Sunday, September 10, 2006

TV: Recycled Titles

New TV shows have a depressing similarity to previous ones: a group of "friends" share laughs and love, a criminal mastermind and his crew pull off heists, a group of strangers are brought together by a traumatic event. Why don't the networks take it a step further and re-use old TV show titles?

  • "Will & Grace" - George F. Will and Nancy Grace debate current events, with the hideous Grace trying to link everything to Natalee Holloway, and the pompous Will making gratuitous references to baseball.
  • "Father Knows Best" - A working class stiff is abused by his wife and kids until he befriends the Beatles' first drummer, Pete Best.
  • "The Jeffersons" - The third President of the USA, a basketball player, and a tall English cricket player form an elite crime-fighting squad. They use their powers of constitutional politics, dribbling, and reaching objects on high shelves to avenge the downtrodden.
  • "Knots Landing" - A North Carolina town is plagued by a mysterious...er...plague of bits of string falling from the sky. Only the malevolent Eagle Scout leader (Dylan Baker) seems unconcerned.
  • "Who's The Boss" - Dr. Who replaces David Brent as the manager of Wernham Hogg in this spin-off of "The Office".
  • "Diff'rent Strokes" - It's the Monkees with a modern twist. The members of the Strokes share a New York apartment. In order to pay the rent, they have to take day jobs - but they never seem to last longer than one episode!
  • "Family Ties" - A family-owned necktie company struggles in the era of "buiness casual".
  • "Saved By The Bell" - An FBI sharp-shooter protects a small town from his perch atop the church steeple. Every episode ends with the villain trying to shoot our hero, but the titular bell deflects the bullets.
  • "Wings" - A colorful cast of characters populates a chicken wing restaurant. It will probably be derided as a "Cheers" knockoff.

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