Many of our favorite television shows have long been off the air, but do you ever wonder what the characters would be like if they were still around today? While most TV producers are catching on to the revival trend, there are still a lot of shows we wish would come back to life — although it’s probably best they be left alone. But that doesn’t mean our favorite casts haven’t reunited in recent years as you’ll soon see! Just wait to see how this ’90s television favorite made a major comeback!
Married… with Children
Frank Sinatra crooning “Love and Marriage” reminds us of Married… with Children, Fox’s longest running live-action sitcom for 11 seasons after its premiere in 1987. America tuned in to watch the sometimes crude, sometimes obnoxious humor of the Bundy family. Ed O’Neil played the head of the household Al, Katey Sagal was his big-haired wife Peggy, Christina Applegate played their dimwitted daughter Kelly, and David Faustino was the wisecracking son Bud. Although the show ended in 1997, the Bundy family reunited in 2014 when Sagal received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the Bundy crew will get back together for a series revival anytime soon.
That ’70s Show
We were all just hangin’ out in Wisconsin with our favorite group of friends from That ’70s Show. The series centered around Eric Forman (Topher Grace), his best friend Hyde (Danny Masterson), the literal girl-next-door Donna (Laura Prepon), dimwitted pretty boy Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), Kelso’s on-and-off girlfriend Jackie (Mila Kunis), and foreign-exchange student Fez (Wilmer Valderrama). Any possibility of a reunion may be out of the question for a while, as all of these actors have gone on to other projects. However, That ’70s Show fans’ dreams came true when Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis got married in real life in 2015.
Friends
Friends is arguably one of the most loved shows in America. For ten seasons from 1994 through 2004, we laughed, cried, and felt every other possible emotion with Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Monica (Courteney Cox), Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), Joey (Matt LeBlanc), Chandler (Matthew Perry), and Ross (David Schwimmer). While parts of the cast have teamed up on other shows, it seems you can never really get the whole cast back together in public. The cast — minus Matthew Perry — recently reunited to talk about the show in 2016 at a James Burrows Tribute, although Kudrow revealed that the entire cast reunited privately for a dinner. They may not really be there for you, but they are there for each other.
Sex and the City
Sex and the City was broadcast from 1998 to 2004. We followed the lives of Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis), and Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) through 94 episodes of their sexcapades and social lives in New York City. Four years after the series ended, the cast reunited to film the Sex and the City movie that premiered in 2008, much to the joy of die-hard SATC fans everywhere. A sequel film came out two years later as well, but while a third was reportedly in the works, it was confirmed to be canceled by late 2017.
The Wonder Years
Although The Wonder Years only lasted from 1988 to 1993, the cast reunited in 2014 to film some DVD extras when the series was released on DVD. Kevin (Fred Savage), his father Jack (Dan Lauria), his mom Norma (Alley Mills), his sister Karen (Olivia d’Abo), his brother Wayne (Jason Hervey), best friend Paul (Josh Saviano), and girl-next-door Winnie (Danica McKellar) all reunited and gave us an awesome look at what the cast would look like today. A revival is not likely said Savage, who told People, “The show was about a time in your life… You can’t really go back to it.”
The Wonder Years may not be coming back anytime soon, but a certain show that started with an ‘F’ did come back in 2016…
Full House
Full House has lived in the collective heart of America since its start in 1987. For eight seasons, we watched the Tanner family’s antics and learned some valuable lessons. The show centered around Danny Tanner (Bob Saget) as he enlisted his brother-in-law Jesse (John Stamos) and best friend Joey (Dave Coulier) in helping him raise his three girls DJ, Stephanie, and Michelle (Candace Cameron, Jodie Sweetin, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen) after the death of his wife. ’90s babies rejoiced when a revival series was announced to premiere on Netflix in 2016 that centered around DJ, now in her thirties and in a similar situation.
Danny, Jesse, and Joey returned to television, but read on to see which other television trio reunited!
