Here’s the hard truth. Even if you love a TV show with all your heart and soul — watch every single episode, join a fan club and attend conventions — you don’t own the show. You have no say in what happens.
That’s also true for the show’s stars. The vast majority of them are employees. Any input they have ends when the show does.
Would somebody please tell former “Charmed” star Holly Marie Combs this?
Combs has been ranting on Twitter about The CW’s reboot of the series she starred in from 1998 to 2006. Not surprisingly, she preferred a revival in which she could star. And she’s bitter.
Although she hasn’t seen the reboot, she’s gone on the attack. But she was also flat-out wrong when she tweeted, “Don’t even think of capitalizing on our hard work. ‘Charmed’ belongs to the 4 of us, our vast amount of writers, crews and predominantly the fans. FYI you will not fool them by owning a title/stamp.”
(Photo: CBS Productions) Holly Marie Combs, Shannen Doherty and Alyssa Milano starred in the original version of “Charmed.”
No, it doesn’t belong to Combs and her co-stars. It belongs to CBS, which bought Spelling Productions, which produced the original series. Combs claiming ownership of “Charmed” is like me claiming ownership of The Salt Lake Tribune.
It’s been a dozen years since the the end of the original series about sisters/witches Prue (Shannen Doherty), Piper (Combs) and Phoebe (Alyssa Milano). Rose McGowan replaced Doherty, playing additional sister Paige in Season 4. There have been rumors of a reunion — many spurred by Combs — but it never happened.
The reboot, from “Jane the Virgin” writer/producer Jenny Snyder Urman, features sisters/witches Macy (Madeleine Mantock), Mel (Melonie Diaz) and Maggie (Sarah Jeffrey). The sisters are Latina this time, and one of them is a lesbian.
I’ve seen the pilot, and it’s OK. As reboots go, it’s fine. And, this fall, “Charmed” and “Magnum, P.I.” will join “Dynasty,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “Lethal Weapon,” “MacGyver” and “S.W.A.T.” on the schedule.
It remains to be seen with “Charmed,” but some reboots are better than the originals — think “Battlestar Galactica,” “Lost in Space” and “S.W.A.T.”
It won’t make “Charmed” fans, let alone Combs, happy to hear this, but it’s not as if the original was a TV masterpiece. Eight years, 180 episodes, zero Emmy nominations.
Combs and the fans who launched the #NoCharmedReboot Twitter campaign are also conveniently forgetting that the original “Charmed” pilot was a huge ripoff of “The Witches of Eastwick.” Conveniently ignoring that Doherty said that “Charmed” was “basically a reboot of [the 1998 movie] ‘Practical Magic.’”
Shakespeare plays can be updated, but “Charmed” is sacrosanct? Ridiculous.
Maybe this reboot won’t be good, OK pilot notwithstanding. Maybe it will fail miserably.
But maybe Combs and the Twitter crowd ought to wait until they see it to pass judgment.That’s only fair.
I’d suggest they keep open minds, but that’s probably asking too much.
