Don’t you just love the smell of reboot news in the morning? With every movie studio and television network digging into their archives for possible shows to reboot, make sequels for, or revamp, the folks at NBCUniversal are adding several more to their own pile with reboots for shows BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and SAVED BY THE BELL. The shows will be made for their upcoming streaming service – announced yesterday to be called Peacock – which is set to launch sometime in April 2020 (via Deadline).
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Details are sparse for the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, but the series will be overseen by MR. ROBOT’s Sam Esmail. The producer is apparently a huge fan of the other GALACTICA series, and word is the series was high on his list when discussing new projects with NBCU after solidifying a $20-$25 million deal with their Universal Content Productions. The original version of GALACTICA from creator Glen A. Larson ran for one season in 1978-79 but spawned all sorts of books, comics, games and more. The series was revamped by Ronald D. Moore for a more successful run for four seasons between 2004-09. Moore reportedly gave Esmail his blessing for this new take.
As for SAVED BY THE BELL, the original series ran for four seasons between 1989-92, and series stars Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez will be returning for this rebooted series. Along with Berkley and Lopez, the original series starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani Thiessen, Dustin Diamond, Lark Voorhies and Dennis Haskins as Principal Belding. No word yet on if any of the other cast members will return, but 30 ROCK’s Tracey Wigfield will be executive producing the reboot.
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This reboot news comes on the heels of news back in June that NBCU was working on a reboot of the show PUNKY BREWSTER with star Soleil Moon Frye reprising the title role. The show will find her as a single mom of three kids trying to get her life sorted out, and all as she meets a young girl who reminds her of her much younger self. The original series ran for four seasons from 1984-88.
So it seems NBCU is itching to get the nostalgia market back in full force for when their own streaming service launches. Not only are they bringing back these fan-favorite shows, but they're also getting back the streaming rights to THE OFFICE starting in 2021, a show which currently stands as one of Netflix's most popular. WarnerMedia will also be pulling the show FRIENDS from Netflix for their own streaming service, and of course, this all comes as Disney launches their own service this November and will begin rebooting some shows of their own. It would seem the winner of the impending Streaming Wars will be determined based on which network has the largest number of beloved shows to reboot in their library.