Discussion AudienceAlienatingPremise / Film

Removed:

• The reason behind the failures of comedy movies based on old shows from The '70s to The '90s, like CHIPS and Baywatch (2017), is a no brainer. The self-aware parodies mock the original source material and at the same time try to appeal to their fanbases. Fans of the original series have no interest in watching the show they liked being ridiculed and non-fans have no interest in a movie about a show they know nothing about. Although this is not really something new, with the exception of The Addams Family no movie based on an old TV show has succeeded in making fans happy and been critically and commercially successful at the same time, and while taking a Deconstructive Parody route worked for 21 Jump Street, attempting the same for CHIPS and Baywatch had them seen as tired rehashes. Misaimed comedy (unlike Jump Street, the cheeky self-reference was annoying and the rest of the humor was disgustingly low-brow) didn't help in their favor either.

This seems to be a sweeping generalization that doesn't hold up. Other than the already-mentioned Addams Family and 21 Jump Street, there's also Starsky and Hutch, and The Brady Bunch for successful films based on sitcoms from that time period. Hollywood has been rebooting old TV shows for ages. Whether they succeed or fail depends on the specific factors in each case.