewers preferred Tony Randall & Jack Klugman to Glass & Wilson. John Schuck (ex-McMillian & Wife, Holmes & YoYo) filled Al Molinaro's police uni as Murray (Molinaro was over on Happy Days at the time), and Bart Braverman, fresh from Vega$, filled out the core cast.
Let's check the opener, "The Ides of April":
Rating: B.
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