Watching a TV show is like having a best friend. Coming home exhausted after school, one can turn on the TV and laugh along with the people on screen. After a bad breakup, one can shovel ice cream into his mouths and cry alongside his favorite character during a heartbreaking episode.
Now, childhood characters have grown up and are reuniting with their former audience. A generation of people who have grown up watching TV shows like “Gilmore Girls,” “Full House” and “Roseanne”are reconnecting with memories of their old friends and their younger selves.
But can it be the same as before?
For precalculus teacher Alice Hu, the remakes simply don’t feel like the same shows she grew up with.
“It’s never the same as how it used to be,” said Hu. “It’s good to have the same people, but … I’m always comparing it to how it used to be.”
Some, like English teacher Victoria Daniel, never made their way back to the remakes.
“I think there’s a lot of people who just felt like they were done with it, and that it was time for something new,” Daniel said.
Junior Janet Chen felt differently and enjoyed the nostalgia that “Fuller House” brought.
“My expectations were pretty high,” Chen said. “I basically could not stop smiling when I watched the first episode of ‘Fuller House’ because it just felt so satisfying to see all characters together after such a long time.”
Remakes face the staggering challenge of making the leap from the childhood world to the adult world, and earned mixed reviews as they were unable to please viewers who held the originals so close.
“‘Full House’ was a big draw to me [because] they had girls that were like about my age,” Daniel said. “I think one of the reasons [people] watch it is to find people they relate to.”
Daniel felt that the disappointment original viewers may have felt was inevitable.
“It either comes off looking desperate because it’s desperately trying to get back what it’s had, or it’s so different that you’re watching a completely different show,” Daniel said.
With shows that suffered from controversy, viewers felt that the essence of the original show was compromised as prominent cast members in many people’s pasts were excluded.
“Redoing it with different people is just going to be a little bit of a letdown,” Daniel said. “[With ‘Roseanne’], she really was the draw. They had Roseanne and then they lost Roseanne.”
Although some original viewers may be too far out of reach for the remakes, they have found success in attracting new viewers.
“I think [‘Fuller House’] included more modern humor in order to reach the newer audiences that have never seen the originals,” Chen said.
Hu watched the remake of “Gilmore Girls” without having previously watched the original, yet found similar satisfaction as new viewers.
“I can see why, with the new generation, they can have a following with the new version,” Hu said. “I think as long as you don’t watch both, the old and the new, that you could like one or the other. I think it’s hard when you watch both and try to compare the two.”
Maybe in twenty years, today’s generation will wake up and find remakes of ‘The Suite Life of Zack and Cody” or ‘Wizards of Waverly Place” playing on their screens and find that nothing can ever truly come close to the original; or perhaps they will enjoy reconnecting with old memories. Regardless, remakes are a staggering challenge to take on, and as long as they succeed in making people cry with nostalgia, laugh at new jokes, learn about new characters or remember old friends, they have a place on the screen.
