Reimaging Classic TV Shows for the 21st Century

One of the latest trends in episodic television is to bring back classic TV shows and "reimagine" them, which usually means making them darker, edgier, and more modern. The technique has the virtue of a known brand name, but with the idea of original story telling.

Reimagined TV has worked pretty well for Battlestar Galactica, a campy show from the 1970s that has become darker and tenser in the 21^st Century. It did not work very well for The Bionic Woman, which was clearly brought out before it was ready.

So what classic TV shows would be a good fit for being reimagined for the modern age?

Combat: Combat was a drama about an American Army rifle squad in France during World War II staring the late Vic Morrow. The reimagined version would have to be set in Iraq or Afghanistan. And, to be entertaining, the project would have to be kept away from anyone in Hollywood with a political agenda, which is just about everybody. One possible solution. Recruit some War on Terror veterans, train them in the techniques of television writing, and then turn them loose.

Mission Impossible: The Sixties were filled with spy dramas, including I, Spy (with Bill Cosby as the first African American TV action hero), The Man from Uncle, and so on. But my favorite by far is Mission Impossible, a show about a team that used deception and misdirection to destroy the bad guys. The show underwent a new version in the late 1980s with Peter Graves as Mr. Phelps, the Impossible Mission Force head.

IMF would certainly be a great asset for waging the war on terror, nabbing up various terror masters, with the occasional drug kingpin, Mafioso, and corrupt politician to liven things up.