Network Execs Take Gambles On Remakes This Year!

It’s not often that television show can be remade and be successful. Like movies, television remakes often fall flat to the viewers, but that hasn’t kept ABC from digging into the vault to try and dredge up some magic. Perhaps they saw that their former late-70’s series Battlestar Galactica was successfully remade and became one of the most successful cable shows ever, but the key to such success of that show lies in that it was on Sci-Fi and not network television. Save shows like Lost and to some degree, Fringe, Sci-Fi shows just aren’t successful on network television.

Nonetheless, ABC has already debuted a remake of 1991’s Eastwick, which in its’ own right, was modeled after the 80’s movie, The Witches of Eastwick. Despite a stellar cast including Lindsay Price, Rebecca Ramon, and Paul Gross, this show is destined to be on the chopping block.

With less fanfare, but perhaps loftier expectations from science fiction, V debuts on November 3rd. For those watching the tube in 1983 and 1984, the two V mini-series were huge hits, but the serial was nothing of the sort. After 14 episodes, it was gone. And yet, a remake has been discussed for years. NBC had developed a remake with the same cast, but later scrapped the project. Now ABC has round up some of TV’s bright young stars, reshaped the menacing visitor mother ships, and is hoping it can find an instant hit with science fiction and mainstream fans alike. I applaud their effort on the latter and would love to see the success, but I’m afraid I’ll only catch a few episodes before the ratings catch up to V as well.