20 TV shows that returned from the dead

The original run of Night Court ended in 1994 with John Larroquette having several Emmys to his name for playing Dan Fielding. It returned in 2023. Many original cast members have passed away, so only Larroquette’s Fielding returned from the cast. Melissa Rauch steps in as Abby Stone, and the reboot has been relatively successful for a modern multi-cam sitcom.

The Simpsons has been around for decades, but Futurama was not able to stick around on FOX nearly as long. While it was a great show, it ended its original run in 2003. They released a few direct-to-DVD movies, which garnered enough interest for Comedy Central to pick up new episodes of the show in 2008. That run ended in 2013, but Futurama is returning again — this time on Hulu. Futurama may have the nine lives of a cat.

Will & Grace was a popular NBC sitcom that racked up a lot of Emmys, with the four main actors each winning one. After a brief reunion video to promote voting in the 2016 election, Will & Grace returned as a show in 2017. This reboot actually worked out quite well, as it lasted three seasons before ending again in 2020.

Hey, Roseanne was technically rebooted! The influential family sitcom originally ran from 1988 until 1997, and then the whole gang came back for Roseanne in March 2018. By May, Roseanne was effectively over because Roseanne Barr was booted from the show. However, since then, the continuation show The Conners has focused on the remaining characters dealing with the death of Roseanne, the character.

Here’s a reboot that didn’t quite work. Perhaps owing to Dan Quayle jokes not working as well these days? The initial run of Murphy Brown was definitely successful, especially for Candice Bergen, an Emmy darling. However, when the show was rebooted 20 years after it originally ended, it only lasted one season before getting canceled.

Perhaps the foremost of the continuation shows that have become more commonplace. We wouldn’t say Full House was good, and Fuller House was arguably even worse. That said, it hit on the idea of following the next generation of a family, with D.J. and Stephanie Tanner being the central characters in Fuller House, with their kids now the kid characters.

Here’s another of Netflix’s continuation series. That ‘70s Show paved the way for the careers of Topher Grace, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, and more. Now, we’re 20 years in the future, awash in ‘90s nostalgia, and Red and Kitty Foreman are the grandparents with kids hanging out in the basement.

It’s not like Law & Order didn’t get bang for its buck in its initial run. The show ran for 20 seasons, ending in 2010. It seemed like Dıck Wolf’s world had left the original series behind, but there was an itch to be scratched. Law & Order returned in 2021, setting it on a path to cross the rare threshold of 500 episodes.

A Year in the Life was always intended to be finite. However, it still counts as a reboot series. It was a chance to catch up with Lorelei and Rory a decade after the end of Gilmore Girls in 2007. The episodes were movie-length, but that's a good thing, given how much dialogue Amy Sherman-Palladino likes to cram in.

Mad About You was a very ‘90s show, which ran from 1992 through 1999. It was rebooted in 2019 on something called “Spectrum Originals” for 12 episodes. The idea was to deal with Paul and Jamie being empty nesters, which justified the reboot, even if most people never saw it.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 was not unfamiliar with finding a new home. It ended its original run on Comedy Central after seven seasons but quickly found a new home on what was then the Sci-Fi Channel for three more. Then, thanks to successful crowdfunding from show creator Joel Hodgson, two more seasons were done on Netflix, the first of which dropped in 2017.

David Lynch gave us two seasons of Twin Peaks in the early 1990s, plus a prequel film, which seemed like it would be the end of it. However, if a guy like Lynch has the itch to return to a past project, you might as well see what he’s got up his sleeve. Showtime gave Lynch a chance to do a third season of Twin Peaks, often subtitled Twin Peaks: The Return. Lynch didn’t phone it in, bringing us 18 episodes of true weirdness.

Genndy Tarakovsky’s Samurai Jack was a cult favorite on Cartoon Network for four seasons from 2000 until 2004. A critical darling, there was talk Tartakovsky would return to it, but he’s a guy who always seems to be working on stuff. However, we indeed got a fourth season of Samurai Jack on Adult Swim in 2017. Owing to its move from Cartoon Network to that network’s adult-oriented programming block, it was a darker take.

When the world needs two idiot teenagers, Mike Judge delivers. Beavis and Butt-Head was an MTV staple in the 1990s but ended its original run in 1997. The duo returned for one season on MTV in 2011, but once again, Beavis and Butt-Head just wouldn’t die. They returned on Paramount+ in 2022 with a 12-episode season and a second film, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe.

Saved By The Bell was a bad show, but it was a lot of fun. It ended in 1992 but continued to have a cultural legacy, mostly built on caffeine-pill addiction. In 2020, Peacock rebooted Saved By The Bell as a continuation series, with Slater and Jessie working at Bayside and Zack and Kelly’s kid being one of the main characters. The reboot was a winking, knowing riff on the original, calling out some of its sillier aspects. That only worked for two seasons, though.

Netflix has become synonymous with rebooting shows they didn’t have anything to do with initially, and that started with Arrested Development. The cult sitcom only lasted three seasons on FOX, ending in 2006 on a high note. Then, in 2013, it returned via Netflix. Arrested Development produced two seasons for the streaming service, which mostly…served to disappoint and alienate its diehard fans?

People, by and large, hated the ending of the initial run of Dexter. Lumberjacking was involved. As such, perhaps not show better justified being rebooted. Dexter: New Blood debuted in 2021, eight years after the show ended. Things ended a bit better this time, but there are murmurs that more Dexter might be on the way.

It wouldn't have made this list if they had just made the Veronica Mars movie. Even so, it was impressive that they managed to get a movie together to be released in 2014, seven years after the show ended. However, that wouldn’t be that. Veronica Mars returned to “television” on Hulu in 2019. It was only for one season, but fans seemed pleased with it.

This is an interesting one. The reboot of The X-Files was kind of…neither good nor bad? It’s hard to feel too strongly in either direction. What we do know is that after the show’s original run ended in 2002. David Duchovny’s Fox Mulder returned alongside Dana Scully in 2016 for the show’s 10th season. There was an 11th season in 2018, but that was the end of that.

Dallas was a beloved primetime soap, running from 1978 until 1991, and giving us touchstone moments such as “Who shot J.R.?” and Bobby Ewing popping up in the shower in an “It was all a dream!” twist. In 2012, the show was continued in 2012, bringing back some classic characters, including Larry Hagman as J.R. The continuation lasted for three seasons on TNT, which qualifies as a success in our book.