It seems like almost every classic 90’s television show is being reinvented for our grown-up enjoyment. In 2015, we got the return of The Muppets, Heroes, X-Files, and Twin Peaks. The biggest television news of 2016 has been the continued rebooting of some of our favorite shows.
Full House is getting a sequel called Fuller House, and Gilmore Girls is making a comeback, too. We were even blessed with a mini reunion of the Friends cast last week, minus Matthew Perry. Fuller House aired on February 26th on Netflix. The hype for the show was big, and when it was finally released, America fell in love.
We were reunited with our favorite characters once again, this time all grown up. We were excited to see the sisters DJ and Stephanie reunited, happy to see Kimmy Gibbler inside the house once again, and fell in love again with the role models of our childhood-Danny, Uncle Joey, and Uncle Jesse.
We were even introduced to some new characters, such as DJ and Kimmy’s children, who we immediately welcomed into the family as well. A couple days before, on February 21, we were blessed with a small Friends reunion.
Although the TV special was actually a celebration for James Burrows, who directed 1,000 episodes, the special was advertised centering on the reunion of cast of Friends, minus Matthew Perry who was out of the country (but still provided a video clip of himself).
Many other television stars were in attendance, such as the cast of Frasier and Two and a Half Men, but the hype was all for the Friends stars. And, yet, the Friends only spent a couple of minutes speaking together on stage, the same time allotted the other stars-they were not treated any different, yet the excitement was all for them.
Pretty soon, Gilmore Girls has been rumored to be coming back as a reboot on Netflix, as well. With all these reboots and reunions, 2016, so far, has been quite a year of nostalgia of our favorite television shows, especially for us millennials.
We grew up watching these shows, and are stuck with a lot of television shows these days that do not live up to the standards of shows like Friends or Gilmore Girls. We miss the innocent and fun-loving TV shows that went more than a couple of seasons before burning out.
Now, finally, we have been given a couple of our favorite shows back. The nostalgia factor, however, is felt different ways by the viewers who are watching Fuller House and those who tuned in to the Friends cast reunion.
Some people find Fuller House to be a delight because it contains a lot of nostalgia from the original series, while others find it to be only funny for the nostalgia, and not a good TV show other than that.
Most people were upset with the James Burrows special when it was advertised that the Friends cast would be reunited, yet it was a trivial event in the end. I stand in the middle of these two opinions on the nostalgia factor. While it is always nice to see my favorite characters reunited, I cannot see Fuller House or Gilmore Girls being popular for too long.
Because Fuller House is revolving their show heavily on nostalgia from the original series, I feel that the show could burn out quickly. I was also among the many people who were upset at the insignificant reunion of Friends. I was excited for months as it was advertised, but when it was aired, I was disappointed that they were not treated as big as the advertising said they would be.
Of course, it would not be fair to give special treatment to one of Burrow’s shows over the other, but the advertisement played on my nostalgia, and I was let down in the end. Maybe I am wrong about Fuller House failing in the end. Maybe it, and Gilmore Girls, will be bigger hits in the long run.
However, I do still demand a Friends reunion to make up for the disappointment.
Jill Augustine
Deputy Viewpoints Editor
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