Just as Frasier is returning for a short reprise, we wondered what other ancient sitcoms might be brought back from beyond? Some random thoughts …
Friends with Beneficiaries
Friends already has a lesser-known spinoff launched swiftly after its finale, called Joey. It reprised Matt LeBlanc’s character trying to make it big as an LA actor, but, ironically, it flopped after a couple of seasons. The show where Matt LeBlanc played Matt LeBlanc alongside Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig playing his scriptwriters was better. But now, we could see the gangs’ kids at a similar age to what the group was at the time, including Ross’s son from his first marriage, who was played by Cole Sprouse – a nice lifeline out of the hot mess that was Netflix’s Riverdale for the former child star.
Seinfeld: The Sequel
Jerry is living in the Jersey suburbs with his two annoying teenage kids, trying to navigate the dating apps, while the old crew and his ex-wife keep badgering him for money. Actually, it looks like some sort of reunion might be on the cards, possibly because its leading man needs to add another rare automobile to his collection.
Gliding Onward
Memo Sir Roger Hall and scriptwriter daughter Pip Hall – maybe it’s time for a 21st-century revival of the local public service classic of the early 80s? Though it will possibly be called Working from Home. And if we could get him to put down the Lego for a minute, casting Dai Henwood as the son of the character his father Ray played in the original would be quite something.
Video / NZ On Screen
Republican Family Ties
Michael J Fox’s Alex and his wife are Trump supporters, and his three grandkids are gender-fluid Bernie Sanders fans. Filmed in front of a live audience, who occasionally storm the set.
A Newer Dick Van Dyke Show?
Dick Van Dyke starred in The Dick Van Dyke Show with Mary Tyler Moore in the 1960s. There was The New Dick Van Dyke Show in the 1970s and a one-off reunion. Dick Van Dyke is now 97 and still with us. There’s still time.
SW1A
Hugh Bonneville, the actor formerly known as the Earl of Grantham, played permanently exasperated management guy Ian Fletcher in the brilliant, if derivative, London Olympics comedy 2012. He then took the character to W1A, the BBC’s amusing parody of the BBC. Perhaps he and the latter show’s other great characters played by Monica Dolan and Hugh Skinner could take their experience to another London postcode — SW1A. There they can be part of the strategy and comms team for the newly elected Under-Secretary for Media, Culture and Heritage, Siobhan Sharpe, played by Jessica Hynes as she was in 2012 and W1A. If “SW1A’' doesn’t fly as a title, how about something catchy like … Yes, Minister?
Post-Modern Family
Yes, it ended a measly three years ago, but it’s called keeping up the momentum. In the 11-season series, Jesse Tyler Ferguson played Mitch, an LA lawyer married to high-school football coach Cam, played by Eric Stonestreet. The beloved characters actually had a spinoff in the works that was centred around themselves and daughter Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons) adjusting to life in Cam’s home state of Missouri. And it was all but made, according to Ferguson. “The script’s out there, and it’s very good. So, you know, who knows? If someone wants to produce it, maybe,” he told Entertainment Tonight last year. While the trio would have been a hoot, Phil Dunphy is an audience favourite who many people would say deserves a spinoff, if not a collection of feature films.
I really hate that Modern Family gave us Phil Dunphy because no such man exists and it pains me
— ʀ🎃ss (@rosseireann) August 22, 2021
The Office New Zealand
The original workplace mockumentary The Office lasted only two seasons in the UK and, well, nine, in its US version. But it has also been remade in 13 other places. Even Israel and Saudi Arabia have their own, which must amuse creator Ricky Gervais when he gets the cheques. So, how about a NZ version starring maybe Jonny Brugh and Josh Thomson and directed by Jackie van Beek and Jesse Griffin from Educators? Oh, right, they’re all already doing that for Prime Video’s forthcoming The Office Australia. Strewth.
Got one of your own suggestions? Email us your ideas at listener@aremedia.co.nz
