Upcoming TV Reboots You Didn't Know Were In The Works
Reboots, revivals, remakes, and reimaginings of TV favorites across genres and target audiences from recent (and not-so-recent) years have dominated television and streaming services lately. They provide new delights, closure for fans of the original shows, and some have even earned critical acclaim. It seems like nearly everything from the '90s or 2000s with a modicum of name recognition has made a return to the air (or a streaming service), including "The X-Files," "Twin Peaks," "Will & Grace," "iCarly," "Mystery Science Theater 3000," "The Tick," "Gilmore Girls," "The Twilight Zone," "Dallas," "Charmed," and "Friends."
It's a craze that shows no signs of slowing down. Audiences want — or at least production execs think they want — the comfort of a familiar situation and characters, but the newness of fresh adventures. If you're waiting with bated breath for your favorite show to make a comeback, don't fret — it might just be on this list of reboots on the way.
The Flintstones will return, older and anxious, in Bedrock
The original incarnation of "The Flintstones" was one of the first primetime animated series, a loose but obvious cartoon clone of "The Honeymooners" taking place in the pun-filled Stone Age town of Bedrock and following the adventures of Fred, Wilma, and Pebbles Flintstone, as well as neighbors Barney, Betty, and Bamm-Bamm Rubble. It ran from 1960 to 1966 (and forever after in reruns), spawning a number of spinoffs in the decades since, such as "The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show," "The New Fred and Barney Show," and "The Flintstone Kids."
In 2011, Fox announced (via The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline) that "Family Guy" and "American Dad!" boss Seth MacFarlane had begun work on a full-on revival of the original series, set to debut in 2013. That project fell apart after Fox executives didn't like the pilot script; nearly a decade later, a new take on the contemporary Stone Age family is back on the table. In April 2021, Fox ordered a "Flintstones" sequel series titled "Bedrock." Actor and producer Elizabeth Banks had been quietly developing the show for two years under a deal between her company, Brownstone Productions, and Warner Bros. Animation, which will take place 20 years after the first "Flintstones," focusing on Pebbles struggling to enter adult life and Fred Flintstone about to retire.
In March 2023, per Deadline, Fox ordered a short pilot of the new "Flintstones." In that presentation, Banks will play an adult Pebbles Flintstone. Pebbles' parents, Fred and Wilma, will be voiced by Stephen Root and Amy Sedaris, while Joe To Truglio will portray Barney and Betty Rubble, and Manny Jacinto is set to play Bamm-Bamm.
Frasier will be back, and he'll be somewhere new and familiar
In early 2021, ViacomCBS and Paramount rebranded their little-noticed streaming service CBS All Access as Paramount+. At launch, they announced an ambitious slate of programs in development. One of the most significant intellectual properties on that list: "Frasier." According to Deadline, Kelsey Grammer will reprise his role as Frasier Crane, the snobby, arrogant, serially-dating Seattle radio psychiatrist whom he portrayed from 1993 to 2004 on NBC's "Frasier" (for which he won four Emmys) and for a decade previous on "Cheers." The revival is a co-production with Grammer's own Grammnet Productions; the actor had been trying to get a new "Frasier" off the ground for at least two years.
Grammer told New York TV station NBC 4 that the first episode of the revival will address the death of Frasier's father, Martin Crane, since actor John Mahoney died in 2018. No longer a radio psychiatrist in Seattle, Frasier Crane will head back to Boston — the character's original home on "Cheers" — to take a job as a college professor, according to TVLine. Bebe Neuwirth will be back as Frasier's former wife, Lilith Sternin, and their now adult son Freddy will be portrayed by new cast member Jack Cutmore-Scott. Niles and Daphne's now college-age son David will also appear, as played by Anders Keith; Niles and Daphne will not.
Ally McBeal will search her soul once again
In the late '90s, narrative television was almost totally binary. The big four broadcast networks ruled the airwaves with essentially two kinds of scripted shows: laugh track-laden, half-hour sitcoms and hour-long dramas. "Ally McBeal" arrived on Fox in 1997 and instantly disrupted TV — it was an hour-length comedy, with elements of drama, soap opera, and fantasy. It featured an often hard-to-like lead character in Ally McBeal, an attorney prone to self-sabotage. "Ally McBeal" made a star of Calista Flockhart and won seven Emmy Awards during its five-season run, including one for outstanding comedy series. Even the theme song, Vonda Shepard's "Searchin' My Soul," became a hit single.
