9 TV Reboots Criticized by the Stars or Makers of the Originals
Yes, it must be difficult to put years of work into a TV show and then see a new version come along with new ideas, new cast members, and sometimes a totally different tone. When that happens, the old guard can sit back and let the reboot speak for itself, or they can speak their mind. Many people, it turns out, choose the latter… and choose not to mince their words!
One of the creative forces behind the original Shogun, for example, just trashed the FX reboot as “not entertaining for an American audience.” (Never mind that the updated version broke a streaming record with its viewership and broke an Emmy record with its wins.)
Here’s more about that trash talk and other TV reboot critiques from stars and makers of the originals.
90210
Beverly Hills, 90210 stars aired their thoughts about the reboot 90210 at a fan convention in 2024. Jennie Garth, for one, said she regretted guest-starring in the new version, explaining that she “didn’t know how to say no then,” per People.
Gabrielle Carteris, meanwhile, said, “I never wanted to [do it]. I was so shocked they were doing a new show. I was like, is it like, they long so much you’re just going to try to reinvent it over and over?”
And Just Like That…
Candace Bushnell, on whose column and book the TV show Sex and the City was based, said she was “really startled by a lot of the decisions made” in the reboot And Just Like That…
“You know, it’s a television product, done with Michael Patrick King and Sarah Jessica Parker, who have both worked with HBO a lot in the past,” Bushnell added in a 2022 New Yorker interview. “HBO decided to put this franchise back into their hands for a variety of reasons, and this is what they came up with.”
Battlestar Galactica
In a 2006 blog post on his official website, original Battlestar Galactica actor Dirk Benedict ranted about the rebooted version — and even blamed “feminism” for the gender-flipping of Starbuck, the character he played in the older series and Katee Sackhoff played in the update.
He wrote: “40 years of feminism have taken their toll. The war against masculinity has been won. Everything has turned into its opposite, so that what was once flirting and smoking is now sexual harassment and criminal. And everyone is more lonely and miserable as a result. Witness the ‘re-imagined’ Battlestar Galactica. It’s bleak, miserable, despairing, angry, and confused. Which is to say, it reflects, in microcosm, the complete change in the politics and mores of today’s world as opposed to the world of yesterday.”
Charmed
Charmed cast members old and new clashed after the reboot, pictured here, went into production. “I will never understand what is fierce, funny, or feminist in creating a show that basically says the original actresses are too old to do a job they did 12 years ago,” original Charmed actor Holly Marie Combs said in a statement in 2018.
Two years later, costar Rose McGowan said, sight unseen, that the reboot “sucks,” per People.
Cowboy Bebop
Original Cowboy Bebop director Shinichirō Watanabe told Forbes he couldn’t make it past the opening scene of the anime’s live-action adaptation. “It was clearly not Cowboy Bebop, and I realized at that point that if I wasn’t involved, it would not be Cowboy Bebop,” he said. “I felt that maybe I should have done this. Although the value of the original anime is somehow far higher now.”
Dynasty
Dynasty star Gordon Thomson didn’t hold back in 2017 when The Daily Beast asked about the updated version, seen here.“I have had a look at the new Dynasty, and I am appalled,” Thomson said. “What the f*** is The CW doing? It’s utter s***.”
He went on: “Why call it Dynasty? It’s nothing to do with Dynasty at all. It’s insulting. If the afterlife exists — it doesn’t, but if it did — [producer] Aaron [Spelling] would be having major fits in his grave. And the audience The CW is aiming for is going to think it’s s*** because it is such s*** that a cretinous 6-year-old would not be interested. It’s abominable.”
Good Times
Good Times actor BernNadette Stanis told TMZ in 2024 she was disappointed that the animated reboot, pictured here, wasn’t as progressive as she was led to believe it would be. “You have positive images generations before that, and then, all of a sudden, you see this?” she said.
Stanis also expressed dismay in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter around the same time, as she discussed her and costar Jimmie Walker’s voice cameos in the show. “I think that they did that because they knew what their show was going to be like,” she said. “So I guess they figured, if you put us in there, it wouldn’t look so bad or whatever.”
Shōgun
Jerry London, director of the original Shogun miniseries, told The Hollywood Reporter recently that the new version, seen above, is “not entertaining for an American audience.”
He elaborated: “It’s completely different from the one I did. Mine was based on the love story of Shogun between Blackthorne and Mariko, and this new one is based on Japanese history, and it’s more about Toranaga, who was the shogun. It’s very technical and very difficult for an American audience to get their grips into it. I’ve talked to many people [who] have watched it, and they said, ‘I had to turn it off because I don’t understand it.’ So the filmmakers of the new one really didn’t care about the American audience.”
True Detective: Night Country
True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto trashed the rebooted True Detective: Night Country, (shown here) while that fourth season was still airing in 2024, saying in Instagram comments that a narrative choice in the reboot was “so stupid” and that fans can’t blame him for the season’s storyline.
He also reposted Instagram posts that called Season 4 “a major downgrade,” “a massive f*** you to the previous seasons,” “a hot mess” and “beyond disrespectful,” as seen in screenshots shared by Uproxx.
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