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Remakes & Revivals: the shows you really want back

Nostalgia Week: The votes are in. Here are the local shows you'd love to see returned.

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Blue Heelers, Kath & Kim, The Panel and Round the Twist -they are just some of the shows you’ve named as wanting to see back on air.

Whether as a remake with a new cast or as a revival -readers have named the shows they want to see return.

They include shows from the ’70s to more recent titles, with nearly 1300 votes received in TV Tonight‘s survey.

DRAMA:
Blue Heelers
Puberty Blues
All Saints
The Secret Life of Us
A Country Practice
Other Option*
Number 96
Rush
Packed to the Rafters
Heartbreak High

* includes Water Rats, Always Greener, E Street, Sons and Daughters, Stingers, City Homicide.

But TV historian Andrew Mercado asks whether readers have voted for a revival -or simply nominated the shows for which they still hold the most affection.

“It shows there is still much love out there for some classic Aussie TV shows.  Although I’m not quite sure about Blue Heelers and All Saints topping the drama poll. Could either be re-imagined as grittier versions? Or does the audience want the familiar feel of some of the original cast?” he said.

“Who knew Blue Heelers was so popular? It’s strong rating does, however, indicate room in the market for another cop and / or country show, neither of which are on air right now.”

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COMEDY:
Kath and Kim
Frontline
Fast Forward
The Chaser’s War on Everything
Mother and Son
The Late Show
Upper Middle Bogan
Summer Heights High
The Comedy Company
The D Generation

LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT:
The Panel
Talkin’ Bout Your Generation
Thank God You’re Here
Rove
Hey Hey it’s Saturday
Good News Week
Spicks and Specks
Enough Rope
At the Movies
Countdown

GAME SHOW:
Wheel of Fortune
Sale of the Century
The Price is Right
Blankety Blanks
The Weakest Link
Letters & Numbers
It’s a Knockout
Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?
Perfect Match
Wipeout

KIDS:
Round the Twist
Here’s Humphrey
Agro’s Cartoon Connection
Mr Squiggle
The Curiosity Show
Bananas in Pyjamas
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
Wonder World
The Henderson Kids
Blue Water High

2221

REALITY:
The Amazing Race Australia
Big Brother
The Mole
Australian Idol
Survivor Australia
Undercover Boss Australia
Beauty and the Geek Australia
Sylvania Waters
So You Think You Can Dance Australia
Project Runway Australia

“It’s sad that the audience wants Amazing Race Australia back considering not enough of them watched to make it viable, and given its such an expensive show to make,” says Andrew Mercado.

NB: The survey did not include shows that are currently revived, or have a project in the pipeline such as Prisoner (Wentworth), Offspring, Dance Academy and Nowhere Boys.

This week TV Tonight has a special Nostalgia Week, featuring interviews with TV icons and retro clips all week in the Video section.

TOMORROW: Rob Sitch.

37 Responses

  1. I liked The Chaser’s War on Everything, but always preferred CNNNN. And that’s a show that could make an easy return, unlike some of the others. Fungry’s FTW.

  2. Maybe I gave it all more thought….but shows like Mother and Son….I totally loved that show and almost clicked on it ….but…then thought…No…it just would not work…at all…without those two lead actors…
    Any older revivals…are going to be done through much younger views/opinions…and that could be good…or a car crash….

  3. I wished that Sports Tonight would be revived somewhat soon. As a kid, I have enjoyed watching this sports news at 5:30pm Sundays.
    Why not air this show on One during weekends and have some presenters like Mel McLaughlin to host the show.

    1. I agree. I would like to see Sports Tonight return in some capacity. Weekend editions are ideal in the current landscape. On Ten or at worse, on One.
      I would like to even take one step back and have it return to the 11pm slot weeknights after the Late News…. but sadly, I cant see this happen for a very long time.

  4. Countdown was revived to a point the show was called House of Hits on TEN it aired in early 2000s in the Saturday night or Sunday night timeslot. Also Countdown revolution in the 80s. I know The Loop is similar to VideoHits but with those hosts its not the same a the non stop clip format which was dispersed with competitions and shout outs. Thats the version i want back. The only time VH had hosts before the format change was during NYE specials. Sami Lukis hosted one in 1999, it was a Network TEN NYE special titled Video Hits: Funks the Millennium. Most shows would not work nowadays. I think people want reruns.

  5. Interesting to see Kath and Kim, Fast Forward, The D Generation etc. listed. They were given a massive chance with Open Slather and the cast and writers from all those shows showed they were miserably out of touch with the current state humour and satire.

  6. I think Mr Mercado is right on the money. People mostly don’t want these shows to be remade or even revived. They just want the shows that their younger selves watched.

