Full Description
Remakes are pervasive in today's popular culture, whether they take the form of reboots, "re-imaginings," or overly familiar sequels. Television remakes have proven popular with producers and networks interested in building on the nostalgic capital of past successes (or giving a second chance to underused properties). Some TV remakes have been critical and commercial hits, and others haven't made it past the pilot stage; all have provided valuable material ripe for academic analysis.
In Remake Television: Reboot, Re-use, Recycle, edited by Carlen Lavigne, contributors from a variety of backgrounds offer multicultural, multidisciplinary perspectives on remake themes in popular television series, from classic cult favorites such as The Avengers (1961-69) and The X-Files (1993-2002) to current hits like Doctor Who (2005-present) and The Walking Dead (2010-present). Chapters examine what constitutes a remake, and what series changes might tell us about changing historical and cultural contexts—or about the medium of television itself.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Carlen Lavigne
Part I: Debates and Definitions
1.Interrogating The Walking Dead: Adaptation, Transmediality, and the Zombie Matrix William Proctor
2.A Remake by Any Other Name: Use of a Premise Under a New Title
Steven Gil
3.The Nostalgic Revolution Will Be Televised
Ryan Lizardi
4.Multiverses and Multiversions: Meditations on the Rebootings of Fringe
Heather Marcovitch
5.Look—(Stop Me If You've Read This One) But There Were These Two Spies: The Avengers Through the Swinging 60s
James W. Martens
Part II: Remakes and the American Cultural Moment
6.Once Upon A Time in the 21st Century: Beauty and the Beast as Post-9/11 Fairytale
Carlen Lavigne
7.Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Romney Lost: Politics, Football, and Friday Night Lights
Matthew Paproth
8."These Aren't Your Mother's Angels": Feminism, Jiggle Television and Charlie's Angels
Cristina Lucia Stasia
Part III: Exploring the Remake
9.Forbrydelsen, The Killing, Duty, and Ethics
Karen Hellekson
10."I Was Hoping It Would Pass You By": Dis/ability and Difference in Teen Wolf
Kimberley McMahon-Coleman
11.That Haunting, Eerie Return: Narrative, Genre, and Iconography in Dark Shadows and Dark Shadows: The Revival
Lorna Piatti-Farnell
12.Smart, Sexy, and Technologically Savvy: (Re)Making Sherlock Holmes as a 21st-Century Superstar
Lynnette Porter
13.Remaking Public Service for Commercial Consumption: Jamie's School Dinners Comes to America
Helen Thornham and Elke Weissmann
14.Who are we? Re-Envisioning the Doctor in the 21st Century
Paul Booth and Jef Burnham
15."More Village": Redeveloping The Prisoner
Peter Clandfield
Contributors
Index
