Thursday, July 29, 2010

Where’s the Originality in TV-Land?

Flashback to 1968 when a new runaway hit TV show exploded onto the scene. It was called Hawaii Five-0 because Hawaii was the 50th state and the show was filmed entirely in Hawaii. This was the first glimpse that many people had of Hawaii – a distant and exotic locale. Hawaii Five-0 brought it into our living rooms each week for 12 seasons, from 1968 to 1980, making it the longest running crime show on American television until Law & Order surpassed it in 2003. The original cast featured Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett, head of Hawaii Five-O, with James McArthur playing his side-kick Danny Williams, Zulu as Kono Kalakaua and Kam Fong as Chin Ho Kelly. Everything about Hawaii Five-0 was iconic including the theme song which is one of the famous and recognizable of all time and Steve McGarrett’s famous line every week to Danny Williams - "Book 'em, Danno".

Original Cast of Hawaii 5-0
Come September a “new and improved” Hawaii Five-0 will be returning to CBS. They are not calling it a remake they are calling it a “re-imaging”. If you put lipstick on a pig it’s still a pig, and this is still a remake. Steve McGarrett will be played by Alex O’Loughlin and Danny Williams will be played by Scott Caan. The theme song will be back and so will the line "Book 'em, Danno".

My only question is why? Aren’t these brilliant, creative TV execs paid millions of dollars to come up with new ideas? Is the best that they could do was to resurrect Hawaii Five-0? Personally I’d rather watch the reruns.

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