The best and worst reboots in TV history

We start with “Futurama” because there’s an existential question to be asked here. When “Futurama” was on FOX it was a great show. It’s the second-best animated show in FOX history behind “The Simpsons.” Then, after it was canceled, it came back on Comedy Central…and then again on Hulu. Both times it came back it was…pretty good. So, is this among the best or the worst reboots? The reboot seasons were pretty good, and better than the “worsts” on this list. However, they are all decidedly worse than the original run.

“The Conners” is one of the best reboots, and it deserves a lot of credit for pivoting in the face of chaos. After all, the reboot of “Roseanne” started as “Roseanne.” It was pretty good, but then Roseanne Barr’s Twitter activity got her the boot from ABC and the show was reframed as “The Conners.” Perhaps the narrative necessity of killing off Roseanne gave the show some real thrust, as “The Conners” ran for 112 episodes and was actually surprisingly good.

“Murphy Brown” was such a ‘90s show. It loved an of-the-moment reference destined to age poorly. And yet, the show was a huge success and Candice Bergen won five Emmys for playing the titular character. They decided to see what it would look like for Murphy in 2018, with all the media and political changes that had occurred in the ensuing two decades. It was pretty bad! So much so, the reboot got axed after one season and like 500 Trump jokes.

The ‘90s teen sitcom version of “Saved by the Bell” is bad. Fun to watch, but bad. Fortunately, the 2020 reboot knew that and decided to have some fun with it. Bringing back some of the original cast, there is a meta quality to the Peacock version of “Saved by the Bell.” It doesn’t all work, and it was canceled after two seasons and 20 episodes, but it is way better than the original.

Here’s a reboot that brought back a lot of the original cast in roles both major and minor that absolutely didn’t work. The problem? Casting, and specifically modern child acting. They went a little younger with the kids on “That ‘90s Show,” but those kids also grew up learning the modern child acting style. That is to say, every line is melodramatic and barely sounds like an actual human being speaking. All the ‘90s references and Kurtwood Smith in the world couldn’t save it.

The “Frasier” reboot is getting credit, perhaps, for being better than we expected. Not nearly as good as the original, a true classic of the sitcom genre, but solid and watchable. With so much of the cast of the original NBC sitcom out of the picture, we were skeptical. Obviously, the show wasn’t the same. However, Kelsey Grammer still proved a fine Frasier Crane, and we got to see some Lilith and some Roz and some Bulldog, so we got by.

You know, the original “Full House” is also pretty bad, so maybe “Fuller House” should be graded on that curve. Okay, even doing that, “Fuller House” isn’t any good. The premise is nonsensical, the jokes hacky, the execution poor. It was nice seeing Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber back working, but otherwise, what a miss.

Kudos to the crew behind this show for really committing to being a continuation. “X-Men ‘97” is not just a reboot of the cultishly-adored ‘90s cartoon. It’s a continuation. Even though the show returned, now on Disney+, in 2024, it has the look and style of the ‘90s show. It was successful enough that a second season is coming in 2026 and a third season is in development.

Did you even know that they rebooted “Punky Brewster?” In 2021, Soleil Moon Frye reprised her role as Punky, now a divorced mother of three. Because, of course, when people thought about the precocious little girl from the ‘80s sitcom, they thought to themselves, “Man, I’d love to see her as a divorced mom.” The show made zero cultural impact and was canceled after one season.

Now here, the “iCarly” reboot met its audience where it was now in life. The original show was a Nickelodeon sitcom about a teenage girl with a popular web series. The “i” part of the title makes it clear this was a show that aired from 2007 through 2012. When it was a Nickelodeon show, it was watched by and large (hopefully entirely) by tweens and teens, but by the 2020s they were all adults. “iCarly” debuted on Paramount+ as a show about an adult Carly, who now has an adult life and does adult things. It actually found a way to do something different with the characters, and was a solid show for three seasons as a result.'

It made total sense to try and reboot “Mad About You.” They even landed on the right premise for it. Paul and Jamie are now empty nesters, their daughter having gone off to college. If there had been any heft behind that idea, though, it likely wouldn’t have ended up on the network Spectrum, which is something you likely never knew existed. It lasted a single season and made little hay of the potential the reboot had.

