11 Planned TV Reboots & Revivals That Never Made It To Air

Find out what happened to these reboots…

In 2019, it was announced that Hilary Duff would star in a Lizzie McGuire reboot for Disney+, following her beloved character as she moved from New York City back to her parents' home after a breakup. The highly anticipated show actually filmed two episodes before production was put on pause when creator Terri Minsky stepped down due to creative differences with Disney. At the time, Disney reportedly felt that the subject matter on the show was more mature than they had intended.

Hilary attempted to get the show moved to Hulu so that they could continue to explore subjects like sex and relationships -- but Disney ultimately axed the show in 2020.

“I want any reboot of Lizzie to be honest and authentic to who Lizzie would be today. It’s what the character deserves,” Hilary wrote on Instagram at the time. “We can all take a moment to mourn the amazing woman she would have been and the adventures we would have taken with her. I’m very sad, but I promise everyone tried their best and the stars just didn’t align. Hey now, this is what 2020’s made of.”

A Clueless reboot was picked up by Peacock back in 2020, which aimed to put a new spin on the iconic film. The present-day series was set to focus on Dionne Davenport after the mysterious disappearance of former queen bee Cher Horowitz. The show would chronicle Dionne’s adventures as she took on the “pressures of being the new most popular girl in school, while also unraveling the mystery of what happened to her best friend.”

Unfortunately, after nine months in development, the streamer ultimately passed on the show, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The CW announced a planned live-action reboot of The Powerpuff Girls in 2021, casting Chloe Bennet, Dove Cameron, and Yana Perrault in the lead roles. The show was set to follow the superhero trio in their 20s as they dealt with the aftermath of spending their childhood saving the world. The show even filmed a pilot episode -- but shortly after, it was announced that the series would be getting an overhaul. The CW’s CEO, Mark Pedowitz told Variety that the pilot was a “miss” and ended up being “too campy” and “not as rooted in reality as network execs would have liked.”

Dove later added, “It’s a really big piece of IP, and it’s tonally very specific. Like getting it right, making everybody happy, and also making sure that it translates. It’s so specific…We’re removing some elements and we’re replacing others. I think the script is going to get another whack, and it’s just going to be a slightly different approach, but everything else is going to stay the same.”

In 2023, it was announced that the project had officially been dropped by the CW and had been given back to the studio.

A revival of The Brady Bunch was in the early stages of discussion when it was cut short. While the project was set up at CBS Studios, it hadn’t yet been pitched to networks, and it’s unclear if a script had been written. But it was allegedly decided that the project wouldn’t move forward because of actor Susan Olsen, who played Cindy Brady on the original series. According to Susan, CBS Studios did not want her to be a part of the revival due to her controversial political views and opinions on topics like Covid vaccines and the LGBTQ+ community.

“I did have a phone call with my [TV] siblings and my agent,” Susan said on the Walk Away Campaign podcast. “Everybody was saying, ‘We’re sorry, but they just won’t budge. They just will not have you in this.’ I was like, ‘Wow, I’ve been canceled.’ A role that I’ve played for over 50 years, I can’t play it now because I’m too dangerous. I was like ‘Well, okay guys, good luck, I hope you can sell it.’”

While the revival was eventually scrapped, sources told Variety that it had more to do with prior accusations against Susan for using hate speech and her anti-LGBTQ views posted on social media, which got her fired from a radio gig.

The 1984 sitcom Who’s The Boss? was in talks for a reboot for several years and in 2022, it officially landed at Freevee. Both Tony Danza and Alyssa Milano were set to reprise their roles as a father-daughter duo on the new series. Unfortunately, in late 2024, TVLine reported that Amazon MGM Studios would no longer be moving forward with the show following the shuttering of Freevee.

A New York Undercover reboot almost made it to air back in 2018. That year, Deadline reported that ABC ordered a pilot of the show, which saw the return of Malik Yoba and Luna Lauren Velez. Malik would return to role as J.C. Williams, who was set to oversee a group of young Fourth Precinct detectives, while Luna would once again portray a retired Nina Moreno.

Just a year later, it was announced that ABC had passed on the pilot. Dick Wolf and Universal TV continued to shop the show around and while Peacock reportedly expressed interest, it never took off.

In 2019, ABC agreed to produce a pilot for an NYPD Blue reboot, which would follow Theo Sipowicz, the son of the original series’ main character, Andy Sipowicz. Theo would be following in his father’s footsteps as a police officer -- while simultaneously investigating his murder. Unfortunately, after the pilot was produced, ABC chose not to move forward, citing that it didn’t live up to its predecessor.

“It was a very good pilot. On any other network, in any other circumstance, that show [likely] gets on the air. For us, we kept the bar really high. We all felt like, unless we can really advance the ball from the original, let’s let the original rest. They did as good a job as one can do with something that is that revered,” ABC entertainment president Karey Burke explained to TV Line.

The following year, the plans for the reboot were canceled, with ABC executive Craig Erwich telling Deadline that “unfortunately the pilot just did not come together as we had hoped it would.”

The 1986 legal drama, LA Law, got close to producing a reboot in 2021. ABC ordered a pilot of the show, which saw the return of Blair Underwood as Jonathan Rollins, who had been made a partner at his law firm -- now named Becker Rollins. With the firm having reinvented itself to specialize in boundary-pushing, high-profile cases, Jonathan would go head-to-head with a younger attorney named JJ Freeman.

Back in 2013, a reboot of Murder, She Wrote starring Octavia Spencer received a pilot commitment from NBC. The show was set to follow Octavia’s character, a hospital administrator and amateur sleuth who self-publishes her first mystery novel -- and ends up inserting herself into the true crime she investigates.

The reboot, which did not have the support of original star Dame Angela Lansbury, ended up getting cut short just a year later when Deadline reported that NBC opted not to proceed with the pilot. At the time, Angela said she was “terribly pleased and relieved" with the cancellation.

“I knew it was a terrible mistake. I didn’t want to sully the memory. Octavia Spencer is a superb actress. She had no business being put into a situation that she couldn’t win,” she shared with the BBC.

The revival of the 1989 sitcom, Coach, received a straight-to-series order from NBC in 2015. The show saw the return of star Craig T. Nelson and picked up 18 years later. It was set to follow his character Coach Hayden Fox as his retirement plans were interrupted by his son, who’s in need of an assistant football coach at an Ivy League school.

Then, just a few months after the order was made, the show was given the axe mid-production, allegedly due to “creative issues” and mixed internal reviews.

Fans spent years following the Osbourne family on their reality show from 2002 to 2005, and after almost a decade off the air, Sharon announced that The Osbournes was headed back to TV. On an episode of The Talk, she explained that they planned to film six to eight episodes to “catch up on our lives and where we are now.”

A year later, Variety reported that the reboot had been canceled, citing the biggest problems being scheduling and availability.