TV Reboots That We Would Love To See Happen

"ALF" was a family-friendly sci-fi sitcom that ran from 1986 to 1990. It starred ALF, a puppet voiced by actor/puppeteer Paul Fusco. The eponymous furry alien crashed with a family in the suburbs, getting into shenanigans while trying not to get noticed by nosy neighbors and the like.

The show was pretty wholesome (aside from the running joke that ALF was eating the neighborhood cats), but ended on a grim note. In fact, the final episode closes on a cliffhanger wherein ALF is taken by the government to be locked up and presumably experimented on and dissected. The writers weren't aware the show was going to be canceled, so the plot wasn't resolved. It was supposedly addressed in a TV movie years later, but not all fans consider that canon.

A reboot could potentially resolve the government plot once and for all. It could also be interesting to see how the family manages to hide this big, lumbering alien in the age of smartphones, home security cameras, the internet, etc. The studio could make "ALF" grittier and more realistic and use CGI instead of puppetry (though it should probably always be a comedy). 

"Wonder Showzen," which aired on MTV for one season from 2005 to 2006, is styled after a generic kids' show, with puppets, kids, and anthropomorphic letters. At first glance, it looks like it'll be just some generic "isn't it funny kid's characters are cussing and talking about sex" shows that popped up around that time ("Puppets Who Kill," "Greg the Bunny," "Crank Yankers," and "Team America: World Police" all debuted in the 2000s).

However, its comedy and satire go much deeper than that. For one, it tackled touchy subjects that most shows would shy away from, including racism in America, the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, and potential Leftist uprisings, which it portrayed in a sympathetic light.

With everything in the world possibly even more polarizing and crazy than it was 15 years ago, this might be the perfect time to bring "Wonder Showzen" back on the air. It's tantalizing to imagine how the "Wonder Showzen" team would tackle contemporary issues, from rising far-right extremism to the hegemony of social media. They were never afraid of confronting dark subject matter before. It would certainly be subversive, and probably a little gross, too. But that's part of its charm!

"Manimal," with its self-explanatory title, is indeed a show about a man who turns into an animal. The show was created in 1983 by Glen A. Larson, creator of the original "Magnum P.I.," "Knight Rider," and "Battlestar Galactica." Like many of those other shows, "Manimal" was basically a weekly procedural where the titular hero, played by actor Simon MacCorkindale ("Wing Commander"), helped the police fight crime. The show was criticized for recycling basic and cliched plots despite its ostensibly supernatural hook. It only lasted eight episodes.

The show would fare better now with a reboot. It could follow in the footsteps of MTV's "Teen Wolf," which was a more serious take on the goofy Michael J. Fox classic. The show could be updated so "Manimal" isn't helping the police but instead pursuing vigilante justice, like a superhero. TV special effects in the early '80s TV were pretty limited, but nowadays even lower-budgeted stuff can get decent VFX, so that could help the premise immensely. 

Alternatively, the premise could go in a comedic direction, spoofing generic supernatural procedurals. In fact, it seems that was the route Will Ferrell and Adam McKay were going to go with when they announced (a now seemingly canceled) reboot of the property a few years ago.

"The Flintstones" was the first animated prime-time sitcom. It was set in a version of the Stone Age where humans co-existed with (and sometimes domesticated) dinosaurs and also had modern technology like cars, telephones, and TVs. It was loosely based on "The Honeymooners," with Fred Flintstone as a working-class caveman stand-in for Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden (but was a construction worker instead of a bus driver, or whatever the Stone Age equivalent of a bus driver would be). The series got a poorly reviewed big-screen revival in the 1990s but hasn't returned to TV since it ended in 1966, despite attempts at resuscitation. 

The humor is, honestly, very dated. Much of the comedy stemmed from upholding traditional marital, familial, and gender roles. To get around this issue, we'd turn to DC Comics' "Flintstones" limited series from 2016, which was part of a wave of DC Comics based on Hanna-Barbara properties around that time (this included a post-apocalyptic "Wacky Races" and a hard-nosed "Scooby-Doo"). Written by award-winning author Mark Russell, the "Flintstones" comic updates the original material. Not only does it give the characters and world a new visual style, but it also contains a lot of prescient and biting social commentary. It even makes prehistoric, dopey dad Fred pro-gay marriage. 

All this said, it seems like a "Flintstones" remake called "Bedrock" is already in the works. It's not based on Russell's comic, but the information available about it makes it sound like it is indeed getting updated to suit modern audiences. 

"My Mother the Car," which aired on NBC in 1965, is considered by many to be the worst sitcom ever created. The Geico Cavemen show also exists, so we doubt "My Mother the Car" is the absolute bottom of the TV barrel, but we concede it's not great.

The premise of the show is honestly all in the title. It's about a man, played by actor Jerry Van Dyke (Dick Van Dyke's less-successful brother), who has to contend with the fact that his mother, voiced by actress Ann Sothern, has been reincarnated as his old-timey red Porter car. The show got terrible reviews due to its cringe-worthy jokes and repetitive plots. It was canceled after only one season. 

We know this sounds unwatchable, but hear us out: there's a kernel of an idea in the premise that could lead to a good show with the right creative team behind it. The first step would be to get interesting comedians in the roles. It could also change from a mother/son relationship into a mother/daughter one. Pairings that might work include Amy Pohler, Awkwafina, or Tiffany Haddish alongside a car voiced by veteran actresses like Jamie Lee Curtis, Michelle Yeoh, or Alfre Woodard. We'd even shore up the show's emotional core by suggesting that the mother didn't have much time in human form to raise their daughter, possibly because they were on the road too much for work. The car gimmick could be a supernatural way for them to eventually reconcile. 

This entry sort of breaks the rules a bit, because it is based on a TV pilot for NBC that never aired, rather than a fully fledged show.

After the success of the "Battlestar Galactica" reboot in the mid-2000s, creator Ronald D. Moore's follow-up was to be a gritty cop drama called "17th Precinct" set in a modern fantasy world. In it, police detectives used magical spells to solve crimes, such as a necromancer cop talking to a corpse to get information about its death. At the time, Moore described it as "an adult-themed 'Harry Potter.'"

As mentioned before, the show never materialized. However, the pilot has since leaked, and its greatness proved that it had the potential to be a gripping show. Despite some of its originality being usurped by later shows and movies, like SyFy's "The Magicians" and Netflix's "Bright," urban fantasy—especially adult urban fantasy—is still a relatively untapped vein. Think about it. How many "Game of Thrones"-esque fantasy shows and standard police procedurals exist right now? Doesn't it seem smart to combine them? 

It even touched on trans issues before a lot of mainstream television did via the character Inspector Liam Butterfield (Esai Morales), who changed genders magically. Some of that subplot is dated at this point, but the character's transition is still treated sympathetically and as a simple matter-of-fact aspect of this world, which could be expanded upon in a reboot.