After writing my article from last week about my favorite television shows that I love to rewatch, I discovered that one of the shows on my list, “Frasier”, is set to have a reboot of the series in the coming year or so.
Despite the fact that I do love the show, and I think that the actors and writers are certainly talented, I am utterly against the idea of having a reboot. For “Frasier” specifically, while I’m sure most of the people who read this are not avid fans of the show, it is important to point out one of the key reasons for why this reboot idea is disappointing: one of the main actors is no longer living. John Mahoney, who played Frasier’s father Martin, was a key component to the humor, love, and foundation of the show. Without him, and without the dynamic of their relationship, the show is entirely different.
Reboots are allowed, of course, to be different, and should be in order to function. If a reboot of a show did not change, it would be nearly impossible for the audience to buy into the fact that over the numerous years since the initial end to the show, the characters and their situations have not evolved or developed in any way.
However, while differences are practical and essential, they feed into my reasoning for why reboots are unnecessary. Vast changes in character, settings, and relationships can drastically alter the tone of the show, and the reasons why fans enjoyed it in the first place.
This is not just with “Frasier”, though. I have yet to find a show that I love (and I love a LOT of them) where I would actually enjoy a reboot occurring. Reboots to me are a strange trend that is, more often than not, doomed from the start. I constantly see passionate fans of shows like “The Office” or “Friends” begging for reboots, wanting to rehash the styles and jokes that they fell in love with.
But these shows were successful in their time for a reason. Actually, for many.
For one, much of the humor of these older sitcoms would not be accepted today, as many of their jokes were offensive and would be viewed negatively against the current progressive nature of our society.
For another, the aesthetic of the characters in the generations that they were initially conceived is one of the reasons that they gained such an attraction from their audience. These styles will not be the same today, and instead awkwardness and stretched plots will take their place.
When you start something like a reboot in our present time, and it inevitably goes south, then it tarnishes the good name of the original run of the show. Part of American culture is constantly wanting things to be redone, revamped, rebooted. We are bad at leaving things as they are. Shows themselves, even in their time, run far longer than shows in other countries. We should appreciate where they ended, how the show rounded itself out, and how its iconic and timeless nature became that way.