5 Best TV Sitcom Revivals
It’s a great time to love vintage TV. Not only can you stream almost every show, but a lot of the great shows are back with their original casts. Fuller House sort of started the ball rolling with other ‘80s and ‘90s TV sitcoms looking for a revival.
While fans of any show would consider their revival the best, Showbiz Cheat Sheet tried to take a more objective view. Here are the five best sitcom revivals, with an honorable mention for Night Court because it only has one original cast member but still follows the format successfully.
‘That ‘90s Show’ is the best ‘That ‘70s Show’ revival you could hope for
Thank the passage of time for this one. Just enough time has passed since That ‘70s Show ended, that a revival could literally be in another decade (and skip the failed That ‘80s Show attempted in 2002). It turns out, dial-up internet and Zima work just as well with teen comedy as Star Wars and Mad Magazine.
Most of the original cast at least returned for a cameo, and they wisely left out Danny Masterson. Kurtwood Smith and Deborah Jo Rupp are in every episode as grandparents now, but cantankerous and/or feisty as ever. Watch it on Netflix.
‘Punky Brewster’ was the TV sitcom revival ‘80s kids needed
Being a Punky Brewster fan in the ‘80s was rough. The show was always on the bubble at NBC, which back then meant it still lasted two seasons. And they made two more for syndication. They’re all in one place on Peacock now.
But when Peacock announced one of its original shows would be Punky Brewster, it was a beacon of hope for the Punky faithful. Soleil Moon Frye and Cherry Johnson returned and Ami Foster even showed up. Sadly, this revival only lasted one season, but it provided more closure than the NBC run ever did because it showed Punky as a mom herself now, and reconciled her story with her own mother.
Despite the drama, ‘Roseanne/The Conners’ was a great TV sitcom revival
The Roseanne Barr of 2018 wasn’t all that different from the Barr of the ‘80s. She was still brash and outspoken, but she also got political and tweeted her unfiltered thoughts without editing them. So when her self-titled sitcom returned in 2018, it was inseparable from Barr’s real-life persona. That real-life persona ended up getting the revival canceled, and Barr killed off in the spin-off The Conners.
The Roseanne that aired in 2018 wasn’t as abrasive. Barr brought back the Conner family in a show that reflected real-world issues like the job market, deployed spouses, and opioid addiction, walking a fine line politically and finding a reason to laugh through hardships. What’s done is done and The Conners were able to continue that without Barr.
The ‘Will & Grace’ revival was everything fans wanted
When NBC brought Will & Grace back in 2017, it wasn’t just a ratings bonanza. The show continued to rack up Emmy nominations for three more seasons, winning for cinematography and editing. Sicking Will (Eric McCormack), Grace (Debra Messing), Jack (Sean Hayes), and Karen (Megan Mullaly) on modern day was just everything we hoped for and more.
The ‘Saved by the Bell’ revival was the most modern sitcom upgrade
The other sitcom revival Peacock announced before its launch was Saved by the Bell. Known and beloved as a Saturday morning sitcom in the ‘90s, a lot of grown-up fans were ready to go back to Bayside high. Creator Tracey Wigfield’s take was the ultimate mashup of nostalgia and meta-commentary.
Turning Saved by the Bell into a single camera comedy allowed Wigfield to comment on the absurdity of the glossy sitcom shenanigans. Bringing in the perspective of students bussed in from an underprivileged school gave the show bold new stories, but the modern day antics of Bayside students, and catching up with the original cast, already gave them opportunity to do that.
Saved by the Bell only lasted two seasons on Peacock, but it accomplished so much in that time it even rewrote the legacy of Berkley’s film Showgirls.