This is a fresh one, because summer vacation only got back in session here in 2025. “Phineas & Ferb” was a Disney sitcom about two stepbrothers and their friends having logistically infeasible summer adventures. It was a pretty good show, even for adults, because the expressed ethos of the creators was not to create a show for children, but simply to create a show that didn’t exclude children from the audience. The original run ended in 2015, and the creators seem to have internalized that the reboot would have a larger adult audience since the kids who grew up on it were now a decade older. To that end, it’s not so much that “Phineas & Ferb” is any less family-friendly, but it’s more ambitious, the jokes play to the top of one’s intelligence more, and it has lost some of the repetition inherent in shows for children.

“And Just Like That…” may not be the worst reboot (but also it might be!), but it is definitely the most exhausting. It’s exasperating. The characters are deranged. “Sex and the City” was never a show in touch with reality, but now it feels like a show written about aliens. That makes it fascinating, but also you feel dumber watching it.

You know, in this modern era, it’s nice to just get a solid, joke-laden multi-camera sitcom. When you get a new sitcom, it’s either a dramedy on some streaming service or some mockumentary on network TV. “Night Court” captured the essence of the original sitcom, though it wasn’t quite as funny. Melissa Rauch, a sitcom veteran, starred as Abby Stone, daughter of Harry Stone from the original. John Larroquette stepped back into the role of Dan Fielding, the show that won him so many Emmys he removed himself from competition. “Night Court” (that is, the 2023 revival series) ran for 47 episodes before being canceled, but it was a nice run while it lasted.

“Arrested Development” was a cult classic. The FOX run was great, and the fact it got canceled after its third season made it a cause célèbre. Sometimes, as we said, dead is better. “Arrested Development” was kind of patient zero to the whole reboot thing. Netflix brought it back, and excitement was high. Then, the fourth season was…okay, but messy. At least it was ambitious, par for the course for “Arrested Development.” Then, we got a fifth season. It had no ambition, no quality, and a truly horrendous series finale. Without a doubt, this has been the most-disappointing reboot to date.

Speaking of cult classics. “Mystery Science Theater 3000” had already moved plenty, from local Minnesota television to Comedy Central to the Sci-Fi Channel. Then, the show about a human and two wise-cracking robots riffing on bad movies ended. The birth of the internets allowed show creator Joel Hodgson to Kickstart a reboot of the show. It ended up on Netflix with a new host, new robot voices, new baddies, you name it. While Netflix wasn’t the best fit for it, the Netflix seasons of “MST3K” are good. We stress the Netflix seasons. Hodgson got another funding drive going for a self-produced, self-contained season. Let’s just say that it is perhaps poetic “MST3K” has seemingly ended with a season as bad as the movies the show spotlighted.x

Nobody is precious about the original “DuckTales,” right? Sure, if you grew up on it, you may have kind feelings toward it, but it was merely a pretty-watchable cartoon for kids. When it returned, that was essentially the case as well. However, the 2017 reboot had better animation and perhaps a better voice cast as well. Kids probably enjoyed it, and their parents could tolerate it, and in the end, isn’t that what matters with these shows?

This is a case where fans of “Heroes” may have said, “Hmm…actually…” The supernatural sci-fi drama came out of the gate strong, becoming a true sensation, but petered out. Maybe a reboot, one intended to be a one-and-done outing, would be a worthy capper. Alas, it was not. “Reborn” was more of the same, and just proved to be a shrug ending atop the previous shrug ending.

“X-Files” was all about Mulder and Scully, which became an issue when David Duchovny left the show. However, Duchovny came back for the reboot of “The X-Files.” While the two seasons and 16 episodes were a mixed bag, the original run was as well. That’s what happens with a show that does so much case-of-the-week storytelling. The reboot had a few great offerings, though, and that frankly made it worthwhile.

We’re ending with two positives, because why not go out on a high note? “Girl Meets World” succeeded where a “Fuller House” or a “That ‘90s Show” failed. Cory and Topanga, the power couple of “Boy Meets World,” now are adults with a child of their own. Look, it’s not some classic sitcom, but it was largely what “Boy Meets World” was but for kids of the 2010s. You have to judge these reboots on intent, after all.