TV nostalgia: 2000s shows making comeback
New York—In the early 2000s, television viewers first discovered “Malcolm in the Middle,” the hilarious tale of a teenager trying to survive the antics of his dysfunctional family.
Twenty-five years later, the “Malcolm” gang is back on Disney+, with nearly all of the original cast, including Emmy winner Bryan Cranston—part of a wave of revivals tapping into a public craving for cozy nostalgia.
The strategy is also a moneymaker for networks and streaming services, as tried-and-true content comes with minimal financial risk—and often huge fan interest.
From the Trojan War to Superman, “we’ve been continuing to take characters, universes, dramatic spaces, and repurpose them for a long, long time,” says Robert Thompson, a professor of media and pop culture at Syracuse University.
Streaming era
But the trend has soared in the streaming era, because “going back to properties that are already established is one way of avoiding a lot of potential risks in that,” Thompson told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“All of the millions of dollars that were spent marketing, promoting, establishing the brand of those things way back when they were on in the first place—those bills have already been paid.”
Beyond the rebooted “Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair,” medical sitcom “Scrubs”—which originally ran from 2001 to 2010—returned to ABC and Hulu early this year, with most of the original cast, including Zach Braff and Donald Faison.
In July, Amazon’s Prime Video will debut “Elle,” a prequel series focused on the high school years of Elle Woods, the pink-obsessed heroine played by Reese Witherspoon in the “Legally Blonde” films that debuted in 2001.
Not all of these projects come to fruition. Hulu opted not to move forward with a much-anticipated reboot of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (1997-2003), despite having a filmed pilot ready to go.
But Fox is relaunching “Baywatch,” the sun-kissed 1989-2001 series focused on California lifeguards that made Pamela Anderson a household name.
‘Comfort’
And some series that debuted in the 2000s, like “Grey’s Anatomy,” “NCIS” and “Law and Order: SVU,” are still going strong—with both new episodes airing on networks and older episodes figuring among the most streamed content each year.
So why are viewers, who are bombarded with content choices, going back to shows made a quarter-century ago?
For Sohni Kaur, who researched the subject while pursuing psychology and media studies at Scripps College, it comes down to good old nostalgia.
“I think this is a pretty common coping mechanism for a lot of people” to return to shows they enjoyed in their youth, Kaur said.