    A lot of the programs were products of their time and it would be impossible to both recapture that zeitgeist and attract an audience today beyond a few nostalgia tragics.

    And for those saying we need a cop show, we had one. It was called Cops L.A.C. and hardly any body watched it. Oh, you want a good one? Good luck with that.

    1. When people request BH they are not requesting a cop show.

      They are asking for another soap. In fact, if you look at the better performing Aussie “procedurals” of recent years they have all been far more soap than procedural (even Rush). Australia is not good at making procedural dramas.

  7. Do you give the resalts to the networks? I think the amount of people who want Hey Hey back, just wants a few shows. Because if look at Hey Hey’s ratings in 2010, they kept going down each week.

  8. Interesting that most the dramas are long form dramas which in this landscape generally dont work anymore…. Whilst I wasn’t a fan of Blue Heelers, I could see that working in a 10 episode run that maybe focuses on just one crime that happens in Mt Thomas….

    1. That’s the way I’d like to see Drama now, though with 13 episode seasons, which would give a network 3 different dramas they could run over a year for 39 weeks allowing for holiday breaks and sport (Easter, Christmas, Tennis on 7, Cricket on 9 and etc). Then with some of the shows listed especially in comedy like Kath and Kim, you could have say Christmas or Easter specials, have a The Panel end of year wrap or Good News Year (though I guess Have You Been Paying Attention could fill that gap).

      Even an At The Movies could do a once a year show that wraps up the best for the year (by then most could be on streaming or Blu-Ray/DVD) and a review of what is coming up over the summer.

  9. Anyone else feel there’s too many results listed? Should do a second round, perhaps to reduce the results further down to narrow in on the shows visitors to this site really want back.
    I guess I was the sole voice for Beyond 2000/Tomorrow after all – I’d imagine that show would be especially relevant today.

    1. I enjoyed Toward/Beyond 2000/Tomorrow when it was on but am not convinced that it would work today. Plus, it was a very poor predictor of what products would actually make it to market – where is my personal jetpack?; where is my sonic washing machine?; where is my motor bike with hub-less wheels?; where is my self-cleaning shirt? Actually, I really only want the jetpack. Instead we got a phone that I can watch cat videos on.

    2. You weren’t the sole voice, I actually loved Beyond 2000. As for it being a predictor, it actually wasn’t too bad. In fact, there was an excellent special made by the same crew called “You Have No Secrets” about the issues involved in technology and privacy. The issues it raised are still relevant today. More so, in fact.

      But I reckon that Quantum basically fills this gap for now. IMHO anyway 🙂

  10. How could Agro’s Cartoon Connection get votes and not Cheez TV? For game shows wheres the Rich List, Deal or no Deal and Million Dollar Minute? I’m very surprised to not see the Glass House, Video Hits and Recovery under light entertainment.

  11. People want big brother back. That obviously says that even the last years was horrible, people would still be keen to tune in. I’m praying to god that it comes back next year. And not surprised Kath and Kim was the most popular with the comedies, I would love for Gina and Jane to make another series.

  12. Interesting. Totally agree with bringing back any of those light entertainment shows, because God knows Australia needs another Rove type show… Also I disappointingly had no idea that Upper Middle Bogan wasn’t coming back after season 2… Did I miss something?

  13. We went from having an embarrassment of cop shows to having none. I’d love Rush back with the original cast (obviously some won’t be able to return full time), but I’ll keep dreaming.

    1. Because they’re not essentially the same thing. Both those programs currently on have a mentor system where celebrities apparently guide the artists but often end up putting them in a box that’s not them. I miss the purity of Idol, artists performing songs that speak to them. It also came along before we felt we need to get international talent to judge these things. Consequently, the performers were the stars. Idol got my vote!

      1. I can see that you care about the difference but for casual viewers (and people who hate singing shows with a passion like me) it sounds like your splitting the smallest of hairs.

  14. > It’s sad that the audience wants Amazing Race Australia back considering not enough of them watched to make it viable
    Season 1 was excellent (internationally award winning), S2 was bad as channel 7 started to take control, S3 was embarrassingly terrible as c7 took over completely. People want a return to S1 quality, without any influence of c7.

    1. I somewhat agree with you. Season 3 was the worse of the 3, although it was still an ok season in the grand scheme of of things (ie the 30 plus seasons of the show that I have watched) and no doubt because 7 and not Active TV produced it. I have to disagree with your comments on season 2. That was my favourite season of any reality show ever (S2 was produced with Active).

      Also I feel like the main contributer to the reason why it didn’t succeed was timeslot. It’s a show that should air in the 7:30 slot.

  15. Amazing Race Australia always got short changed with its timeslot. Still want to see more. I think a new cop show would work. We’ve had country cops with Blue Heelers and city cops with City Homicide. How about something in between next time with suburban cops?

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