Beloved movie/TV franchise characters being revived decades after the previous installment

The news of Patrick Stewart returning to play Captain Picard made me think of this phenomenon, which I feel seems to have become more common in recent years... I'm not talking about reboots or prequels with completely different actors playing the role, but with the original actors playing their old characters, who have aged appropriately. Off the top of my head, in the last 10 years or so they've done this with Indiana Jones, the original Star Wars characters, Blade Runner, Rocky, Rambo, Roseanne, the Full House Cast, Picard... And apparently there's talks of a new Frasier show being made too.

Now the reasons for doing this are quite obvious (money and nostalgia), but has it ever been successful in other ways? I guess if the original actors were playing kids or teenagers, as with the Full House, it's not that hard to write a new series about their lives as adults, especially if the original show already was an intergenerational comedy or drama.

But if the character was originally conceived as an action hero and/or a serial dater, it's kinda harder to bring them back if the actor is now a senior. I mean, can you imagine Picard still pulling action stunts while Stewart is almost 80, or Frasier still being a commitment-shy bachelor in his mid-60s? (Apparently that's what they're planning with Frasier, that the happy ending of the series where he finally found a series relationship didn't work out.)

I guess the only way this has really worked is when the character has matured and now serves as a mentor or a parental figure to a younger generation, which is what they did with Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Blade Runner, and apparently Rocky too (I haven't seen the latest movie). But then you have those fans who complain about the new characters (like with Star Wars), and would prefer the movie to focus on their old favourites...

Of course I'm not saying that movies/TV series shouldn't be made from the point of view senior characters, but it feels certain certain genres and their conventions don't easily bend to this, which is why some of these revivals feel like a fool's errand. Or do they?

Also, was this done that much in the past as it seems to be done now? I can't think of too many examples from the previous century: you have the Star Trek movies, Paul McCartney returning to play the same pool shark with Tom Cruise, what else?

either the show/film is good or it isn't, the rest is an irrelevance

good work on Paul McCartney A+ lol

Whoops, obviously I meant Paul Newman.

i thought you meant it as a gag!

nah seriously, there's no character or situation that can't be well written and acted and shot, the problem lies elsewhere

fan service basically, which is the enemy of any kind of art

either the show/film is good or it isn't, the rest is an irrelevance

Well yeah, but I was talking about how, in many cases, the age of actor/character limits the way the show/movie could be good in the same way the previous installments. So either you could do something completely different, or put the character in a more supporting role with a younger character doing the same stuff they did previously. The latter seems to be the preferred approach.

because as i said, i think if you're worrying about giving your audience what they want you're far more likely to make shit

I mean, it would be kinda awesome to see a Star Trek show focusing on Picard finally having accepted the job of the bureaucratic admiral he and others captains used to hate, but I doubt that's gonna happen.

Xpost

but there are also limits to what's likely to get made commercially, i don't disagree with that Picard idea but there's always a play-off. fwiw i don't think a new Picard series is likely to be significantly worse or patchier than TNG at the very least

but with the original actors playing their old characters, who have aged appropriately.

70s TV detective series 'Van der Valk' was revived in the early 90s, with the same actor playing the title character and everyone 20 years older.

(including Van der Valk's son, who is a young kid in 1972 and grows up to be a police officer in the 90s series)

And because I now have the theme tune playing on a loop in my head you can too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0O-2oAvNTo

The Likely Lads-->Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?
The Avengers-->The New Avengers (Steed only)

Can we get back to the universe where McCartney’s a pool shark and Paul Newman fronted Wings?

McCartney's not a shark, he's a 'Jet'.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/84/Jet_-_Paul_McCartney_%26_Wings.jpg/220px-Jet_-_Paul_McCartney_%26_Wings.jpg

https://sentireascoltare.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Twin-Peaks-Part-5-2.jpg

http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/File:Death_Wish_IX.jpg?file=Death_Wish_IX.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BICm_sqCEAANWQ4?format=jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/87/31/d4/8731d4a89809c303a50840d7c5e4451e.jpg

Oh yeah, forgot about Twin Peaks, I haven't yet watched the new series. Did they add some new, younger characters to it, or is just the old gang 25 years older?

