Sequel
From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.
A Sequel is an unholy combination of two familiar devices used by show producers: the Remake and the Spin-off. In a sequel, most of the familiar characters from a television show, mini-series or movie are brought back to create an "all new show". (Occasionally, the characters are played by the same actors and actresses who originally portrayed them.). The "new" show's time and place are usually set as "Not too long after and not too far away from where the original show ended". The goal is to try and make a program that is something like the original program, but not exactly.
As a rule of thumb, most sequels have half the creativity, half the budget, half the energy and half the viewers of the original show.
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Notable Sequels
- The Cold War was a sequel to the extremely popular World War II; considerably less violent, The Cold War reinvented its predecessor, a seminal action-adventure program, as a psychological thriller, and recast the villain (originally played by the Nazis) with the wildly popular Godless Communist Menace.
- America's Funniest People followed in the footsteps of America's Funniest Home Videos, except with more, you know, sex and stuff.
- Superman II reinvented the original Superman with Richard Pryor as George Washington, and replaced original director Oliver Stone with George Clooney; the result was much less truthy than the original. Plans are now in the works for yet another sequel, to be called Superman III: Superman with a Vengeance. The new film will star Ronald Reagan, and will pick up on the story of the original Superman as if Superman II had never happened. It will be directed by noted philosopher and television arteur Joss Whedon.
- The Emmy Awards are sometimes wrongly identified as a sequel to the Oscars.
