Another TONE DEAF reboot!

Is it really so hard to play these things straight?

I certainly wasn't expecting something as cornball wholesome or superficial as the original series -- which, let's face it, was aimed squarely at preteen boys/kids of the 70's -- but I likewise wasn't expecting this remake to be just one more nasty-ass takedown of everything that made some old TV show so upbeat and likeable. Clearly the only way Dax Shepherd thought he could make Ponch and Jon "funny" was to make them into destructive public nuisances. If that's not an unnecessary million miles from the heart of the original show, I don't know what is.

But seriously, the only way Shepherd could've made this now unlikely tent pole any more (seemingly) egregiously stupid would've been to team up with Seth Rogen on the screenplay so there'd be even MORE gay panic jokes, and everyone including the ostensible heroes could celebrate the joys of casual drug use. Because those are Rogen trademarks. In everything he does. And it looks like Shepherd used a similarly cynical playbook.

Obviously he got the gig because of Hit And Run, which did showcase solid stunt work on a modest budget, but the Warner execs who greenlit this thing really should've paid attention to how Shepherd was evidently pissing on their IP. Or perhaps they're all too young to realize that the original show actually had a spirit and tone that might be worth preserving, albeit NOT slavishly, and one that didn't involve an odd fixation on cock humour. i didn't think it was possible but based on its trailer, the upcoming Baywatch reboot clearly has MUCH MORE respect for its (admittedly cheesy) source material, and it's protagonists are clearly shown to be GOOD at their jobs. The CHiPs guys? Well, not so much, by all accounts so far . . .

My hopes were only moderate for this in the first place, but that trailer quite clearly confirms what many folks probably feared: that it's going to wallow in the same kind of wink-wink condescension to both its source material and its audience that kills SO MANY big screen adaptations of famous old TV shows.

Oh, and remember when they did that truck-crashing-through-a-motorhome gag in Honky Tonk Freeway? In 1981? Sure hope Shepherd ripped of more than one picture for his big stunt sequences.