TWO FOR TUESDAY - THE REMAKE OF "S.W.A.T."

CBS has unleashed a new version of the mid-70s TV series 'S.W.A.T.', this time starring Shemar Moore rather than Steve Forrest.  I would have preferred it had been a continuation, but it's a straight remake.  

From Wikipedia:

S.W.A.T. is an American action/crime drama television series about the adventures of a Special Weapons And Tactics (S.W.A.T.) team operating in an unidentified California city. A spin-off of The Rookies, the series aired on ABC from February 1975 to April 1976. Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg were executive producers. It was created by Robert Hamner and developed by Rick Husky.

Now as for the remake....

From Wikipedia:

S.W.A.T. is an American crime drama television series, based on the 1975 television series created by Robert Hamner and developed by Rick Husky. The new series was developed by Aaron Rahsaan Thomas and Shawn Ryan, and premiered on CBS on November 2, 2017.

Now, had it just been Shemar Moore's character, I might have still been able to keep both shows in the main Toobworld.  It would have meant that the Moore was playing Daniel Harrelson, Jr., son of an interracial marriage.  And he had assumed the nickname once borne by his father.

But almost all of the characters had the same names as the characters from the original series.  Check out this side-by-side comparison……

1975                                           2017

          Lieutenant Dan “Hondo” Harrelson

Steve Forrest                    Shemar Moore

                     Officer Jim Street

Robert Urich                       Alex Russell

               Sergeant David “Deacon” Kay

Rod Perry                       Jay Harrington

                   Officer Domenic Luca                 

Mark Shera                   Kenny Johnson

I could pull a few splainins out of my sard for the others:

1]  Jim Street could have been the original’s son and given his name.

2]  Domenic Luca could have been the son of the original, but it’s hard to picture Kenny Johnson as having the same genes as Mark Shera.  (I’m thinking his mother was of Nordic descent, perhaps even of Eric “Hoss” Cartwright’s bloodline!)

3]  The main problem would be David Kay.  He could have been adopted by the original and, like Hondo Harrelson, he could have also adopted his Dad’s nickname.   I say he could have been adopted, just so that it wasn’t a complete copy of Hondo’s situation of an interracial parentage.

But it just doesn’t seem plausible that all four of them would have followed their fathers into the same line of work and ended up having the same positions on the S.W.A.T. team.

So instead, I’m putting this new version into an alternate TV dimension.  But I’m eschewing Toobworld2, the Land O’ Remakes, and placing it instead into Black Toobworld, along with other shows - like the remakes of ‘Kojak’, ‘Ironside’, ‘Barefoot In The Park’ and the movie “The Honeymooners”.  This is because of the fact that in this version, Hondo Harrelson was black instead of the white character from the original.

There’s a racial change with the character of Deacon Kay as well, but I guess that’s just the Universe balancing things out…..

BCnU!