Typecast
REM-boot
I had a crazy dream the other night, from which I woke up laughing.
It was actually a pleasant surprise. I've been awakened by many scary dreams that have left me sweating and breathing hard. But laughing hysterically? That's not normal.
It might be time to see a somnologist.
In my dream I was watching episodes of a few classic sitcoms I used to enjoy. The first show I sleep watched was The Odd Couple — only Jack Klugman and Tony Randall weren't the stars. Instead, the show had been rebooted with Seth Rogen as Oscar Madison and Ryan Reynolds as Felix Unger. That pairing is funny on its own, but the humor gets supercharged when you imagine them in the famous episode, The Flying Felix.
The next show I saw somnologically was Fantasy Island. Not only was this show also recast, the format was modified as well. Instead of a drama, it was now a comedy, starring The Rock as Mr. Roarke and Kevin Hart as Tattoo. Just hearing Kevin yell, "The plane! The plane! Mr. Roarke, the mother*** plane!" could've woken me up laughing even if I was comatose.
But the biggest head trip was saved for last. The anchor show of my "Must Dream TV" lineup was a reboot of The Jeffersons. The twist...instead of a Black family moving on up to the upper east side of NYC, a Jewish family had moved into the heart of Harlem. It was called Movin' On In.
The show starred Adam Sandler as George, Lisa Kudrow as Louise, and Wanda Sykes as Florence. Rounding out the cast was Andre de Shields as Mr. Bentley, Kristen Bell as Helen, and because I was dreaming, I got to play Tom.
Apparently my subconscious mind is an excellent wing man.
The best part of the show — other than seeing Adam verbally spar with Wanda — was watching him do the George Jefferson strut at a Bar Mitzvah. And now that humorous image is seared into your psyche.
You're welcome.
After laughing myself awake, I grabbed my phone to look up a somnologist. Instead, I ended up researching reboot pitches for the agent I don’t have. The first thing I saw was an ad for the reboot of Cape Fear with Javier Bardem as Max Cady — the third man to play him.
It seems both Hollywood and my subconscious are addicted to reboots. The difference is my brain only ran the reboot once.
Hollywood's been running it for sixty years.
Series Regular
Max Cady is one of those iconic roles Hollywood resurfaces once every generation. A new actor steps in and puts his spin on it, but the story doesn’t change.
The same thing happens in our own lives — especially at work. We just don't always recognize it as a reboot.
An idea that got killed eighteen months earlier is resurrected by a new leader pitching it as a revelation. You relive the whole debate with a foggy memory of why it died, then work to kill this zombie initiative once again.
Six months into a new gig, you realize your new boss is basically your old boss wearing different clothes. At first they seemed like a warmer, genuinely better person, but then the same micromanagement and Friday afternoon fire drills resurface.
Or, maybe you swore you left the overcommitting, conflict-dodging, and self-doubt stranded at the last job, then you look up three months later and see them effortlessly walk back onto the set. That's when you realize the hardest recast to catch is the one where you're the returning actor.
You can't stop the reboot from getting greenlit, and you can't recast the people around you. The idea comes back when it comes back. The boss is whoever they hire.
But you're the one actor you've got casting rights over.
Catch yourself reaching for the same part early enough — before the scene plays all the way out — and that's the one reboot you get a shot at playing differently.
Question of the Week
Which reboot are you in right now?
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