TV: There's Nothing New Under the Sun

Craig T. Nelson from Coach (IMDB)

What may be new on TV this fall you've already seen. Sort of. It's deja vu all over again in TV land. Just this week, NBC announced that it had greenlit a 13-episode order of Coach, a new sitcom based on the old one but still starring Craig T. Nelson. The original show ran on ABC from 1989 to 1997 and also starred Jerry Van Dyke, Shelly Fabares,Bill Fagerbakke and Clare Carey. Although, no other cast members have been announced as of yet, the new show will pick up  18 years later with Coach Hayden Fox now serving as an assistant coach for his grandson. Original show creator, Barry Kemp, will also write for the new series.

Re-boots of favorite TV shows are nothing new of course, but rarely do they do well. Ironside, The Bionic Woman, Night Rider, The Munsters and even the current The Odd Couple with Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon have failed to connect with viewers while the new version of Hawaii Five-O has done well. 


However, the renewed series of Coach is part of an ongoing trend that is having some relative success. TV isn't just wanting to put a new spin on an old series. It wants to bring back the old series with its original stars. TNT brought back Dallas (which ended in 1991) with original cast members and an extended family in 2012, Fox brought back Kieffer Sutherland as Jack Bauer in 24: Live Another Day last year, Arrested Development with its entire cast came back for a season on Netflix and Disney Channel's revival of ABC's Boy Meets World, now dubbed, Girl Meets World, is shooting its second season.

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