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With the Scrubs reboot now streaming and the Malcolm in the Middle revival just around the corner, it got all of us at Watch With Us thinking — what other fantastic 2000s sitcoms should get a second chance?
Sometimes, the end shouldn’t have to be the end for a fantastic, funny comedy.
Some shows were beloved but killed too soon, while others had more gas left in the tank. Series like Happy Endings turned into cult classics, and others like Schitt’s Creek are just the perfect warm, funny vibe that we could all use right now.
Without further ado, here are the five sitcoms we think should get a second chance treatment.
‘Community’ (2009-2015)
At Greendale Community College, an eclectic bunch of students form a study group, initially put together as a ploy for failed lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) to get closer to a student named Britta (Gillian Jacobs). But when more students than Britta show up to the study group, Jeff has to keep it going. The other students include pop culture obsessive Abed (Danny Pudi), high school football king Troy (Donald Glover), overachiever Annie (Alison Brie) and elderly millionaire Pierce (Chevy Chase).
Community won favor with critics at the time but struggled in ratings. And while it has developed a passionate cult following, its floundering to stay alive during the final few seasons was met with an infamous promise of “six seasons and a movie.” While the six seasons did, against all odds, come to fruition, a movie has not yet materialized (though it might enter production this year). Movie or not, the massive rise in fan popularity of Community should be enough to give it a second chance, even just one season, especially since the show suffered some major creative losses in the final stretch.
‘My Name Is Earl’ (2005-2009)
Small-time crook Earl Hickey (Jason Lee) finds his fortunes turning around for the better, literally, when he wins a $100,00 lottery ticket after losing it and getting hit by a car. While he recuperated in the hospital, he learned about karma and decided to change his life for the better — a sentiment only strengthened upon finding his lost lottery ticket soon after. Earl thus devotes his life to fixing all his wrongs and making good with every person he’s hurt. But his life is full of many flawed, interesting characters, like his ex-wife Joy (Jaime Pressly), her new husband Darnell (Eddie Steeples) and Earl’s dimwitted younger brother Randy (Ethan Suplee).
My Name Is Earl ended on a cliffhanger note with the conclusion of season 4 back in 2009, which frustrated fans. The show was well received by critics and audiences, but it was abruptly cut short, with the creatives still wanting to do more with the story and characters. According to Suplee, despite the show’s success, negotiations over money between the network and the studio fell through, and another season didn’t happen as a result. But we think it isn’t yet too late for Earl to turn his life around.
‘Happy Endings’ (2011-2013)
Dave (Zachary Knighton) and Alex (Elisha Cuthbert) were viewed as the perfect couple in their group of friends. But when Alex leaves Dave at the altar on their wedding day, the tight-knit friends splinter apart, unsure of whose side to take. Thankfully, the former lovers realize that even though their romantic relationship is over, they can still be friends. As Alex and Dave learn to navigate their new friendship, they have the rest of their group to help them out, including businessman Brad (Damon Wayans Jr.), his neurotic wife and Alex’s sister, Jane (Eliza Coupe), slacker Max (Adam Pally) and party girl Penny (Casey Wilson).
While it got off to a shaky start, critics began to see it as a true gem of a sitcom. Unfortunately, the ratings continued not to match the enthusiasm of critics, even as others kept shouting its praises as one of the best shows on TV. Since the show was cancelled in 2013, it has accumulated a fanbase who agree that it deserved far more than it got — Vulture dubbed the cancellation one of the worst TV decisions of the time. With its fan following and critical adulation, it feels like there’s no reason not to give this goofy gang another shot.
‘Freaks and Geeks’ (1999-2000)
Freaks and Geeks has become a poster child for the prematurely cancelled, beloved cult classic TV show. But back in 1999, it was met with little success in part due to an erratic release schedule, and was cancelled after only one season. The show followed the lives of Detroit-area high school students in the early 1980s, with Linda Cardellini‘s Lindsay Weir being our main protagonist. She joins a group of kids known as the “freaks,” made up of Daniel (James Franco), Ken (Seth Rogen), Nick (Jason Segel) and Kim (Busy Philipps). Meanwhile, Lindsay’s brother, Sam (John Francis Daley) and his friends Neal (Samm Levine) and Bill (Martin Starr) make up the “geeks.”
Created by Paul Feig and executive produced by Judd Apatow, Freaks and Geeks may have been overlooked at the time, but thankfully it’s come to be regarded as a classic high school comedy series, and it served as the jumping-off point for the successful careers of its then-unknown cast. Maybe Freaks and Geeks would be better off left preserved in amber where it died, but it feels like there’s untapped potential here. With Feig and Apatow still working, perhaps there’s a take on the series that could empathetically skewer the tribulations of Gen Z. We’re just spitballing here.
‘Parks and Recreation’ (2009-2015)
In the small town of Pawnee, Indiana, Deputy Director of the Parks Department Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) truly believes in the possibility of politics and is committed to making Pawnee a better place. But in addition to dealing with the town’s many eccentric personalities, she also has to contend with her colorful coworkers. There’s Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), her libertarian boss who doesn’t believe in government interference, her goofy, outgoing assistant Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari), antisocial intern April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), and concerned citizen Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones), a local nurse who wants to turn an abandoned lot into a community park.
From sitcoms and game shows to dramas and cartoons, the list of TV reboots and revivals is a long one. Waiting to Exhale and Conan the Barbarian are both films being made into TV shows, while Gilmore Girls was transformed into four seasons for its Netflix revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, which […]
Parks and Recreation enjoyed a very successful and popular run between 2009 and 2015, during which it accrued several Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe for Poehler. The show also had a perfect finale, so why would we want to bring it back? While the show did air a reunion special in 2020, we just think that the world needs a little more of Leslie Knope right now. It would have to come back for a genuinely valid reason, but the finale does imply that either Leslie or her husband Ben (Adam Scott) becomes president eventually. Wouldn’t that be a nice dream to exist in for a bit?
