10 NBC Shows That Deserve A Modern Remake

NBC has been one of the networks at the forefront of American entertainment since it got its start as a radio company all the way back in 1926. By the 1940s, it had pivoted to television and has spent the ensuing decades putting countless shows on the air.

While some have been definitive, one-of-a-kind hits like "Seinfeld," "Friends," "The Office," and "Friday Night Lights," many shows that viewers still love have come and gone over the years. It may be time to revisit some of them through the lens of society today. Maybe they were ahead of their time and deserve a second chance, maybe their premises are timeless enough to keep going, or maybe they were just that good.

Regardless, there are many old NBC shows that can and should work in the modern era.

What started as an unlikely "Diff'rent Strokes" spin-off quickly turned into one of NBC's highest-rated shows of the 1980s. Its premise — young girls growing into young women — is relatively timeless.

"The Facts of Life," which ran for nine seasons from 1979 to 1988, mostly followed Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) working as the dormitory mother at an all-girls school in New York. It also focused on students including Blair (Lisa Whelchel), Tootie (Kim Fields), Natalie (Mindy Cohn), and Jo (Nancy McKeon). The girls all came from very different walks of life and leaned on one another to navigate the many trials and tribulations of growing up.

A modern retelling of "The Facts of Life" wouldn't need much to get off the ground beyond another diverse cast of compelling women. The original show tackled the issues of the day, but the experiences of women have changed, and there are new facts of life that would provide great fodder for a modern retelling.

This detective drama ran on NBC from 1971 to 1978 and followed a mild-mannered Los Angeles homicide detective as he used his genius investigative skills and unassuming demeanor to solve crimes.

While police procedurals and detective shows are still a popular genre, the Peacock original series "Poker Face" has been described by creator Rian Johnson as heavily influenced and modeled after "Columbo." Thanks to that series and Johnson's immensely popular "Knives Out" franchise, the whodunnit genre is arguably as popular as ever. So, why not go back to the real thing with a modern retelling?

Sadly, Peter Falk, who brought the titular Columbo to life for the run of the NBC series and numerous made-for-TV movies on ABC, died in 2011. It's always a risky move to recast such a singular character actor who popularized an immensely beloved role. However, that doesn't mean it's impossible. If the formula for the show is strong, the loss of an actor who portrayed the main character is a hurdle that can be vaulted.

In the early days of NBC's run as a television network, Westerns were a very popular genre. Eventually, NBC hit it big with "Bonanza."

This show ran an impressive 14 seasons from 1959 to 1973 and followed the men of the Cartwright family and their lives on the sprawling family ranch called the Ponderosa, located near Lake Tahoe.

Set in the 1860s, this Western balked somewhat at the typical model of the genre and dealt less with gritty life on the open range and more with the family dynamics between the characters — a father and his very different sons from three separate marriages. While it may seem odd to reach for a show set in the past for a modern remake, hit series like "Yellowstone" and its subsequent spin-offs from Taylor Sheridan prove that there's still an appetite in the current day for these kinds of stories. As people look to go back to a time that's often considered simpler, perhaps the drama and quaint family dynamics of "Bonanza" would be a big hit today.

For many people, NBC's greatest contribution to the world of television is the procedural police drama — namely those by acclaimed producer Dick Wolf like "Law & Order" and the "Chicago" franchise.

What many may not know is that the modern police procedural actually got its start back in NBC's radio days with "Dragnet." Eventually, the show made its way to television in the 1950s, created by and starring Jack Webb as Joe Friday, a by-the-book detective with the LAPD. Each episode of "Dragnet" sought to show the ins and outs of police work and how detectives investigate and apprehend criminals.

That's why every episode began with a line explaining that the stories were "true." Many episodes were indeed based on real cases and real detectives. Simply put, the police procedural genre hasn't gone anywhere, and there has been no shortage of interesting crime stories in the years since the show went off the air. So, a modern "Dragnet" wouldn't be hard to get off the ground at all.

Largely considered ahead of its time, "Earth 2" premiered in 1994 and only ran for one season before getting the ax from the network due to low ratings. However, its subject matter remains very relevant in the modern day.

The story follows an intrepid group of desperate explorers who, like many, have fled Earth due to its environment being uninhabitable and a mysterious disease called "the syndrome" killing its children. With no hope of a reasonable future for humanity, and a government that's not willing to properly acknowledge the threat, our heroes make their way to a new, Earth-like planet far away in the hopes of finding a cure and a new life for the human race. Unfortunately, they quickly learn they're not alone on this new planet and must decide what they're willing to sacrifice to keep the species, and themselves, alive.

