Let’s start with the obvious example: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Note the disappointed Ned Flanders and Homer Simpson in the thumbnail. Enough said.
There has been an apparently corporate-mandated chain reaction of networks responding to one another by adding intensely controversial elements and episodes to in-production shows since 2017, which was more pronounced in 2019 and the early 2020s. There has also been more of a market for reboots of “retro” shows (i.e. The Magic School Bus, Animaniacs, and Tiny Toon Adventures) since then. The show often gets canceled because of the network’s losing interest, controversy, and financial problems.
Sadly, the current producers will figure out a way to ruin the experience for everyone. Therefore, one really shouldn’t wish for a beloved show to be back on TV and producing ongoing episodes, unless there is a rare instance where the current producers and showrunners do not negatively change it. One must be careful what they wish for.
Here is a timeline listing how reboots of iconic shows began to rot from questionable writing decisions:
2020: Some people who worked on the Animaniacs reboot were supportive of non-binary Wakko. Some staff played along, and others seemingly didn’t, as nothing happened on the new episodes themselves (where Wakko is quite clearly a boy), hinting at internal politics with Warner Bros. This show was canceled in 2023.
2023: Tiny Toon Adventures is rebooted as Tiny Toons: Looniversity, which is about the classic Tiny Toons as college students. Sweetie Bird is confirmed to have two mothers. The new student, Renaldo Raccoon, is gay. The show was canceled in 2025.
2023 (again): Me and/Playdate with Winnie the Pooh is a Disney Jr. show about the classic Pooh characters as children. There is a female rabbit character who is uncannily similar in appearance to the previous “Pooh movie” Rabbit if he were younger. Hopefully, she’s an unrelated rabbit who just looks alike. The traditional Pooh movies are light-years (yes, a Disney pun) ahead of this confusion.
2024: The Arthur Podcast is a reimagining that supposedly keeps up the legacy of classic, pre-2019 Arthur (PBS show, not 1980s movie) and showcases a podcast recreation of the much-maligned “Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone” with a few changes and backstories. For instance, Ratburn’s “friend” Patrick was framed as his secret admirer.
Incidentally, Patty (Ratburn’s big sister) was originally voiced by Jane Lynch, but in the podcast reconstruction, they changed Patty’s voice actress to someone else as celebrity guests are a one-time only thing and they couldn’t afford to pay Lynch’s royalties again during the final year PBS (including the Boston affiliate that produced Arthur Podcast, GBH) attained federal funding.
PBS always claimed that Arthur and, by logical extension, The Arthur Podcast, teach social-emotional skills (i.e. problem solving, friendship, responsibility, good sportsmanship) and get young children excited about reading. They were actually hiding the more sinister goal: indoctrination.
As a result, it is a good thing when beloved shows are no longer producing new episodes and get cancelled before new management can ruin the show. One can take a blast to the past and enjoy many longer-lasting, older shows made in the 1990s or early 2000s. The original Animaniacs made new episodes from 1993-1998. The classic Arthur episodes were released from 1996 to 2018. The original Star Trek was from the 1960s.
The cutoff point for family-oriented media is often 2019 and the 2020s, with mostly conservative and Christian streaming services being the exception to the rule.
The culture doesn’t take a day off—and neither do we.
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