That Doctor Who example is a bit different cos it's just the dude doing a short guest spot, not the becoming a main/major character again. Kinda like DeForest Kelley or Leonard Nimoy in TNG.

https://i0.wp.com/www.blogtorwho.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/SJA-Brigader.jpg

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDkyMzJiNDYtMWU4NC00ZjA0LTlkYmQtOGNlMjJiYWRiYmMxL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTgyNTk5MjY@._V1_.jpg

Is the gun in the logo supposed to be read as a letter, and is it an 'f' or a 'p'? Are the other letters meant to be interpreted as being all caps? 'fHUNTER' or 'pHUNTER'?

Who's with Elisabeth Sladen?
& she did crop up again in the David Tennant Who era as Sarah Jane after having her own series as the character about 20 years after she left the show.

I wish I'd known that!

only one decade later but

https://d1m6vmmwsgiy3l.cloudfront.net/images/screenshots/screenshot_5_36759.jpg

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/photopost/data/605/Television_NE_-_NH_THE_NEW_WKRP_IN_CINCINNATI_Crew_Press_Photo.JPG

Who's with Elisabeth Sladen?

Nicholas Courtney who played Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.

Lol @ tuomas not watching TP: the Return

Terminator: Genisys wasn't quite "decades" after the last one Arnold was in, but they did have to build the plot around him being a Terminator who'd come back in time in the 80s and whose human biological covering had been aging naturally since then.

this happened a bit in the 80's as well; I vaguely remember a Man from Uncle TV movie. And also a few Leave it to Beaver TV movies. The first Mission Impossible return to TV with Peter Graves returning. And obviously the smattering of Brady Bunch reunions.

Monkees

the new Halloween film will have a 70-year-old Michael Myers vs a 60-year-old Jamie Lee Curtis!

The Perry Mason TV series with Raymond Burr as Mason and Barbara Hale as Della Street ended in 1966 after 271 episodes. In 1985 Burr and Hale reunited for a TV movie, The Return of Perry Mason, and ratings were sufficiently strong to warrant 25 more movies with those actors; NBC even made a few more "Perry Mason Mysteries" after Burr's death in 1993.

A franchise revival was pretty easy in this case because Perry Mason is a brainy, tricky lawyer rather than an action hero, and because the series' story formula is simple and flexible (Mason defends an innocent client from a murder charge by discovering the real killer).

bring back Jessica Fletcher

http://www.littlestuffedbull.com/images/comics/gilmoregirls2099.jpg

Twin Peaks is a great example cos the original tv series & FWWM had all these seeds of ideas that pointed towards things that would end up taking place 25 years in the future. there are things people do in FWWM for reasons that that would only be elaborated on literally 25 years later. the show itself is hyper conscious of the passing of time and is refreshingly honest about how some things continuously change and some things are forever.

also unfortunately there's the upcoming Alf reboot.

https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/alf-reboot-warner-bros-tv-1202892541/

Yeah, but will Alf be in it?

Get Smart wrapped up its TV run in 1970 and then had a film, The Nude Bomb, in 1980, still starring Don Adams. But really it makes more sense to think of Inspector Gadget as a disturbing postscript, with Adams's character having suffered some horrible offscreen evisceration before being technologically reconstructed, without memories and even more absent-minded than before.

The TOS/TNG movies definitely had a problem with the aging casts. I think they'll have to change Picard's role if they actually bring him back -- no more space dune-buggies.

here's a small list of tv revivals:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(television)

Get Smart wrapped up its TV run in 1970 and then had a film, The Nude Bomb, in 1980

only one decade later but

According to that Wikipedia article there was a short revival of Get Smart! in 1995, with Don Adams and Barbara Feldon reprising their role, and Andy Dick playing their agent son. Apparently it wasn't well received and lasted only 7 episodes, I'd never heard of it before.

There was also another Get Smart! movie besides The Nude Bomb, wasn't there? I remember watching it as a kid and thinking Don Adams looks old.

