TV

Ten TV Shows That Deserve ‘Gilmore Girls’-Style Revivals

If you can't beat 'em, why not join 'em?

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Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life hits Netflix tomorrow, another contender in the age of revival television. From Fuller House to Girl Meets World, we’ve hit peak nostalgia territory, and old favourites are catching up with the next generation.

Revival, reboots, prequels and sequels are at an all-time high, dominating the big and small screen alike. And hey, if you can’t beat ‘em, why not join ‘em? Here are ten shows we’d love to see revived.

The O.C.


Teen TV these days involves facing the end of the world, being vigilante superheroes, in recovery, at the heart of criminal conspiracies, or battling the supernatural. The days of the straight-up teen soap seem to be over. So why not revive a short season of one of the best?

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The O.C. captured the imagination of a generation, invested in its characters, dramatic overtures, and the lifestyles of the (sometimes) rich and famous. A short-lived revival could feature old faves — indie music, beaches, Ryan/Seth banter, and the sort of general good vibes that the show revelled in. You could even wrangle a Marissa appearance as the ghost of Chrismukkah past. Hey, the show’s done worse.

Love My Way

Ringing in at 39 on Junkee’s own list of The 60 Greatest Australian TV Shows of All Time, Love My Way is Australian drama at its best — honest, gritty, and not afraid to explore toe-curling, tear-duct triggering topics. It’s grounded by being actually invested in the trauma and recovery of its characters — no small feat, in an era of television more interested in quippy one-liners and shock moments than slow-burning character arcs.

With only three seasons on screen, there’s still a lot to explore in the worlds of Frankie, Tom, Julia and Charlie, and a revival could show that there’s still room on Australian television for authentic, Sydney-sider drama.

Daria

With the benefit of being animated, a Daria revival might be the most likely on this list. You don’t have to worry about ageing actors, dated sets, or even story timelines. You can, for better or worse, pick up directly where you left off. And sure, Daria might be almost ten years old, but this series of teenage grunge and youthful disillusionment in the face of middle class America feels more topical than ever, and a valuable outlet for the anger and passion of the millennial left.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Will Smith might be too much of a movie star these days to make an appearance in a Fresh Prince revival (although he did recently perform the iconic theme song on The Graham Norton Show, proving that nostalgia knows no boundaries), but the show is more than deserving of one.

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Not only is it one of the few family sitcoms of the ’90s that still holds up, but it expertly tackles issues like class divides and race with humour and integrity; topics that are, like many things on this list, as in essential need of air time as they’ve ever been.

How I Met Your Mother

Can we please fix the finale? In any way at all? Please?

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Showrunner Nahnatchka Khan has since moved onto the excellent Fresh Off The Boat, just as the show’s star, Kristen Ritter has moved on to the also excellent Jessica Jones, but a short-lived revival of this entirely offbeat, and entirely original series could cement the show’s still present cult fanbase.

With its off-the-wall humour, and ingenious casting of James Van Der Beek as the best/worst version of himself, the show did away with conventional storytelling for something a little bizarre and a lot funny. You could revive this show with the actors in their seventies and eighties, and it would still work.

Smallville

Sure, Smallville probably outstayed its welcome during its initial run, but it’s hard to deny that Hollywood doesn’t seem to be able to get Superman on the screen in any sort of remotely compelling way; a strange fact, given the guy is one of the longest running and most popular comicbook heroes of all time. Recent iterations, including Henry Cavill and Brandon Routh, tended to interpret Clark Kent’s stoicism as coldness, his values as silly, and everything he stands for as a character diminishing in our established new culture of the anti-hero.

Tom Welling wasn’t a perfect Clark Kent, but he and the writers of Smallville, seemed to understand Clark, and know that understanding Clark was ultimately the key to understanding Superman. He was loyal, kind, broad-jawed and loving — all traits 2016 could certainly use a little more of.

Queer as Folk

Queer as Folk was a groundbreaking LGBTIQ drama for its time, and its legacy is felt in series like The L Word, Looking and the recent Eyewitness. The story which follows the (in hindsight, super creepy) relationship of an ad executive and his teenaged artist lover captured the imagination of a generation who wanted to see their stories on-screen.

Which is why that series finale, in true HIMYM form, got it all wrong. On the eve of their wedding, Brian and Justin, our central, endgame couple, decide not to go through with it. A series revival could see Brian and Justin finally down the aisle, or, hey, even just feature another few nights of dancing, drugs and Very Special Episodes for us to binge on.

Parks and Recreation

Sure, we got a glimpse of Future President Leslie Knope in the series finale, but in this trying time of turmoil, pessimism, disillusionment with political infrastructure and the rise of the alt-right, who better to bring a little hope back to the table than the most hopeful of them all?

A Parks and Recreation revival could be just what an audience weary from a Trump presidency needs, with Leslie Knope tackling the White House and, once again, forever and always, inspiring women in politics. Judging from a recent open letter from Leslie Knope, the writers seem pretty up for it.

Firefly

Is any even vaguely ‘cancelled-too-soon’ list complete without this? Joss Whedon might have made his mark on pop culture with Buffy and cemented it with The Avengers, but his short-lived series Firefly earned him a place in the heart of geeks everywhere.

Firefly had it all. Quips, characters, and conspiracies, gun fights in space, and romances you could get behind. The show already had a sort-of revival with a film and a few comicbooks, and sure, the stars are a little older, and many have gone on to make names for themselves in hit dramas like Homeland, Suits and Castle, but just like Wash in Serenity, we’ll be going down with this ship.

Sophie Overett is an Australian writer and cultural producer. Her writing has been published in journals and anthologies around the world. She is one half of Lady Parts, a podcast about women’s roles in genre cinema, and blogs at www.sophieoverett.com.