The show dealt with some very cerebral science fiction concepts in a pre-Internet era that maybe wasn't prepared to keep track of everything it had going on. However, in the days of streaming, recaps, online forums and more, "Earth 2" might be exactly the kind of peak TV experience every network, including NBC, is looking for to capture audiences' attention and become the next big hit.

NBC and Universal have been trying really, really hard for years to get some kind of connected universe going with Universal's library of classic monsters like, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Wolfman, and, of course, The Invisible Man. There have been numerous movies and even recent attempts to bring these characters to life alongside each other in film, but nothing has really stuck. For example, the 2017 film "The Mummy" was meant to launch a connected universe. Even the 2004 Van Helsing film was meant to be the start of a franchise. However, both projects flopped. 

Is it possible that film is not, in fact, the best medium for these characters? Could they work better as literal monsters of the week?

One good way to find out could be to dust off the 1975 series "The Invisible Man." The story is pretty straightforward — a scientist discovers the technology to make himself invisible, and nefarious people want it for themselves. And if the Marvel Cinematic Universe has taught us anything, it's that viewers will show up if you promise a decent crossover. Meanwhile, with horror like "Obsession" and "Widow's Bay" taking over the world of pop culture, maybe it's time to take this IP and actually do something with it — the incredible but seemingly one-and-done 2020 movie notwithstanding, of course.

For a litany of reasons, people need some fun, heroic, and family-friendly TV these days. If you'd like to check those particular boxes, it doesn't get better than the 1964 children's series "Flipper." The show followed a single father and his two sons as they lived their lives at a marine-life preserve in Florida. The youngest boy befriends a very loyal and very smart bottlenose dolphin named Flipper, who helps the family protect the local wildlife from numerous threats each episode.

The show often relied on the exemplary tricks that Flipper — who was actually a collection of various female bottlenose dolphins — could pull off to delight the young boys on the show and the viewers at home. The series was wall-to-wall family-friendly stories about growing up, taking on responsibility, and respecting animals. "Flipper" has undergone some revival treatments in the past, but nothing as genuine as a full-throttle TV remake with all the wonders of modern technology and humane dolphin training. 

ER is a classic that highlighted the personal turmoil that real-life medical professionals experience every single day. Many would call it near-perfect TV, and it's understandable if those folks believe you shouldn't touch the legacy of this show with a 10-foot pole. However, as anyone who works in a hospital will tell you, the work truly never stops. The lives of the people employed at the fictional County General Hospital have (in theory) been going on this whole time, even if cameras aren't rolling. So, a modern reboot of "ER" would essentially be revving up those cameras again.

Obviously, this idea would get viewers to check it out not just out of nostalgia, but it could share the pop culture spotlight with the immensely successful HBO Max series, "The Pitt," which basically took the formula of "ER" — not to mention one of its chief stars, Noah Wyle — and ran with it as countless other medical dramas have in the years since "ER" ended.

Why not give viewers one more dose of the real thing?

Fans of the original might love to see who still works there and how they deal with a new group of young hotshot doctors walking the halls of County General. It could essentially operate like the "Scrubs" reboot, only with fewer laughs.

Comedy legend Mel Brooks and co-creator Buck Henry set out to make a comedic parody of James Bond on NBC from 1965 to 1969. Well, the James Bond franchise is still around to this day. As a result, there are a heck of a lot of stories to lampoon from that genre through a modern lens.

The formula proved that it still has comedy potential with the 2008 film remake starring Steve Carell as the titular Maxwell Smart. Each episode of the original series follows the shockingly competent but somehow still inept detective as he deals with a new international threat on behalf of the government agency known as CONTROL. Through sheer luck and comedic elegance, Smart always manages to come out on top.

As long as there are spies and as long as Bond continues his adventures, there will always be something to parody, which makes a modern-day remake of "Get Smart" a (pun intended) smart decision for NBC to bring out for more missions. While this article was in production, news broke that John Mulaney may star in an in-development "Get Smart" cinematic relaunch, so at least one famous former "Saturday Night Live" writer agrees that it should come back.

More so than any other installment on this list, a modern remake of "The Golden Girls" runs the very obvious risk of failing to capture the chemistry and comedic talents of its original cast: Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty.

However, setting that risk aside for a moment, there's quite a lot about "The Golden Girls" that could still work in the modern day. At its heart, the show is about a group of women in their later years of life proving that they've still got moves to make. Well, a whole new generation of women have come of age and are ready to prove they're not done yet as well. So, the time is right for NBC to find a new group of women to show off what they can do. They'd simply need to find a cast who can scream from the hilltops — or in this case their Miami, Florida shared home — that their lives aren't over yet.

Sure, the casting would have to be nearly flawless, but once that criterion is met, the show is essentially a standard half-hour sitcom with no shortage of stories to tell from talented writers hungry for a place to tell stories about adulthood and life for women in America.