From ‘Bel Air’ to Tolkien, streamers lean on remakes

If you are getting a feeling of deja-vu from your TV screen, there is good reason. In the desperate competition for eyeballs, streaming giants are taking a page out of Hollywood's playbook and rifling through the cupboards for recognizable brands to recycle for a new generation. Fans of 1990s sitcoms are well catered for.

TV phenomenon "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" that gifted the world Will Smith and a theme song to which an entire generation knows the words is back as "Bel Air" in February. Showing on U.S. streaming service Peacock, it has a far grittier tone than the goofy original, and the internet is beside itself over images of a surprisingly slick Carlton and unacceptably slender Uncle Phil.

Another streaming service, Paramount+, is hoping to get a boost by bringing back "Frasier." The sitcom looks set to pick up where it left off 17 years ago, with Kelsey Grammar reprising his role as the lovably snobbish psychotherapist.

That adds to a recent deluge of reboots, from "Sex and the City" ("And Just Like That...") to "How I Met Your Mother" (now about meeting a father) to "Saved by the Bell."

More new-old shows are on the way, included reheated versions of "True Blood" and "Pretty Little Liars." Not to mention the feast being laid on for fantasy fans this year, with gigantically expensive franchise extensions of "Game of Thrones" ("House of the Dragon" from HBO) and "Lord of the Rings" (Amazon's $250-million "The Rings of Power").

It is a trick that the U.S. film industry has increasingly relied upon, ignoring original screenplays in favor of familiar superheroes and childhood favorites. TV revivals have also been around forever, of course, but with the number of streaming channels multiplying rapidly, the value of familiar...