Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It's not an issue of imagination. Nostalgia sells. Networks are in the money making business. It's a no-brainer.
Correct. Also, branding is both an inexact science as well as expensive. By using an established brand, a production company already has an audience.
Finally, as to 'imagination'. It seems as though some people picture producers sitting around, trying their damnedest to think of something 'new'. They don't. What they do is hear ideas. Pitches. And aside from the full-time writers in Hollywood, every other waitress and cab driver and... well, pretty much everyone else... has a screenplay or at least an idea. And this is aside from the agents awash in the same, as well as people in the digital age who funnel in no end of stories from all over the country and even the world.
Frankly, Hollywood probably has more access to original ideas today than it ever has. But when you have to pay for production by gathering millions or tens of millions of dollars from investors, the selling point is never "This is the most imaginative thing you've ever seen!". Instead, it's "This will make you a nice return on your investment, and here's why...".
Maybe some of the we-want-originality crowd would be willing to pony up their retirement fund for a high-risk (but super original!) pilot? Nah... they probably wouldn't.
I watched the remake of Hawaii 50 for about 10 minutes once. It was really bad in my opinion. Magnum PI often had a back story, Hawaiian huistory, or the Viet Nam war for instance. If they turn it into a show about hot chicks, explosions, etc I won't be watching.
Mom loved Magnum, PI but frankly, I found it terrifically boring. Why?
I was seeing Magnum on A&E's Day Breaks when so much of it had been snipped from the original. Perhaps Mom had seen the original back then, but I hardly ever did.
Hence, coming across it in the watered down version, there was nothing to be excited about.
So there is the current generation who has never seen it and then, there is the generation who saw it at some point, in some content in the past.
Finally, I remember a letter to the editor in the 80s, maybe in Time magazine, about the 80's TV shows focused on technology. There was Airwolf (the helicopter), there was Knight Rider (KITT), and there was Magnum (the Ferrari). The letter to the editor was talking about how if anyone watched the last, listened to the last, they would realize that the show was about people and not machines.
Not a good idea. Magnum was the brainchild of Glen Larson and Donald Bellisario who also wrote the majority of episodes. Although both are deceased, this is their show and having another show runner seems almost like thieving. Also, I don't want to imagine other actors in these roles.
I might have been interested to see Magnum's daughter Lily take the title role and build the show around her. But new actors playing the same characters, nah.
Not a good idea. Magnum was the brainchild of Glen Larson and Donald Bellisario who also wrote the majority of episodes. Although both are deceased, this is their show and having another show runner seems almost like thieving. Also, I don't want to imagine other actors in these roles.
I might have been interested to see Magnum's daughter Lily take the title role and build the show around her. But new actors playing the same characters, nah.
Personally I was more interested in the below that I guess ended up not going forward which is odd for something picked up as "put pilot" which the below was.
Quote:
The sequel, first reported by Deadline, is described as a rebirth of the “fun, high-action” of “Magnum P.I,” as Magnum’s daughter, Lily “Tommy” Magnum returns to Hawaii to take up the mantle of her father’s PI firm. She and her tribe of friends mix tropical beaches with the seedy underbelly of international crime and modern espionage, even as she tries to unravel the mystery of the blown spy operation that ended her career in Navy Intelligence.
Finally, I remember a letter to the editor in the 80s, maybe in Time magazine, about the 80's TV shows focused on technology. There was Airwolf (the helicopter), there was Knight Rider (KITT), and there was Magnum (the Ferrari). The letter to the editor was talking about how if anyone watched the last, listened to the last, they would realize that the show was about people and not machines.
Who wrote that letter?
Tom Selleck.
Cool story!
But to be fair, I'd quibble with Time's original premise a bit.
Airwolf? Yes. There was some odd fascination with helicopters in the zeitgeist of that era. Not sure why. Airwolf was one of the sillier examples, but Blue Thunder was actually a good movie.
Knight Rider played in to the whole '80s fascination with the rising computer society. In a similar vein, there was Wargames (great!), Electric Dreams (dumb, but still fun), and The Terminator (a classic). I'm sure it didn't take much for a Hollywood exect to say, "Let's mix HAL from 2001 with Smokey and the Bandit and see what happens." Well, Knight Rider happened.
But Magnum? The Ferrari was a flavor of that show, but it was hardly the hub of the wheel. It's been years since I watched it, but I remember helicopters playing into episodes just as much as the Ferrari. And we're back to helicopters.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
