TV shows about families we'd like to see get rebooted

“The Adventures of Pete & Pete” was the best show Nickelodeon ever produced. It wasn’t merely a good sitcom that appealed to kids. It’s legitimately a good show. Now, much of the main cast didn’t really become adult actors, and unfortunately, some of the cast have passed on. However, both Petes and Artie could be there! What if the Wrigley brothers were now suburban dads?

They actually tried to make a slightly older version of the Clarissa show about her internship at a newspaper. Also, in the 2010s, they did try to do “Clarissa is a mom now,” but the pandemic may have nixed that. They could try it again, though. Plus, we could see what kind of dad Ferguson is as a point of comparison.

Granted, Tim Allen has essentially done two sitcoms where he plays updated takes on Tim Taylor, also known as “The Toolman.” He’s even brought actors from “Home Improvement” onto those shows. Why not just return to Detroit and, we don’t know, have Tim and Al doing a YouTube show? “Tool Time” on TikTok? Perhaps!

The premise of “3rd Rock,” a silly sitcom that’s still quite good thanks to stellar performances, is that four aliens come to Earth and pose as a family to study humans. At the end of the original series (spoiler incoming), they head back to their home planet. What if the Solomons returned in 2026, though, and found themselves in a world with social media and dating apps and the like?

This time, the Winslows can be at the center of things. Famously, “Family Matters” was a sitcom about the Winslow family, until one day in season two, the neighbor Steve Urkel came by. The rest was history. Reboot “Family Matters” and push Urkel to the margins. Or, you know, make the show about Urkel and his kids. That would also work.

“King of the Hill” showed us you can reboot an animated show and have it still feel like time has passed. “Doug” would be a great choice for doing that. Doug Funnie was an everyman as a boy, and now he can be an everyman as well, a man. Is he still in Bluffington? Is he married to Patti Mayonnaise? What’s Roger up to? Let’s find out.

“The Middle” only ended in 2018, but we can get the ball rolling. Maybe the show returns in 2028? The show focused on a working-class family, not poor but certainly not financially secure, comprised of two parents and three quirky kids. Now, the series finale did feature flash-forwards at the end that they might have to live up to, in theory. However, “Roseanne” completely undid its series finale to reboot, so we’re not worried.

In “Sister, Sister,” twins Tia and Tamera Mowry played, well, twins. Twins who had been separated at birth and found one another, to be fair. The show then becomes about their adventures as identical twin sisters. Obviously, one of them needs to have triplets now. Or not. “Sister, Sister” would likely be about the twins as moms, though. Maybe they could call it “Mother, Mother!”

“Step by Step” is essentially an updated “Brady Bunch” for the ‘90s. It’s about two single parents with three kids who get married. At least in this case, it being the ‘90s, one of them could be divorced. The mom is still a widow, though. Another difference is that the kids are mad about the marriage, at least at first. All these years later, with six kids likely having their own relationship drama, there’s plenty of fodder for a reboot.

Yes, Alan Thicke is dead. And yes, Kirk Cameron is Kirk Cameron. There’s still room for a “Growing Pains” reboot. Of course, in the seventh season of the original run, Leonardo DiCaprio was added to the cast. Obviously, the call is clear: Leonardo DiCaprio needs to return to star in a reboot of “Growing Pains.”

The fact that “Raising Hope” was canceled after four seasons may not bode well for the chances of a reboot, but it was an underrated sitcom. Jimmy Neff is left to raise a baby, with the help of his parents, after a one-night stand…with a serial killer later sentenced to death. The show debuted on FOX in 2010, and it’s not like Hope aged with perfect adherence to the calendar. That is to say, a reboot could easily be about Jimmy raising his teenage daughter. Perhaps he will even have eight simple rules.

“Married…with Grandchildren.” Unfortunately, Christina Applegate has health issues that would likely prevent her from being a regular part of the cast of a “Married…with Children” reboot. Also, the “shock value” of the show’s humor would seem less impactful now. However, when you have a chance to have a sitcom with Ed O’Neill and Katey Sagal in the cast, it’s a good idea to take that chance.

Puppets never age. ALF returned for a talk show. He could certainly check back in with the Tanner family. Maybe, you know, everybody would be recast, but that’s fine. Mostly we want to see ALF, a lover of television, engaging with the internet.

Okay, “Black-ish” ended even more recently than “The Middle.” We aren’t saying these family sitcoms should be rebooted tomorrow, necessarily. In a few years, though, checking back in with the Johnson family would make sense. After all, neither spinoff of “Black-ish” worked all that well.

“Major Dad” was your classic high-concept sitcom of yore. A hard-charging military man falls for a liberal journalist and moves in with her and her three daughters. The titular dad would be retired by this point, but this is a chance for your classic “Fuller House”-style gender-swapped reboot. One of the daughters could be Major Mom.

We wanted to get one dramatic show in the mix. Or dramedy, as it were. “Parenthood” is loosely based on the movie of the same name. It was from the era of tearjerking family shows in the 2010s. Now, over a decade has passed since the show ended. Plenty of big and tragic events happened during the run of the show, but it’s TV, so that doesn’t have to stop being the case.

Truly, this is one where we are planting a flag for the future. “The Righteous Gemstones,” Danny McBride’s show about a family of televangelists, only ended in 2025. We’re already envisioning a return to spend more time with the Gemstone family. Everybody can take a break, and some new stories can be cracked. Then, down the line, McBride and company can get back to it with some more stories in a few years.