Why must television shows end? Why can’t they go on forever and ever and ever? Well I was talking to my friend Jim the other day and we were talking about shows we want to bring back, and it got me thinking about how I’d bring back some of my old favorites. Here are some of my ideas, and note that they’re not remakes or reboots, they’re continuations. Just keep in mind, it’ll have spoilers for how these shows ended.
Show: Alias
Format: Jennifer Garner is a must, but I just don’t see her coming back for a weekly series. So I think a Torchwood: Children of Earth type five night miniseries would be perfection.
Premise: Last we saw them, Sydney and Vaughn were living happily ever after on some beach somewhere. I think it’s gonna take something major to bring them out of retirement, and unfortunately, as much as I like Dixon, I think his death would be just the thing we needed to get our superspy couple out of retirement. The conspiracy would start off small, but soon it would be revealed that Rambaldi and the Alliance were behind everything. And maybe – just maybe – Irina Derevko could be brought back so she could get a better send off than what we got in the original series finale. Oh, and no, their kids would not get kidnapped, or anything stupid like that. They’d be at the babysitters and never seen.
Show: Veronica Mars
Format: Made-for-TV or direct to DVD movie. I just don’t see anyone authorizing the budget needed for a theatrical movie or a completely new series.
Premise: Okay, so Veronica only stayed at Hearst for a year before going someplace else and finishing college then joining the FBI. She can even make a snarky comment about how much Hearst sucked, because let’s face it, Season 3 just wasn’t nearly as good as the others. I’m gonna say that Veronica hasn’t been back home in 10 years, and the thing that gets her there is the abduction of her father. What would happen then is a cooler version of The Da Vinci Code, where we find out her father was caught up in some crazy case, and he left behind a trail of clues for Veronica to find. Since it’s Veronica Mars, all the clues are hidden with pop culture references and Veronica and her new FBI world is forced to blend with her old Neptune life in order to find her father and stop the bad guys.
Show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Format: This ones a bit trickier to call because they’re writing the Season 8 graphic novels (I’m on Volume 2 so far, and they are awesome!) and we still don’t know how it’s all gonna end, so I’m thinking a standalone movie is the way to go. Preferably a $200 million production.
Premise: The graphic novels are canon, so we need to acknowledge them to a certain extent, but I wouldn’t want the movie to just be a recreation of them, so it would have to take place after Season 8. And since we don’t know how they end, I’d just like to say that as much as I enjoy the idea of an army of slayers, I’d want Buffy to be the only slayer again. There’s just something about that core group of actors and characters that is just so much fun watching them literally take on the world, and I think an army of slayers would take away from that. They’ve already faced the First, so what could happen that would warrant a movie? I’m thinking something biblical in nature. Buffy and the Scoobies vs. God! And God and the Devil will be played by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Show: Strangers with Candy
Format: Strangers with Candy was made for short nonsensical episodes. It just doesn’t work in the longer format as seen in the Strangers with Candy movie, which was just okay. I think another season of 10 to 20 half hour episodes are just what the stranger doctor ordered.
Premise: Why mess with a good thing? Jerri Blank in high school being taught and trying to teach life’s lessons. What else do you need? And I think there have been enough changes in life (iPods, Facebook, etc) that there would be plenty of fodder for Strangers to tear apart. Oh, and I don’t care if he’s busy, Steve Colbert is a must.
Show: Battlestar Galactica
Format: No need for a new series, or big screen movie. I think a SciFi SyFy movie and DVD release just like they did with The Plan would be perfect. Except not The Plan, because that sucked.
Premise: I’m not crazy about the post series movies that just fill in gaps, but there is one big gap I would like filled. Wink. I want the story of the original Earth and the Final Five Cylons. Essentially the first Earth was a planet full of skin jobs who created their own cylons who overthrew them. Tell us that story. Tell us about the war between skin jobs and cylons. Tell us about the Final Five creating resurrection technology. Tell us about their journey to the 12 colonies, and their creation of the other eight skin jobs. Fill that gap!
Shows: Pushing Daisies, Firefly, Arrested Development
Format: Weekly series and more Firefly movies.
Premise: Everything stays exactly the same, and we all act like their previous cancellations were just a bad dream.
What show would you bring back, and how would you do it?
What? She is still around? I just assumed that a strong breeze had swept her off her feet and carried her to magical land where she was accepted as a member of the clan of the stick people who toil under the oppression of the evil queen who created them from pieces of firewood bound together with black widow silk and forgotten dreams…
…I have no idea what I am saying; it is too freaking early on Monday and my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet.
Ohhhh, you know *exactly* what you’re saying.
Why do you think I used the word “haunting”? 
It doesn’t help that she’s now a frighteningly-aging stick person who plays a nutzoid Republican with a perpetual frown and the personality of Anne Coulter. 
!!!
Justin: All of the above. I moved back to New England 5 years ago. I miss a few friends, the city skyline at night, the symphony and opera, and Penn Mac. That’s about it.
Mel — Really? You don’t miss the Botanical Gardens (there was a wonderful Chihuly installation there when we went in 2007)? Neighborhoods with names like Squirrel Hill or Shadyside? All the restaurants and cafés and stores on Walnut Street and Ellsworth Avenue, such a wonderful, walkable neighborhood? (We were staying at a B&B on Nageley Ave and got a good sense of the neighborhood.) Caliban Books and all the other stores and cafés and stuff on Craig St down around CMU? All the other antiquarian bookstores peppered around the city, including a couple of great ones in the Southside Flats? The incredibly dramatic view when you drive from the airport and come out of the tunnel and the skyscapers look like they’re suspended over a canyon where the rivers meet? The almost-San-Francisco-like hills?
Granted, I never want to live in the midwest again (and I kind of consider Western Pennsylvania the eastern edge of the midwest) — I love being near the ocean too much, and I love the depth of history that New England has, and the church steeples and town greens and “suburbs” that are older than the USA. But if I had to live in the midwest, I’d probably pick Chicago first and Pittsburgh second, and it would actually be a tough choice between them.
Hey Craigers – you may get your wish on the BSG front.
From the Hollywood Reporter:
“More interesting is that Stern also told THR that Syfy is interested in yet another Battlestar show, saying ‘We’re looking for other ways to spin off ‘Battlestar’ beyond ‘Caprica. That world is so rich. We’re sitting down with (executive producer) Ron Moore and his team. It would not necessarily be a traditional series.
Stern also told THR that the new BSG spinoff would “mark a return to the franchise’s space-opera roots. It seems that the first Cylon war might be a possible place to start.”