1976, The original “Charlie’s Angels.” (WENN.com)
1975, Lynda Carter (left) and her legs made “Wonder Woman” a hit on ABC. 2011, Adrienne Palicki (right) will make a new generation “Wonder.” (Edward Le Poulin/Corbis)
1991, Helen Mirren stars as Jane Tennison on “Prime Suspect.” 2011, Lucky Maria Bello won the “Prime Suspect” lead for NBC. (
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The backstabbing Ewing clan of “Dallas” will return in a revival of the blockbuster CBS soap on TNT. (
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No idea is ever too old — or too dated — to be recycled. The busy 2011 television development has one major theme in mind: if a show was once a hit, it can be remade with a new cast for a new audience.
In other words, spin-offs are out; remakes are in. And the networks are jumping into production on on several high-profile projects inspired by series that were hits as long as 25 years ago.
“Charlie’s Angels” is being remade with an all-new cast that stars Minka Kelly of “Friday Night Lights” and Derek Jeter fame. Her co-stars are Rachael Taylor (“Transformers”) and Annie Ilonzeh (“General Hospital”), two actresses that may become household names the same way Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and the late Farrah Fawcett did when the Aaron Spelling girls-with-guns campfest premiered on ABC in 1976. To round out the cuteness factor, producers Nancy Juvonen and Drew Barrymore, who co-starred in two movie versions of the series, have cast Robert Wagner as Charlie — a perfect choice when you think that it was silver-haired John Forsythe, in his pre-”Dynasty” days, who originally provided his voice.
Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research at Horizon Media, says that a revival of “Charlie’s Angels” makes perfect sense, in light of the success of “Hawaii Five-O.”
“Remakes help sell a network lineup,” Adgate says. “ ‘Hawaii Five-O’ is one of the stronger first-year shows. People knew the theme song by The Ventures and the signature phrase, ‘Book ‘em, Danno.’ Viewers know what these shows are. You don’t have to worry about them. They can kind of stick out across the clutter of the new season and all the choices viewers have.
“With ‘Charlie’s Angels,’ I’m kind of shocked it took 30 years to redo it,” Adgate says. “It wasn’t considered high-brow when it premiered, but it was considered entertaining, Many of the most successful television shows are mostly entertaining. It’s a no-brainer to try it.”
The Aaron Spelling super sleuth drama is not the only slick ’70s show being remounted.
David E. Kelley productions is redoing “Wonder Woman” for NBC. ABC had a big hit with the series in 1975 with the stunning Lynda Carter giving the role her all in a skintight superhero uniform. The new series will star Adrienne Palicki, lately of the failed Fox series “Lone Star” and “Friday Night Lights.” as Diana Prince, corporate exec and crime fighter, which might be something of an oxymoron. The series is set in Los Angeles and according to reports, Palicki was the only actress tested for the iconic role.
Interestingly, Adgate notes that “Wonder Woman” and “Charlie’s Angels” were popular at the same time as when “Hawaii Five-O” was on the air, the late 1970s.
“I do think these things are cyclical,” he says. “But you look at ‘Wonder Woman,’ with D.C. and Marvel Comics film adaptations doing so well. Why woudn’t the networks do it? ‘Iron Man’ did really well last year. There’s ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘Captain America’ and ‘Thor’ coming out.’”
CBS hasn’t finished with its remakes, either. The network is currently developing a remake of “The Wild West West,” a successful, 45-year old series about James West and Artemus Gordon, secret service agents assigned to protect President Ulysses S. Grant from various assassins. The leads of the new version have yet to be cast.
NBC also has one ambitious remake in the works, the American adaptation of the iconic British crime series “Prime Suspect,” slated for the fall. Premiering on “Masterpiece Theatre” in 1991, it offered viewers an uncompromising look at how a woman does her job in a hostile workplace — a London police precinct —when she is promoted to Detective Chief Inspector, and made a star out of Helen Mirren who made Jane Tennison an iconic television character, great at solving crimes, terrible at the business of living.
The network tried to get “Prime Suspect” up and running for the 2010 television season but couldn’t find the right actress to star in the series. This time, they think they’ve made the right choice in Maria Bello, who has had roles in movies such as “A History of Violence, “ but also clocked a season on “ER” in 1997 as Noah Wyle’s love interest. The location has been moved to New York and the name of Bello’s character has been changed to Jane Timoney, but she will still be a rebellious sort who works among a lot of men.
TNT has plans to remake the 1980s blockbuster “Dallas,” focusing on the children of the Ewing brothers, oil magnate JR (Larry Hagman) and Bobby (Patrick Duffy), and the family spread in Southfork. Their rivalry has been passed on to a younger generation, JR’s son John Ross and Bobby’s adopted son, Christopher. Expect Hagman, Duffy and Linda Gray, who valiantly played JR’s long-suffering wife Sue Ellen, to appear in the pilot. Josh Henderson and Jesse Metcalfe, young actors who both had roles on “Desperate Housewives,” star as Christopher and John Ross. The original “Dallas” ran for 13 seasons on CBS.
Even though recent series’ remakes such as “The Bionic Woman” and “Knight Rider” have crashed and burned, Adgate notes that the success of “Hawaii Five-0” gives the networks hope that more old hits can be resurrected. “The bottom line is that the shows have to be good and they have to have a good time period. Viewers have to like the storyline.”
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