No recollection of this, but just under a decade later, a made-for-TV movie

Oh, yeah, that's the one I remember. Adams was already in his mid-60s when it was made.

Columbo an obvious one. Ended in 78 and came back 11 years later in 89

Paul Reubens started doing occasional appearances as Pee-Wee Herman about fifteen years after his arrest had the TV show cancelled, the (a new) stage show came back just under two decades after the arrest, and the Netflix movie was 25 years after the TV series / 28 years after the last movie / 35 years after the previous TV special.

It wasn't a franchise at the time, but the string of 1980s Psycho sequels started up 23 years after the original.

20 years between Rambo 3 and Rambo. (The order goes First Blood, Rambo, Rambo III, and Rambo, but not the same Rambo. I mean, it's the same Rambo, not some rando, but not the same "Rambo.")

Also not franchises, but since Paul McCartney returning to The Colour Of Money counts:
An Englishman In New York had John Hurt as Quentin Crisp 34 years after The Naked Civil Servant.

Bergman's Saraband followed Scenes From A Marriage three decades later.

A mere 19 years between Texasville and The Last Picture Show.

I'm not sure about the assumption that being older than 60 invalidates you for certain genres. It's just that those genres (so far) haven't been particularly successful at it, or hew to the usual wise mentor/wild bunch/too-old-for-this-shit cliches.

Possible counter example is Leslie Nielsen in the first two Naked Guns, I guess.

Liam Neeson has released two of the three Takens, The Grey and all three Jaume Collet-Serra collaborations between 59 and 66.

Yeah “geriaction” is a thing now, I feel like people used to Zimmer frame/death wish ix type jokes re arnie/Willis/seagal a lot more than they do now with the likes of Tom cruise or whoever

*used to make

i think one important difference between those dudes and Cruise/Neeson/Denzel/Keanu (wtf he is 53) is that the latter group doesn't seem bored or lazy in their roles. You can argue the *choices* are lazy but their performances are usually pretty fully committed.

Lucille Ball (born this date in 1911 btw) had her last sitcom, "Life with Lucy," debut in 1986, a dozen years after her preceding one left the air. Even tho the character's last name and the scenario always changed, she was always "Lucy." But the last series was quite desperate -- nothing as suspenseful as actors in their 70s doing slapstick! -- and it was off the air in 13 weeks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIt-mQhztBo

Isn't Linda Hamilton in the new Terminator whatever?

https://icdn6.digitaltrends.com/image/terminator-movie-2019-720x720.jpg

Can we technically count Grumpy Old Men itt?

wonder if this attempt at another terminator movie will be any good; doubt it

xpost (I mean, I know the answer, I just thought it'd be fun to ask and imagine the raising of dander.)

I think Last Picture Show / Texasville is a special case, as it sprung from Larry McMurtry publishing a sequel to the first novel 21 years later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_McMurtry#Duane_Moore_series

Loving the "Life With Lucy" theme, from back when TV themes were a minute long. The lyrics:

Everyday I'm better than I ever was before
Everyday I'm loving living more and more.
Everyday holds keys to possibilities galore
Everyday is better than before
How you feel depends on who you are
Who you are depends on what you do
What you do is mostly up to you it's true
You can make a better you
Everyday is a new world than I'm eager to explore
Everyday opportunity knocks on my door
Everyday I'm loving living more and more and more
And everyday is better than, keep on saying yes I can
And everyday is better than before.

xp Which is its own weird phenomenon! Like the shining & witches of eastwick sequels nobody was clamouring for

Does Bob Newhart and Suzanne Pleshette returning as Dr. Bob and Emily in the Newhart season finale count?

Sean Connery reviving Bond 12 years after he left the series (Never Say Never Again)

The De Grassi actors in the Drake video

And I guess you could include Jay & Silent Bob too

Next to Stewart, Cruise/Neeson/Denzel/Keanu are all absurdly handsome and young-looking - they're older but they don't look or act it (well maybe not Neeson)

Yeah, those dudes have all aged more gracefully over the past three decades than I have over the past five years.