Boy Meets World
If you grew up in the ’90s then you grew up with Corey Matthews (Ben Savage), his best friend Shawn (Rider Strong) and his middle-school-sweetheart-turned-wife Topanga (Danielle Fishel) on Boy Meets World. Corey learned many lessons with the help of his siblings Eric and Morgan (Well Friedle, Lily Nicksay), his parents Amy and Alan (Betsy Randle, William Russ), and especially his neighbor Mr. Feeny (William Daniels), who also happened to be the school principal. The cast has certainly had opportunities to reunite, but the most memorable moment was on the season finale of the spin-off series Girl Meets World, which focused on the life of Corey and Topanga’s daughter Riley.
Friday Night Lights
The Emmy-award-winning Friday Night Lights ended its five-season run in 2011. The story of a small-town Texas high school football team was brought to the small screen after a movie adaptation of the novel of the same name premiered in 2004. Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler), Mrs. Coach (Connie Britton), star quarterback Jason Street (Scott Porter), and the rest of the Friday Night Lights cast all reunited in 2016 to appear at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas. “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose” was the slogan used throughout the show and with this reunion, we’d say our hearts couldn’t be any fuller.
Will & Grace
NBC’s Will & Grace was pretty groundbreaking for its time. Lasting for eight seasons from 1998 to 2006, the show focused on best friends Will Truman, a gay lawyer played by Eric McCormack, and Grace Adler, a straight interior designer played by Debra Messing. We watched as Will and Grace navigated life and relationships along with their friends Karen (Megan Mullally) and Jack (Sean Hayes). The cast reunited for a 10-minute special to encourage voting during the 2016 presidential election and it was so successful that NBC decided to reboot the series for a ninth season in 2017.
What other NBC show do we wish would come back? Read on to find out!
Gilmore Girls
In the early 2000s, many television viewers turned on their televisions to catch up with straight-laced student Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) and her hardworking but carefree mother Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and their life in the fictional town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. The show focused on the titular characters’ close mother-daughter bond and the entrance of Lorelai’s parents Emily and Richard Gilmore (Kelly Bishop, Edward Herrmann) back into her life. The show ran for seven seasons and was brought back in 2016 by Netflix for a mini-series titled Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life which focused on the lives of the Gilmores and their friends since the series ended.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
We’re sure you can recite all the lines to the theme song of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and if you can’t, well then what were you been during the ’90s? For six seasons, we watched street-smart West Philadelphia native Will Smith adapt to life in the affluent Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel-Air after moving in with his relatives, the Banks family. While this show was loved and enjoyed by many, don’t expect a reunion anytime soon — especially due to the 2014 passing of James Avery, who played Uncle Phil. Alfonso Ribeiro shared a snap of the rest of the cast’s mini-reunion in 2017.
Scrubs
Scrubs took us into the psyche of John “J.D.” Dorian played by Zach Braff. He and his friends Christopher Turk (Donald Faison) and Elliot Reid (Sarah Chalke) started out as interns at the fictional Sacred Heart teaching hospital and throughout the series’ nine-season run advance up in medical rankings. The medical comedy-drama is most likely not going to return for a revival anytime soon, but the actors excited all Scrubs die-hards when they reunited for a friendly dinner. To make things even more awesome, Braff and Faison are actually close friends in real life thanks to the show.
Scrubs may not return to television, but a beloved sitcom about a loud-mouthed woman will! Keep reading to find out more…
Family Matters
If you were watching Family Matters in the ’90s, then you were catching up with the Chicago-based Winslow family led by police officer Carl (Reginald VelJohnson), his wife Harriette (Jo Marie Payton), their son Eddie (Darius McCrary), daughter Laura (Kellie Williams), other daughter Judy (Jaimee Foxworth), and their grandmother Estelle (Rosetta LeNoire). But if you were watching Family Matters, chances are you were really tuning in to watch the antics of their intelligent but pesky next-door neighbor, Steve Urkel (Jaleel White), an iconic character viewed as the quintessential nerd. As the popularity of Urkel grew, the producers ended up writing Judy Winslow off the show.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Perhaps you’re a child of the ’70s and you spent more time watching shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The show ran for seven seasons and focused on the life of Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) who works at a fictional television station in Minneapolis. The show included other fine actors such as Edward Asner, Gavin MacLeod, Ted Knight, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, Georgia Engel, and Betty White. Their last cast reunion happened in an episode of White’s show Hot in Cleveland in 2013, shortly before Mary Tyler Moore herself passed away at age 80.