In 2018, creator David E. Kelly said a reboot could happen. "But I don't think it should be done by me. If it were going to be done, it really should be done by a woman," he told The Hollywood Reporter. According to TVLine, Twentieth Television (a division of Disney and a corporate sibling to streamer Hulu) began developing an "Ally McBeal" revival miniseries in March 2021. Flockhart will likely reprise her titular role, while Kelly, as promised, will hand over creative duties to a female showrunner and serve as a consulting executive producer.
In August 2022, Deadline announced that ABC was in development on an "Ally McBeal"-adjacent series. Produced and written by "Grey's Anatomy" and "Mixed-ish" executive producer Karen Gist, the new legal comedy will center on a recent law school graduate who is the daughter of Renée Raddick, a district attorney portrayed in the original series by Lisa Nicole Carson.
@midnight is coming on a little later
Airing at 12 a.m. weeknights on Comedy Central from 2013 to 2017, "@midnight" offered a plugged-in alternative to the broadcast networks' comedian-hosted late night talk shows. Presided over by comic/host Chris Hardwick, "@midnight" mashed improv into a game show format, with three comedians or actors getting points for the jokes and funny material they created while making fun of junky online culture like memes, blog posts, Instagram photos, and celebrity news. An immediate hit — early in its run, it was the most watched late-night show among young adults — and Emmy winner, "@midnight" ended its run as the cultural climate quickly shifted. When Donald Trump became president, online chatter became dominated by political talk. "We were not a political show," Hardwick told Insider in 2018, looking back on why "@midnight" ended.
Another not particularly political late-night show of the 2010s was "The Late Late Show with James Corden" on CBS, so perhaps it's only appropriate they link up. Shortly after the English actor and writer announced that his loose, panel-style chat show would end in 2023, CBS came up with their replacement: A new iteration of "@midnight." According to Deadline, a game show instead of a talk show will save CBS $25 million in annual production costs. Stephen Colbert, host of the new show's lead-out program "The Late Show" is set to serve as an executive producer, while the embattled Hardwick is not expected to be involved with the reboot.
They're still Married... with Children
Debuting in 1987, one of the first Fox network shows when it would air original program for only a couple hours a week, "Married... with Children" helped establish the network's edgy approach to programming. Originally titled "Not the Cosbys," according to the Los Angeles Times, "Married...with Children" offered a dark and cynical take on the family sitcom. Cash-strapped Chicago shoe salesman Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) hated his job, how his once promising life had turned out, and especially his wife and kids, lazy Peggy (Katey Sagal), obnoxious Bud (David Faustino), and ditzy Kelly (Christina Applegate). The raunchy, provocative sitcom helped establish Fox, producing original episodes until 1997.
Attempts have been made to return the Bundys (and their decidedly dysfunctional vibes) back to TV. In 2014, a reboot about Bud Bundy moving back into his childhood home (Al and Peg won a lotto jackpot and headed to Las Vegas) didn't make it past the development stage. Deadline reported in 2022 that "Family Guy" executive producer and "Married... with Children" distributor Sony Pictures Television had begun work on an animated reboot of the original series. Development had been in the works for a year prior to the announcement, with all four Bundy actors signing contracts agreeing to reprise their roles. While Applegate's recent health announcements may complicate matters, the re-"Married" cartoon remains in the planning stages, and if ordered will likely air on Fox, Hulu, or Peacock.
Starsky and Hutch will be back on the case
The 1975 — 1979 police action drama "Starsky and Hutch" was one of the definitive TV series of its era. David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser portrayed Detective Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson and Detective Dave Starsky, respectively, friends and mismatched partners who tried to keep the mean streets of Bay City, California, safe by rolling around in a classic red Gran Torino and getting tips from streetwise informant Huggy Bear.
In 2004, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson attempted to bring the title back with a movie adaptation, in which Huggy Bear was played by Snoop Dogg. The film's domestic take was a solid $88 million.
In February 2023, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Fox had begun work on a new version of "Starsky and Hutch." Like its predecessors, the series will center on a detective duo; unlike them, both leading roles will be portrayed by female actors. In the revival, best friends and police partners Sasha Starsky and Nicole Hutchinson live and work in an oddball locale called Desert City, fighting crimes and busting bad guys while also trying to unlock the show's overarching mystery — who framed their dads and sent them to prison. Two Fox drama veterans, Sam Sklaver of "Prodigal Son" and Elizabeth Peterson of "The Resident," signed on as writers and showrunners for the Fox-Sony collaboration, and the plan is for them to submit multiple scripts to the network before a decision about production will be made.
