TV goes Back to the Future

The Fall Guy is just the latest TV show from the 1980s that’s got a reboot on either the small or big screen. John Byrne explores the phenomenon that looks back to go forward.

Director, producer, and screenwriter Robert Zemeckis may have been the brains behind the hugely successful 1985 movie Back to the Future, but he cannot be held responsible for the glut of hit TV shows that have traversed that decade and been resurrected in recent years.

But that title sure does come in handy.

With astronomical production costs come conservative business decisions. The risk-averse Tinseltown suits are nowadays more inclined to greenlight reboots than commission a genuinely new show or film.

That, as they say, is showbiz. Why take a gamble with no guarantees when you can look back to your own childhood and go: ‘D’you know what? Let’s bring back BJ and the Bear!’

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Some of the reboots/remakes/remodels have worked better than others, but once there’s money to be made on less risky choices, they’ll keep doing it, regardless of quality or creativity.

I’m already looking forward to seeing the ‘real life’ remake of Rick and Morty in 2064. Especially as I really shouldn’t be around by then.

Here are eight shows that were watched in the Eighties and – quite literally – stood the test of time, Some passed, while others failed miserably. Then there’s Battlestar Galactica.

Knight Rider

Can’t say I was a big fan of this show the first time around – but I was in a tiny, tiny minority. Knight Rider was bigger than Bob Geldof’s bouffant back then.

It also made a star of David Hasselhoff (more of him later) in the lead role of Michael Knight, a crime fighter assisted by KITT, an artificially intelligent, self-aware, and nearly indestructible car. That could talk.

It ran for four seasons before its fanbase finally reached puberty and discovered girls.

2008’s Knight Rider saw Justin Bruening cast as Michael Traceur, the son of Hasselhoff’s Michael Knight, who follows his father into the hero business in a KITT of his own.

Despite the car being voiced by Val Kilmer, the reboot never got into gear and was jettisoned after just 17 episodes.

The Equalizer

When is a vigilante, not a vigilante? When they’re – cue husky voiceover – The Equalizer.

There was no shortage of action-adventure shows back in the Eighties, but this one stood out as its hero was a former British spy, Robert McCall, who was handy with a long-barreled gun kept under his even longer coat.

Edward Woodward was previously known for gritty UK spy drama Callan, but became a huge star on both sides of the Atlantic in this rather dark hit about a hitman who knew how to hurt.

The show has been rebooted both on the small and the big screen, with Denzel Washington starring as a seemingly more benign (no chance!) version of McCall in a series of rather violent movies.

The 2021 TV reboot, still running, stars Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall, a divorced single mother and former CIA operative who diligently dishes out rough justice as a street vigilante.

Baywatch

Whoever came up with the idea of a TV show about attractive lifeguards in red swimsuits hanging about on a Malibu beach was a genius.

But whoever came up with the idea of a movie reboot was quite the opposite. Though – bottom line here folks – it made a tidy profit.

Baywatch was nothing short of a phenomenon right from its debut in the late 1980s and made global superstars of its leads, Pamela Anderson and David ‘him again’ Hasselhoff.

The show ultimately became the world’s most-watched television series, with a weekly audience of over 1.1 billion viewers.

Critically panned, but adored by the general public, many of whom saw it as a show about strong women who were just as good – if not better – than the men.

The 2017 film reboot was greeted largely with indifference, but the presence of Dwayne Johnson helped it earn a profit of almost €100m.

Doctor Who

Here’s a show that ended in the 1980s after becoming an unloved child of the BBC family schedule and then returned to unprecedented success and popularity.

That’s why the series isn’t called Doctor Who?

The original ran for over two decades and spawned some films, but by 1989 it had become sidelined, neglected and unwanted by the hierarchy in the Beeb. It was also rubbish.

The old and new Who: Ncuti Gatwa and David Tennant

Queer as Folk writer Russell T Davies and BBC Cymru Wales head of drama Julie Gardner combined in 2005 to bring Doctor Who back, with Christopher Ecclestone as the Time Lord.

Despite his departure after a single season, the reboot was a huge success and made an international star of the next Doctor, David Tennant.

Although it’s had a bit of a quality dip in recent years, Doctor Who remains a cornerstone of the BBC One schedule, with Ncuti Gatwa in situ as the fifteenth Doctor.

Magnum PI

Not to be confused with the similarly-named, excellent ice cream, this was one of the top TV shows of the 1980s and ran for most of the decade, making stars of Tom Sellick’s moustache, hairy chest and Hawaiian shirts.

Selleck played Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV. He lived in the guesthouse of a beachfront estate called Robin’s Nest, at the invitation of its owner, Robin Masters – voiced by Orson Welles.

Its sunny setting and hunky lead gave it an obvious appeal – and an eight-season run is impressive. So no wonder someone ordered a reboot that launched in 2018.

Jay Hernandez took the lead this time out as Thomas Magnum, the titular private investigator and former Navy SEAL who solves crimes in Hawaii.

Despite lacking the charm of the original, the reboot lasted five seasons before finally returning to TV Heaven earlier this year.

I suppose it could now be called Magnum RIP.

Bullseye

This British game show was created by Andrew Wood and former Golden Shot host Norman Vaughan.

It featured three pairs of contestants, each consisting of an amateur darts player and a quizzer, competing to win cash and prizes.

The original series lasted 14 seasons between 1981 and 1995 and was presented by Jim Bowen, whose north-of-England warmth endeared him to the audience. The show also featured an animated mascot bull named Bully.

Bullseye‘s blend of quiz and darts was about as working-class as TV got back then and attracted up to 20 million UK viewers at its peak. But – like pork pies and pints of mild – it was very much of its time.

After an eleven-year hiatus, the show was revived for the UK digital channel Challenge and hosted by Dave Spikey. Despite being basically a Bullseye tribute act it lasted just 30 episodes.

Dallas

It began in the late 1970s and lasted until the early 1990s, but Dallas was the biggest of TV’s big shows in the 1980s. It was that decade’s Empire State Building of the telly box.

Super-soapy, it boasted the ultimate bad guy you love to hate in JR Ewing, played with relish by the wonderful Larry Hagman, who was previously known for 1960s comedy I Dream of Jeannie.

When JR was shot in 1981 by an unknown assailant, the plane carrying the video of the reveal episode across the Atlantic was featured on the main BBC news as it landed.

Dallas was that big.

In 2010, TNT announced a new, updated continuation of the show, featuring the offspring of the various characters who dominated the original.

Despite being a pale imitation of the original, the Dallas reboot ran from 2012 to 2014.

And finally . . . The Best Reboot Ever!

Battlestar Galactica

Although the original sci-fi show was televised in the US in 1978 and 1979, it didn’t cross the Atlantic immediately – and there’s a spin-off, Galactica 1980, which nails its Eighties’ credentials.

But if you think I’m stretching reality, I must point out that my only intention here is to present to you the most impressive reboot in TV history.

I’d argue that the best way to judge a reboot is by the quality of its resurrection in comparison with the original – and on that level, Battlestar Galactica Mk II was a remarkable achievement.

The series chronicled the journey of the last surviving humans from the Twelve Colonies of Kobol (don’t ask unless you simply must), after their nuclear annihilation by the Cylons.

The original series was pretty good – but the reboot is widely regarded as one of the greatest TV shows of the last twenty years and beyond. It’s epic, character-driven, highly addictive and quite brilliant.

Best of all, you don’t have to be some sort of sci-fi anorak to enjoy it. It’s a very human tale.

And this Eighties reboot business ain’t gonna stop any day soon. A remake of BBC crime drama series Bergerac is apparently coming in 2025.

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