Last week, news broke, and then unbroke, that Full House was getting a reboot in the form of a new show for NBC. The original story ended up being based on a years-old April Fool’s hoax, but series creator Jeff Franklin did end up saying that the idea wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. That got us to thinking. What other shows could possibly join recent ventures like Girl Meets World and have reboots featuring some or all of the old cast? I looked to the 90s, and these are a few I came up with. If any of them end up coming to life again, I will be here to say I told you so.
1. The Fresh Prince of Bel Air – If I could pick one show to sum up the ’90s in its entirety, it would probably be Fresh Prince. Yes. Will Smith is a famous movie star these days, so getting him back to TV would be tricky, but I think it would be possible if he was promised that Jaden would get to play the lead, the “heir to the throne” as it were. What, Will would do anything for his kid! And he could probably have his wife and daughter in it as well.
2. Sabrina the Teenage Witch – I’ve lost count about the number of witch-based shows on TV right now, so I could easily see them rebooted Sabrina with her having a daughter named something trendy like Madison. Then we’d have Madison the Teenage Witch and all the little preteens would eat it up. Pay me, Hollywood.
3. Family Matters – The vision I have for Family Matters is simple. It’s two families, one headed by Steve Urkel, and the other by his suave clone, Stephan Urquel. They’d live next door to each other and get into all sorts of wacky adventures with their conflicting personalities. Maybe they could clone Laura too so they both could be married to her.
4. Saved by the Bell – Some of these might be jokes, but I’m kind of surprised no one has tried to reboot Saved by the Bell recently. Yes, I know they tried this a while back with “The New Class,” but even if that was a disaster, the show is still beloved enough to work. Many cast members are on their own TV projects these days, but I have a hunch Screech is free, just like he was for New Class.
5. Friends – I always thought that they could make a sequel series to Friends starring all the kids of the characters on the show. We probably have to wait another 10 years or so for the kids to all be grown up, but between Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Chandler and Monica, there would probably be enough kids to go around to cast a show. And if not, Joey can probably have a few illegitimate ones come out of the woodwork.
6. Seinfeld – You know, this sounds like the biggest stretch on this list, but if Arrested Development can get its cast back together and produce even more amazing television, I don’t think it’s completely out of the realm of possibility for Seinfeld to do the same. Have you read the Modern Seinfeld Twitter feed? There are like a solid four seasons worth of episodes there alone. Gold Jerry! Gold!
7. Are You Afraid of the Dark? – Kids these days don’t know how to be scared any more. Unless they’re sneaking into their living rooms to watch American Horror Story or Hannibal hidden behind the couch, there’s very little that will give them nightmares. They don’t even have Goosebumps books anymore! (right?) Are You Afraid of the Dark needs to make a comeback and make new nightmares for this generation of children.
8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer – I know Buffy had a good run, but it’s hard not to want her back now that vampires are all the rage and the sparkly ones really need to be killed. Sarah Michelle Gellar isn’t popping up too many places these days, so I have a hunch she could be free for it. Joss Whedon on the other hand…
9. The X-Files – Duchovny and Anderson have both expressed interest in making another X-Files movie, which is great, except that I hate the X-Files movie. What they NEED to do is pull a 24 and come back for a mini-season instead. The show just doesn’t lend itself to movies well, and I have to imagine both of them could find the time for 10-12 eps.
10. Dawson’s Creek – I 100% guarantee that the CW will attempt to reboot Dawson’s Creek at some point in the future. 90% chance James Vanderbeek is on board. 50% chance for Joshua Jackson. 15% chance Katie Holmes comes back, up from a 0% chance now that she’s no longer locked in Tom Cruise’s basement.
11. Lizzie McGuire – Not going to lie, I really just want to see Hillary Duff on TV again. She never should have left.
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I’m all for a Sabrina reboot! Melissa Joan Hart has Melissa & Joey for now, but maybe once that’s run its course in a couple more years something could happen.
Sarah Michelle Gellar will hopefully have better luck with The Crazy Ones than she did Ringer, otherwise I would’ve signed a petition for Buffy to come back!
Reboot usually means same basic concept, different faces on characters.
I’ll be honest. I only watched Sabrina for the Zelda. She was the only interesting character.