Clone High will do double duty
Christopher Miller and Phil Lord have become a prolific writing-directing-production team at the forefront of 21st century comedy. They directed the 2012 "21 Jump Street" movie, co-wrote and helmed "The Lego Movie," and shepherded "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," which won them the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.
Before all this, back in 2002, Miller and Lord co-created, directed, and voiced characters on "Clone High," a silly animated sci-fi comedy series for MTV that lasted only 13 episodes. A parody of teen soaps of the era, "Clone High" took place at a high school populated entirely by the clones of historical figures, created by a shadowy organization for devious ends. Gawky, awkward Abraham Lincoln formed a friend trio with a desperate to be liked Gandhi and cynical goth Joan of Arc; she was in love with Abe, but he only had eyes for conceited Cleopatra, occupied by her toxic romance with the loathsome John F. Kennedy.
"Clone High" was quickly canceled, but became something of a cult hit in the decades since, particularly after the ascension of Miller and Lord. The pair signed up for a revival in 2020, according to The AV Club, and in late 2022, Miller revealed on Twitter that the "Clone High" revival would likely appear on HBO Max sometime in 2023.
There's more Who's the Boss? around the bend
The wholesome family comedy "Who's the Boss?" was a smash hit for ABC. Airing from 1984 to 1992, "Taxi" star Tony Danza returned to TV as Tony Micelli, a former baseball player and single father who takes a position as the live-in housekeeper for advertising executive Angela Bauer (Judith Light). While a romance between the two very different adults slowly develops, a family unit forms, which also involves Angela's vivacious mother Mona (Katherine Helmond), and Tony and Angela's kids, Samantha and Jonathan, respectively.
In 2020, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony Pictures Television announced a continuation of "Who's the Boss?" with original series stars Danza and Alyssa Milano on board to once more portray Tony Micelli and Samantha Micelli and serve as executive producers. Set more than 30 years after the endpoint of the 1992 series, the revival finds Tony retired from his job as a housekeeper and Samantha a single mother living in her childhood home, the same house where much of "Who's the Boss?" took place. Nearly two years later, in 2022, THR reported that "One Day at a Time" reboot writers Mike Royce and Brigitte Muñoz-Liebowitz would pen scripts for the new show, an exclusive to Amazon's add-supported streaming service Freevee.
The world of tomorrow promises new episodes of Futurama
One part utopian glimpse at the future, one part shocking dystopian peek at what's yet to come, "Futurama" became a cult hit. Boasting rapid fire jokes, tons of sight gags, sly sci-fi references, and overarching mythology, "Futurama" concerned the day-to-day exploits of Planet Express, an interstellar delivery company owned by genius scientist Professor Farnsworth. The ship itself was crewed by one-eyed mutant Leela, robotic misanthropic agent of chaos Bender, and dumb slacker Philip J. Fry — Farnsworth's distant uncle, who was cryogenically frozen in 1999 and woke up in the year 3000.
Despite the pedigree of creator Matt Groening, the man behind "The Simpsons," the longest-running scripted series in primetime history, "Futurama" was never a ratings smash. It's been canceled and revived multiple times. After Fox ended the initial run in 2003, a series of direct-to-DVD movies followed, which Comedy Central edited into a season of episodes. After ordering an additional two seasons, "Futurama" was done again in 2013 — but not forever.
In 2022, Variety reported that "Futurama" would return again, this time on the Hulu streaming service. Original cast members Katey Sagal, Billy West, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr and others immediately signed up to reprise their roles, while John DiMaggio — the voice of Bender — joined the project following a pay dispute. Scripts have been written, the cast has performed table reads, and production has officially begun with episodes to follow in the near (but indefinite) future.
A new Matlock will soon hold court
Beloved actor Andy Griffith, star of the low-key small-town sitcom "The Andy Griffith Show" in the 1960s and the dark Elia Kazan classic "A Face in the Crowd" before that, scored another long-running TV classic of a completely different genre with "Matlock." In 1986, he started a nine-year run as Ben Matlock, a masterful, expensive, and quintessentially Southern criminal defense attorney who always got his wrongfully accused client exonerated of murder charges while his staff of investigators get to work tracking down the real culprit.