Seinfeld
The infamous “show about nothing” centered on Jerry Seinfeld playing a fictionalized version of himself and his interactions in life, particularly involving George Costanza (Jason Alexander), Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards). Set in New York City, we tuned in for 180 episodes about the minutiae of everyday life. The cast last reunited in 2009 for an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm that focused on producing an episode of Seinfeld. As for a true reunion, Jerry Seinfeld told Entertainment Tonight, “Maybe it’s nice that you continue to love it instead of us tampering with something that went pretty well.”
Seinfeld thinks you shouldn’t mess with a good thing, but the producers of this classic working-class sitcom have done just that!
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
In 1997, the channel then-known as The WB premiered Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which instantly became a cult classic. Sarah Michelle Gellar led the cast as Buffy Summers, a teenage girl who is chosen by fate to be “the Slayer” to battle evil forces. With the help of friends Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) and Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon) and Buffy’s “Watcher” Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), Buffy learns to accept her destiny. There was a spin-off show titled Angel and although there isn’t talk of a revival series, the cast reunited in 2017 for Entertainment Weekly’s special feature on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Freaks and Geeks
Frequently named one of the best cult shows of all time, Freaks and Geeks probably aired before its time because sadly, it only ran for one season. Set in the ’80s, the show revolved around Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardellini) and her younger brother Sam (John Francis Dailey), who attend William McKinley High School. Lindsay, who starts the series as a junior and an academic student, begins uncharacteristically hanging out with the school “freaks,” a group of burnouts played by James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, and Busy Philipps. Sam, who is a freshman, hangs out with the “geeks” played by Samm Levine and Martin Starr. Although the show didn’t last long, the careers of these actors certainly took off since then.
Roseanne
Roseanne was one of the most-watched television shows from 1988 to 1997 and its popularity is probably attributed to its portrayal of your typical working-class family, led by Roseanne Barr. Barr played the matriarch of the Conner family, who lives with her husband Dan (John Goodman), sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf), son D.J. (Michael Fishman), and daughters Darlene and Becky (Sara Gilbert, Lecy Goranson). The series lasted almost ten years, ending in 1997 with an outrageous finale. In 2017, it was announced that Roseanne would be returning to television on ABC in 2018 in an eight-episode revival series that will feature much of the original cast.
Family Ties
In the ’80s, television lovers loved to tune into Family Ties, a show about the contrast in ideals between the Keaton family. Steven and Elyse Keaton (Michael Gross, Meredith Baxter) are baby boomers whose liberal ideas do not exactly line up with that of their children, who are being raised in the era of the Reagan administration. Their eldest son Alex (Michael J. Fox) is an ambitious know-it-all, while his sister Mallory (Justine Bateman) likes to focus on shopping and gossip. The Keatons also have a tomboy daughter Jennifer (Tina Yothers) and later in the series a son named Andy (Brian Bonsall). Although the series is unlikely to be revived, the cast has gotten together on several occasions to reminisce about the show.
Home Improvement
Home Improvement was based on the stand-up comedy of Tim Allen and premiered in 1991. The show focused on the Taylor family that consisted of Tim (Tim Allen), his wife Jill (Patricia Richardson), and their sons Brad, Randy, and Mark (Zachery Ty Bryan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and Taran Noah Smith). Tim Taylor is the host of his own home improvement show called Tool Time, which also featured his assistant Al (Richard Karn) and the “Tool Time girl” (Debbe Dunning). The cast of Home Improvement most likely won’t gather for a reunion show, but they did reunite for Entertainment Weekly’s annual reunion issue in 2011.
