NBC/House Creator Hellbent on Bringing Remake to TV

NBC and House creator David Shore want to redo the television classic The Rockford Files.

Now, if you've ever read my blog, you know how I feel about remakes, so you can probably guess what my reaction to this news is.

I mean, yes House is basically a police procedural with a medical setting featuring an eccentric genius lead detective and his subordinates (with a police captain that doesn't like how his team breaks the rules, despite the results), so in theory, redoing a show centered on a private detective ex-con often working at odds against the police might work. Again, in theory.

In practice, I don't think it will. James Garner made that role and he brought a lot of the same qualities to it that made Maverick such a success, and it is one of the centerpieces of 1970's television for me.

And you would have thought that NBC would have learned their lesson from the disastrous reboots of The Bionic Woman and Knight Rider, and ABC's failed attempt at bring back Dragnet.

Yes, Battlestar Galactica was a huge success. But that was like discovering gold on your property after all the oil has run dry... how often does the same property yield treasure twice.

I am not adverse to a new series being put on the air about a private investigator with a criminal past... I just don't like the idea of such a series trading on the cache of The Rockford Files. I guess I am weird like that.

Tags: house, nbc, david shore, dragnet, knight rider, bionic woman, james garner, private investigator, remake, gold, oil, ex-con, maverick