Nothing matches the horrified feeling in your chest when you find out that one of your TV or movie favorites is being redone for no apparent reason. As a huge fan of the 80s TV show Magnum P.I., it felt a bit like my heart had been ripped out when ABC recently announced that they would be remaking the classic hit series.
The original show centered around Tom Selleck and his mustache playing the titular character in a way that can never be touched, returning to work as a private investigator after serving in the Vietnam War and solving mysteries in an 80s Hawaiian paradise.
Given that Magnum P.I. would be absolutely nothing without its original setting and Selleck playing Magnum, my immediate reaction was to wonder why anyone would ever lay their hands on the masterpiece. Not only is it perfect the way it is, but it is hard to imagine a world in which a modern version of this show, former actors absent, would ever succeed.
Magnum P.I. is just the tip of the iceberg; classic TV series are being remade more and more, with Dallas, Dynasty, Hawaii Five-O, and MacGyver suffering the same unfortunate fate. And then, of course, we cannot ignore the hordes of movies being re-adapted, a frequent and increasing trend in Hollywood over the past decade.
Old titles with new actors seem to be churned out a mile a minute these days, and it’s difficult to go to theaters and sit through previews without encountering a new victim. A 2018 Tomb Raider sans Angeline Jolie is about to hit the silver screen, the Grinch is being revamped once again, and classics such as Scarface, Weird Science, Little Shop of Horrors, Gremlins and Overboard are in development as well, just to name a few.
I’ll willingly admit, in some cases these remakes make sense; if one is done right, it can pay tribute to the originals and build upon them in logical, beneficial ways. They can put a refreshing twist on an old concept by incorporating modern technology, as was the case with the latest Jumanji, or build upon the classic Disney princess movies with live action and CGI capabilities.
However, in the majority of cases, these new versions just seem like unnecessary, lazy attempts at raking in a profit. Grossing millions of dollars at the box office by wringing every last dollar out of a previously successful picture is, after all, a lot easier than trying out a brand new story and seeing how it fares with an audience. Unfortunately, the cost is usually a critical failure that is torn to shreds by critics and met with nothing but resentment from fans of the originals. Out of 122 remakes created between 2003 and 2012, the median Rotten Tomatoes score was 46 percent, whereas that of the originals was 78 percent.
The announcement for a remake often reads something along the lines of, “We’re excited to bring this story to a new generation.” While this is a sweet sentiment, it is hardly a convincing argument in an age where accessing movies and TV shows from any year and watching them is easier than ever. Also, it’s not as if these stories from a few decades ago are in some indecipherable language that we absolutely need to be modernized in order to understand, appreciate and enjoy. Younger generations don’t need to have these classic stories “brought” to us. We’re just fine with seeking them out, and we enjoy appreciating the originals in all of their glory.
TV shows and movies, in their original form – with their interplay of dialogue, visuals, costumes, actors, jokes and a million other details – capture a distinctive moment in time and culture. If the content from years back is a bit different than what we see nowadays, that’s something to be valued, not something to be diluted and repackaged under the exact same title.
Movie studios and television networks might be entertaining themselves by rattling off all of these inferior reproductions, but if they could focus on producing new, creative stories for our generation, rather than simply taking from the past, I think they could do a much better job of entertaining us.
Megan Friend is a freshman majoring in marketing. Her column runs biweekly.
