reboot

The homespun satire of King of the Hill endures in the hearts and minds of its audiences that it captured well over a decade ago. That’s part of why Hulu is tapping co-creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels and the original cast to revive the series after it went off the air in 2010 (Deadline). Another reason why is, as the coffers of networks and streaming services get shallower and shallower, the dependence on content based off of popular IP (i.e. adaptations, reboots, revivals) is only growing stronger, seemingly every week.

It’s kind of a stark irony and/or a shot across the bow towards completely original ideas for TV and movies that only yesterday, Hulu original series, Reboot, a show sending up the corporate obsession with capitalizing on nostalgia on any given programming slate, was cancelled after only one season (Variety). Sharp writing that recalled the sort of pacing of Arrested Development could have blossomed into a go-to binge series, but Reboot‘s creators and cast are now relegated to shopping the show’s second season to other networks and streaming services (because it wasn’t an instant, chart-topping breakout hit?).

While impressions of Hank Hill still resonate with Gen X-ers and Millennials alike and the two will justifiably be delighted at the return of Hill and his family, such a move by Hulu is just one flag of many that are signaling that original programming is going to be even rarer than it already is on major platforms. Again, this is a notion that Reboot skewers quite well between a power struggle between a father who created a hit multi-cam sitcom in the 90s, his daughter who is seeking to do a “very special episode” reboot of the show, and an in-over-her-head TV executive that is getting a crash course in comedy while in charge.

Life imitating art can be kind of cruel, no?

We have no doubt in our minds that the next Atlanta, an all-out label defying original series is out there, but we can only hope that some major network or streamer will take a chance on it. Don’t be surprised if we get to a point where some phrase like “Completely Original” becomes a selling point for a show or movie in the very near future.