Griffith starred in 180 endlessly rerun "Matlock" episodes, but following the star's death in 2012, any reboot would require a difficult recasting. In 2023, CBS (which aired the second half of the original "Matlock," taking over for NBC), ordered a pilot for a new series, selecting Academy Award winner Kathy Bates to take over as the crafty, sweet-smiling seventy-something lawyer; her character will be Madeline Matlock, who emerges from retirement to join the staff of a high-end firm, per Deadline. David Del Rio ("The Beauty and the Baker") and Leah Lewis ("The Half Of It") are set to play Matlock's law firm associates Billy and Sarah, while Jason Ritter ("Parenthood") has signed on to play the son of the law firm's chief partner.
Fawlty Towers is open for business again
Following his years with the Monty Python comedy troupe, responsible for the influential sketch comedy series "Flying Circus" and acclaimed films such as "Life of Brian," John Cleese co-created and starred in the British sitcom "Fawlty Towers." He portrayed Basil Fawlty, the forever angry, exasperated, and inept operator of a small, rundown motel. While only 12 episodes ran over four years in the late 1970s, "Fawlty Towers" is considered by some as one of the best sitcoms ever made, ranking on IMDb's list of top TV series, twice winning the BAFTA Award for best situation comedy, and called the best British sitcom of all time by the readers of Radio Times.
In 2009, Cleese said that he wasn't interested in a "Fawlty Towers" revival. "I think everyone would be excited if we did it," he told the BBC. "The problem is, when you do do something that is generally accepted as being very good, a horrible problem arises, which is: how do you top it? The expectation of what you will do is so high."
Cleese presumably found a way, because in 2023, he announced a "Fawlty Towers" revival was imminent. Cleese and his daughter, comedian Camilla Cleese, will write and star in the new show, which will depict Basil Fawlty and the character's daughter running a small hotel. Writer-director-producer Rob Reiner will help make the series, via his Castle Rock production company.
Paramount loves Everybody Hates Chris
Many comedians have built sitcoms around their lives and stand-up routines, but "Everybody Hates Chris" was a little different. The 2000s series was set in the 1980s, and dramatized humorous, heartwarming events from the life of an adolescent Rock, as portrayed by future "The Walking Dead" and "Abbott Elementary" star Tyler James Williams.
The life of TV Chris was humorously chaotic, dealing as he did with his wacky family and trying to fit in at a school where he was one of the few non-white students. In the middle of its 2005 to 2009 run, "Everybody Hates Chris" was nominated for best television series (comedy or musical) at the Golden Globes, making it one of the few UPN shows to ever receive major awards attention.
The title "Everybody Hates Chris" was an obvious spoof on "Everybody Loves Raymond," and the revival will add another level to that joke and acknowledge that time has passed, entering production under the name "Everybody Still Hates Chris." In August 2022, per TVLine, Paramount ordered the series — an animated reboot — for its Paramount+ streaming service, with episodes set to air on Comedy Central as well. Only one cast member has officially signed on, and it's a key one: Co-creator and narrator Chris Rock, who will provide voiceovers for more stories inspired by his childhood in Brooklyn.
A King of the Hill revival is coming, mmm-hmm
"King of the Hill" was as steady a presence on Fox's schedule for 13 years as propane in the life of central character Hank Hill. A man of few words, with strongly held traditional opinions that made everyone uncomfortable, he was content to bask in the glory of all things Texas, sell propane (and propane accessories) and clash with his comically self-confident wife Peggy and tween son and wannabe prop comic Bobby, with whom he had next to nothing in common. Hank preferred to do stuff like mow the lawn, watch football, and stand in the alley drinking beer with his friends: Sad sack army barber Bill, conspiracy theorist Dale, and the incomprehensible Boomhauer.
According to Deadline, talks of a "King of the Hill" reboot began in earnest after co-creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels reunited with the voice cast at San Francisco Sketchfest in 2017. In 2023, fresh off a Paramount+ and Comedy Central re-launch of Judge's other '90s animated series, "Beavis and Butt-Head," Hulu ordered a revival of "King of the Hill," pleased with viewership numbers on the service for the series' original run. Most of the original cast have already agreed to voice their old characters again, including Judge (Hank), Kathy Najimy (Peggy), Pamela Adlon (Bobby), Johnny Hardwick (Dale), Stephen Root (Bill Dauterive), and Lauren Tom (Minh). Saladin Patterson, who recently worked on "The Last O.G.," will produce and serve as showrunner.