Last Updated on February 9, 2022
‘Hart to Hart’ and ‘Fantasy Island’ were 1970s TV hits some of us grew up with.
Sometimes, I wish they’d focus more on new ideas than redoing old ones.
Two TV hits from yesteryear are back on the drawing board as developers try to shake up details in the original concepts.
First, there’s Hart to Hart, which, oddly enough, I find almost impossible to type without trying to add an e in there.
The ABC crime drama starred Robert Wagner and Stephanie Powers as a married team of amateur sleuths who always managed to out-guess authorities. A new version, under development for NBC, would feature a gay couple in the title role:
The new Hart To Hart is described as a modern and sexy retelling of the classic series that focuses on “by the book” attorney Jonathan Hart and free-spirited investigator Dan Hartman, who must balance the two sides of their life: action-packed crime-solving in the midst of newly found domesticity.
It sounds to me like a crime-fighting equivalent of The Odd Couple with the couple actually being a couple.
Then there’s Fantasy Island, another ABC staple during its seven-year run from 1977 to 1984. Ricardo Montalban played Mr. Rourk, a mysterious host who gave people the chance to live out their unspoken fantasies, sometimes with disastrous results. Malcolm McDowell took Montalban’s spot during a short-lived remake in 1998.
This time, Deadline reports, a woman will be the lead character instead of a man. But a bigger change is in the works: there won’t even be an island:
The new Fantasy Island centers on a brilliant, dynamic and sexy woman who runs a San Francisco-based company that provides clients with his or her most intimate, dark or outlandish fantasy.
It sounds to me like a scenario from the movie Total Recall. Deadline also reports in addition to the fantasies depicted each week, you can expect “an overarching serialized arc involving Roarke and her personal life.”
I’m not sure why networks insist on trying to remake old shows with these kinds of “twists.” How often do these stunts actually work?
After all, if you’re a big fan of either show, you’d tune in because you loved the original version, not the twist-laden alternative. Unless the new version is very, very well done, it seems to me the people who would tune in through name recognition would automatically be set up for disappointment.
Is there anything wrong with taking an old concept — if you can’t come up with a new and better one — and just load in your twists and package it with a new title? As long as you have the blessings of the original creators, it seems like you’d have a better audience with a more open mind right off the bat to see your show.
At that point, it’d still be up to you to make sure they come back for Episode #2.
