Retool: Difference between revisions

Everything can be changed! Done for a variety of reasons, ranging from poor [[Ratings]] to [[Real Life Writes the Plot|someone leaving the show]] to [[Executive Meddling|network fiat]], but basically means everything (premise, casting, setting, tone, writing, general emphasis) can be "tweaked" to take the show in a different direction. Not everything changes; some retools are subtle, some not so much. Drastic retooling runs the risk of alienating the current viewership ("[[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|change is bad!]]"), if any.

 

 

In many cases a retool is needed because as it existed previously, there might have been very little room for [[Character Development|characters to grow]] or that the established rules hindered creative stories. In some cases, when the retool is so ''drastically'' different, you are asked to accept what came before in [[Broad Strokes]]. Quite frequently, a retool will include one (or more) [[Tone Shift|Tone Shifts]].

== Live Action TV ==

* This has been done several times in ''[[Alias (TV)|Alias]]''. In one episode during a later season, an overarching storyline is resolved, Sydney finally admits her love for Vaughn, and the show's premise fundamentally changes as a result.

** And it was [[Continuity Reboot|rebooted completely]] with the reimagining of the series which turned away from the [[Narm Charm]] of the original for a dark and twisted storyline with heavy philosophical themes and social-political commentary.

* Ironically, at the same time ''Galactica'' was being cancelled, ''[[Buck Rogers|Buck Rogers in the 25th Century]]'', which aired opposite it, was retooled to make it more like ''Galactica''. The second season of Buck Rogers was a departure from Buck and Wilma protecting Earth from evil. In the second season, Buck, Wilma, and Twiki were stationed aboard a research vessel, but their adventures were somewhat similar to the first season, though some of the main characters were replaced by others, like Buck's new sidekick, Hawk.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' introduced several new characters and a college setting, leaving most of the background characters from high school behind, after Angel, Cordelia, and Wesley left Sunnydale in the third season finale to create a [[Spin-Off]]. It was retooled again in the sixth season, emphasizing that Buffy had to take on the role of an adult now and there was no school at all.

** ''[[Angel]]'' was retooled after the first season, which was heavily [[Film Noir]] [[Occult Detective|supernatural detective]] style and became much more modern fantasy oriented. The fifth season showed a dramatic change with the main characters becoming the operators of their enemies' law firm at Wolfram and Hart, including near limitless resources.

** Even earlier then that, the show was retooled from an educational show to the scifi story it is today. Originally it was supposed to alternate between historical stories set in the past, and scientific ones set in space (which is why the first two companions were a history teacher and a science teacher). The beginnings of the shift appear as early as the second serial, and it was the popularity of the Daleks that led to the educational format (and most of the historical aspects) being abandoned in favor of pure Scifi.

*** Not to mention regenerating the main character at irregular intervals, with attendant changes of appearance and personality.

* [[The Electric Company]] is back and [[Dork Age|updated]] for the late 00s -- filled with rapping kids with superpowers fighting bad guys, [[Mind Control]] plots, and other elements that reek of [[Executive Meddling]]. Even Joan Ganz Cooney, the creator of ''[[Sesame Street (TV)|Sesame Street]]'', doesn't think it's all that good.

* The [[Channel Five]] soap ''[[Family Affairs]]'' had several retools. The first one [[Artifact Title|got rid of the eponymous family entirely]], and later ones were even more drastic. None of them seemed to help the ratings, though.

* Bob Newhart's third series ''Bob!'' was the story of Bob McKay, a greeting card artist who had a few decades earlier created a semi-successful comic book character called "Mad Dog". When Ace Comics offers him a chance to revive the book he quits the greeting card company and deals with the wacky people who work for the comic book company. After the first season the series was renewed, but in the first episode of the second season it is explained that Ace Comics went out of business and Bob crawled back to the greeting card company to get his job back there (and deal with the wacky people there). This version only lasted a few episodes before it was canceled.

* ''It's About Time'' was a series created by the creator of the then current ''Gilligan's Island'', and featured that show's slapstick approach. The storyline concerned two Astronauts whose space capsule goes backwards in time and lands in a time of cavemen. Storylines dealt with the astronauts bringing civilization to the local cavepeople, while at the same time trying to fix their spaceship. At the midpoint of the show's first (and only) season the astronauts manage to fix their ship and leave the stone age, only to find that two of the cave people who helped them stowed away on the ship, flipping the storylines to episodes involving the astronauts hiding the cave people from the government while helping them adapt to 20th Century life. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqzHLZuXRCo&feature=related The catchy series theme which explained the premise] was cleverly flipped and adapted to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07pPtYb0z80&feature=related this for the second half of the season].

* ''[[Suddenly Susan]]'' was a comedy about a career-minded woman who works as a writer with a local newspaper. During the jump from the third to fourth seasons, several characters disappeared (including Susan's boss, who she had previously admitted being in love with and a newspaper employee [which was caused by the actor who played him killing himself]), the introduction of a new boss and an overhauled office setting. This retool wasn't really motivated by ratings either, as they had stayed relatively consistent. However, the show was cancelled soon afterwards.

* ''[[McHales Navy]]'' moved to the Italian theater of [[WW 2]] in its final season.

* For its fourth and final season ''[[Hannah Montana]]'' [[Demoted to Extra|removed Mitchell Musso from the main cast]], moved the Stewart family into a bigger house, had Lilly come to live with them, and replaced the series' most-used outdoor set (a generic beach) with a [[Fictional Counterpart|mock-up of Santa Monica Pier]]. Along with these sweeping changes, the show was renamed ''Hannah Montana Forever''.

* In a very strange example, Goodson-Todman's 1967-69 [[Game Show]] ''Snap Judgment'' was changed for its last three months from a contrived word-association game to a direct clone of ''[[Password]]''.

* ''[[Bergerac]]'', the British cop show, had a bizarre final series in which the lead character relocated to France and became a private eye, to little consequence.

* Gritty police drama ''[[Between the Lines]]'' ended series 2 with a very over-the-top [[Cliff Hanger]], so much so that when it returned for series 3, the only way out was to reshape the show with the lead characters {{spoiler|no longer cops and all working as private detectives}}.

[[Category:Script Speak]]

[[Category:Retool]]