Clooney returned for the last few episodes of ER about ten years after he'd left the show

Highly recommend watching a garbage Michael Douglas dtv action thriller where they make him run it’s the funniest shit

http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/709071/20999943/1353108078397/douglas-hippie.gif?token=DaD8GZc4tciyhkgVm%2Fdagoajtpg%3D

Can we technically count Grumpy Old Men itt?

I deliberately didn't mention The Odd Couple 2 because I figured it was a Grumpy Old Men cash-in more than anything else

JENNY LEWIS WAS ON LIFE WITH LUCY?????

I barely know who she is, but yes.

yes she was a child actress which by now everyone has forgotten

the (awful) Trainspotting sequel featured the same characters 20 years later

The actually not-bad 1987 Dragnet film w/Ackroyd and Hanks featured Harry Morgan reprising his role from the TV series.

kinda different, ditto the Bilko (Steve Martin) and Car 54 (David Johansen?) movies

(in that the original leads, or most of them, were dead by the time of those movie revivals)

Ghostbusters falls into that category as well

well maybe not I guess those were just nudgenudgewinkwink cameos

haha, I forgot there was a trainspotting sequel. I don't think it even hit theaters in the US. seemed to vanish the second it came out.

it was great.

Many xps, I knew about Lewis's movies like The Wizard and Troop Beverly Hills, but the idea that she acted on a sitcom with Lucille Ball is kinda O_O.

Morbs she is the erstwhile lead singer for Rilo Kiley, now solo artist, etc.

We need less of this and more crossovers.

http://www.themovienetwork.com/sites/themovienetwork.com/files/imagecache/630x375/x-files-richard-belzeer.jpg

The 1998 Lost in Space film featured cameos from most of the original cast - and Dick Tufeld returning to his old role as the voice of the robot. Similarly, Lou Ferrigno voiced the Hulk in the 2008 film (the MCU one, not the Ang Lee one) and his voice was composited with others for the first two Avengers movies.

Most of the main cast from TV's 21 Jump Street make cameos in the Lord & Miller film, except Richard Grieco and Dustin Nguyen. Grieco & Nguyen then showed up in 22 Jump St.

cameos like that don't count. They basically happen in every semi-ironic franchise reboot

Yeah, if the movie is clear reboot (such as the new Ghostbusters) with original actors having some jokey cameos, it's not the phenomenon I'm talking about here. It's when movie/TV series is revived in the same continuity, with (mostly) the same actors playing the same roles.

I still think it's interesting if they're going to the trouble of tracking down people to carry on a significant role, as with the Robot and Hulk - like, they obviously don't have to do that, and almost nobody will notice without being told, so what's the assumption behind it? James Garner in the Maverick movie would be another weird borderline case - very far from a cameo (he's basically the third lead) but not exactly reprising his original character. In that case maybe there was real hope it'd get old fans of the show interested, since he was prominent in the marketing.... whereas presumably nobody is going to decide they'll give 21 Jump Street a shot because they heard a rumor one of the old stars has a brief jokey appearance.

very far from a cameo (he's basically the third lead) but not exactly reprising his original character

hmmmm, did you see the last scene?

I did but honestly couldn't remember exactly how big the reveal/twist was.

ive never seen the Maverick TV show, but it seemed like an a-ha moment

spoilers for the 1994 throwback wild-west con-artist film MAVERICK: in the last scene, James Garner is revealed not to be a lawman butting heads with Mel Gibson's Bret Maverick, but in fact his father, working in cahoots with him all along. i took this to mean that Gibson was playing TV's Maverick and that they cleverly found a way to use the original star in a major role - but it's certainly plausible that Garner is meant to be the original Maverick and that this film takes place thirty years after the show, in a part of the old west that hasn't changed too dramatically. sadly, no work was found for Roger Moore, who played the original replacement character "Beau Maverick."

cameos like that don't count

absolutely, I was following up Dr Casino with an example of how diligently widespread that sort of Pokemon approach to cameos has become