Five 90’s Franchises That Deserve Reboots

Power Rangers, Twin Peaks, and Duck Tales are just a few shows from the 1990s that are getting reboots or relaunches at some point this year. Nostalgia continues to be the hot hand in Hollywood, as movie and TV studios have discovered that the only thing better than coming up with a brand new idea is sprucing up an old idea with some new paint.

We here at ComicBook.com love our nostalgia, so here’s some great franchises from the 1990s that we feel deserve a second life in the modern day:

Darkwing Duck

Almost twenty years before they bought Marvel, Disney tried their hand at superheroics with the popular TV series Darkwing Duck. The series was a spinoff (of sorts) of Duck Tales, which ended just over a year before Darkwing Duck started. While the shows didn’t exist in the same universe, both Duck Tales and Darkwing Duck shared Launchpad McQuack as a bumbling sidekick of sorts.

The title character of Darkwing Duck was a pastiche of several different pulp heroes. Part Shadow, part Green Hornet, and part Batman, Darkwing was a fearless hero who occasionally let his big ego get in the way of saving his beloved city of St. Canard. The show was a fantastic satire of superheroes and other adventure genres and entertained both adults and kids for nearly 100 episodes. 

After Darkwing Duck ended in 1992, the series lingered in syndication for nearly a decade. Although it recently found new life as a comic book, Disney has yet to give Darkwing a second chance on television. With Duck Tales coming back later this year, it could be only a matter of time before Darkwing Duck gets dangerous once again. 

Ghostwriter

PBS teamed up with the BBC, Sesame Workshop, Sega, Nike, and several charitable foundations to create the popular kid’s series Ghostwriter in the mid 1990s. Ghostwriter starred a group of kids who solved mysteries with the help of a mysterious ghost that could manipulate text to communicate with his human friends. Kids loved Ghostwriter not only because of how it presented its educational content, but because the show presented longform mysteries that ran for multiple episodes. The kids didn’t stick to solving “harmless” crimes either, they often investigated more serious crimes like arson, drug trafficking, and even Internet hacking. 

Although PBS has shied away from rebooting old shows for new audiences, Ghostwriter never got a proper ending. The show was cancelled at the height of its popularity when its sponsors pulled out, meaning fans never found out the ghost’s true identity. It’s definitely time for PBS to pony up some of its own cash and finish Ghostwriter‘s story…before PBS’s funding mysterious disappears. 

Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Long before Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica were heating up the CW in Riverdale, another Archie Comics character was all the rage on television. Melissa Joan Hart, fresh off a star making stint on Clarisa Explains It All, played Sabrina the Teenage Witch for seven years beginning in 1996. Living with her two aunts and a talking cat named Salem, Sabrina learned that magical abilities didn’t make growing up any easier…especially when it came to love and figuring out one’s sense of identity.

Sabrina lasted for four years on ABC as the top rated show in its TGIF comedy block, but switched to the WB after a contract dispute between the network and the studio that produced the show. While Sabrina‘s ratings dropped when it switched networks, it lasted for three more years, following Sabrina through college all the way up to her wedding day.

We might not have to wait very long for a new Sabrina on TV. Riverdale producers have dropped several Easter eggs about Sabrina on the show and have openly said they’d love to bring her into the CW drama. 

WMAC Masters

Around the time that the UFC started to popularize the idea of fighters from different martial art styles competing to determine who’s the best, 4Kids Entertainment started their own fighting show…geared towards kids. WMAC Masters featured real martial arts experts using real fighting moves against faceless ninjas in a fictional competition. Basically, WMAC Masters was a real life version of a video game, complete with health gauges and a running live score. 

While the series had tons of great martial artists and fight scenes, the real drama was the behind the scenes storylines that focused around obtaining the Dragon Star, a trophy that symbolized being the best fighter in the world. Most of the fighters in the show were acclaimed stunt people, many of whom appeared in other TV 90s kids shows when not performing on WMAC Masters.

There’s still a premium for sports entertainment on TV, even if its not necessarily real. If the WWE and other wrestling promotions can maintain a steady audience, maybe there’s room for a WMAC reboot as well. 

ReBoot

ReBoot was one of those cartoons a bit before its time. The first 30 minute series to be entirely animated using CGI, ReBoot was set in the digital city of Mainframe, which was occupied by a set of sprites and binomes. Occasionally, the User (the owner of the computer that housed Mainframe) would start a game, causing part of Mainframe to transform into a gamescape. If the User won, anyone trapped within the game would get nullified and the city would suffer immense devastation. 

While ReBoot‘s animation left plenty to be desired, the writing of the show was top notch. ReBoot was one of those early series that balanced satire, slapstick humor, and serious storytelling. The show ended on a cliffhanger, disappointing a loyal group of fans. After almost 20 years of mostly radio silence, a Canadian television series moved forward with a reboot, with plans to film the series later this year.