Tuned In
Uncategorized

Who Cares About a Melrose Place Remake?

By James Poniewozik | @poniewozik | August 27, 2009 | +

As the New York Times told us yesterday, only the olds use Twitter. Readers of Tuned In are uniformly young and beautiful, and so you have no idea that, over on Twitter, some of us elderly TV critics—breathing the stench of the grave with every tweet—have been debating how the new CW remake stands up to the original that aired on Fox.

My opinion is that it stands up pretty well, mainly because, despite whatever fond memories we have of MP, its first season (when it was intended as a quasi “realistic” show about how The Young People Live), it was pretty earnest and boring. (Cue Ms. Streisand: “What’s too painful to remember / We simply choose to forget…”)

But there’s no point my elaborating on that because you haven’t yet seen the new Melrose. My question is: are you looking forward to it? And if so, why?

This was something that puzzled me about last year’s remake of 90210. A fair chunk of the audience who might be nostalgic for the original are, arguably, too old for most CW shows. And The CW’s audience may want to watch a teen soap, but if they don’t have fond memories of the original, why would the remake have any more appeal? I guess there must be a sweet spot in between: viewers in their 20s or early 30s, say, who watched Melrose and 90210 early on, but is that enough?

Then again, 90210 is coming back this year, so it must have done something right. So I ask again: if you are looking forward to the remake of Melrose Place, who are you and why are you excited? Did you ever watch the original?

And speak up. My hearing aid’s not working.

Related Topics: melrose place, nostalgia, the cw, Uncategorized

  • Latest on Entertainment

    Getty Images
    Remembrance June 3, 2012

    ‘Family Feud’ TV Host Richard Dawson Dies at 79

    Richard Dawson, the wisecracking British entertainer who was among the schemers in the 1960s sitcom “Hogan’s Heroes” and a decade later began kissing thousands of female contestants as host of the game show “Family Feud” has died. He was 79.

    From our Partners

    14 Revelations From A New Tell-All Book On Christian BaleHuffington Post

    Matt Stroshane / Disney Parks / Getty Images
    Looking Around June 1, 2012

    Disney's Fantastic Voyage

    The kids are the go-to demographic on the Fantasy, the newest vessel in Disney’s fleet of floating theme parks

  • Tom Shaw

    “Then again, 90210 is coming back this year, so it must have done something right.”

    Just to quibble, but all signs point to 90210 coming back because Melrose was picked up, not the other way around.

    Even by Dawn Ostroff’s (questionable) programming standards, 90210′s ratings were weak, apparently due to exactly the age issues you listed above.

    Now, it wouldn’t surprise me if Melrose gets better ratings than 90210 (again) – they can ditch the earnest high school setting and jump right to the sex and violence. Who knows if The CW will be around next year to air either program though.

    *Disclaimer: While being in my early thirties, I didn’t watch the show then and I won’t watch it now. Also, get off my lawn.

  • jimatl

    I was baffled by the 90210 reboot and remain baffled by this. I did watch the originals of both and have no interest in the retread of either. Maybe these have some sort of brand equity that a “from scratch” teen soap would not. But that brand equity just screams old to me – and not in a kitschy, vintage way.

    If I had to bet, I’d say neither will make it to next fall and CW will be abandoning these shows trumpeting a new batch of shows that are made specifically for today’s teens/tweens and definitively not referencing to the shows their moms watched. Then again, for all the press Gossip Girl gets, it does not exactly seem to be resonating with the mass audience in Flyover Country.

  • drad098

    I think you may have answered your own question. The audience won’t respond better to a remake than a new name, but you “elderly TV critics” will. By tagging the old names on it, they get a boatload of free press, where a new teen drama would just get a mention.

  • rhys1882

    Partly it is just for marketing. CW wanted a couple more “young hot people” dramas. I am sure they would love to name their shows “Generic young hot person drama #27″ and then just show a bunch of clips, but the reality is you need a hook. You need a concept to sell to the network execs and ad people that justifies claiming that this particular “young hot person” show will be successful. Case in point – Vampire Diaries. Young hot people ….. as VAMPIRES! With 90210 and MP it is “remake.” The other part is the outcome of corporate executives trying to figure out what will sell. They often assume the shows they are nostalgic about are the shows mainstream culture is nostalgic about. The fact is, corporate execs are old and wealthy, generally leading them to be out of touch with mainstream culture. That’s why they are often obsessed with finding a young up and comer to convey what young people like these days – because they know they are out of touch. So I am sure there were plenty of 30-50 year old execs thinking “90210 and MP were really popular back then, remaking them is a great idea.” Despite the fact that 90210 and MP had no real underlying “concept” to be remade, they were simply generic soap operas and the precursor of the primetime soap opera.

  • bealtown

    I loved orginal 90210 and Melrose. I only watched the 90210 remake episode that featured the return of Donna Martin. I was none too impressed. I am slightly excited by the new Melrose however, I think because there has been a void of campy 20-something melodrama since the original went off the air. They can call the show whatever they want (Dallas, Dynasty, Melrose Place or Melrose Place again). So long as there are alcoholics, conniving neighbors, returns from the dead and cat fights that end in the complex’s swimming pool, I’ll watch it.

blog comments powered by Disqus