Feels like Déjà vu

Source

Well, for the older generations it’s déjà vu. The teenagers and young adults today never watched 90210, V and Hawaii Five-O. Of course, I am talking about the original versions of these television shows which aired in the late 20th Century. It seems to audiences that Hollywood has lost it- or has it? After all, the media corporations are in the money making business, and what better way to make money than to retell old and highly successful classics? With the exception of Melrose Place which miserably failed due to the bad acting and Bionic Woman which only lasted a season. However, in Bionic Woman’s defense, the writers' strike was going on at the time and caused the series to go on a short hiatus.

As well as rehashing old classics, Hollywood is bringing in successful UK based television shows such as The Office, American Idol (known as Pop Idol in the UK), Skins and many more. As previously stated, Hollywood has not lost “it”. Media firms need to minimize risk. To make money, they have to go with what they know and adhere to the rules of the game. There are multiple ways to minimize risk, like using well known actors and following genre conventions.

As you probably guessed already, another method which is becoming somewhat of a trend is the remaking of old hits and the adoption of successful television shows from abroad. Basically, remaking pop culture hits- popular culture here is defined as culture that is well liked and which is demonstrated through measurable commercial success.

In the case of bringing back the old classics, the target audience is not only the young generation such as the teenagers and young adults, but also the older ones. This is because they have already watched the original versions of the shows and are curious to know how the new ones are. Some of the new versions even feature story lines from the old version to make the audiences of the original versions keep watching.

Appealing to international audiences is another thing that the media companies want to do- this is part of the secondary market. When bringing in television shows from abroad, appealing to the international audience is not as hard anymore because the audiences abroad, from which the television show is originally based in, would simply watch the show out of sheer curiosity.

With the recreation of television shows, many elements have stayed the same- like the type of car the main character uses in Hawaii Five-O. However, things such as cell phones and laptops an other products, which perhaps were not used back then are being integrated into the shows to promote products (product placement) and this is producing a materialistic culture in the United States and it is promoting consumerism.

The recreation of television shows is sociologically intriguing because the cultures twenty, thirty or forty years ago and those abroad are significantly different to those currently in the United States. It would be interesting to study the different audiences and see how one television show affects different kinds of audiences and cultures.