The people who create remakes of classic TV shows seem to like them more than TV viewers. Sure, once in a while we get a hit like the new 'Hawaii Five-0,' but the success of that show is probably less about the quality and more about how it fits into the CBS formula and its time slot.

The 'Battlestar Galactica' reboot was successful because they completely re-imagined the series -- and let's face it, the original wasn't that hot to begin with. 'The Bionic Woman' redo died a quick and painful death.

Now comes word that 'Battlestar Galactica' producer Ron Moore is going to do a new version of 'The Wild, Wild West' for CBS. This both thrills and terrifies me to my very core.



(I could have embedded the opening of the premiere episode, but I like the one where he punches the lady instead of just kissing her.)

The original 'Wild, Wild West' -- seemingly named as much for the lead character as much as the setting of the show -- was a really fun mixture of traditional Old West plots and sci-fi scenarios. Government agents James T. West (master of fighting and painted-on pants) and Artemus Gordon (master of disguise and gadgets) traveled around the country on a cool train fighting enemies of the United States. It's the type of TV show that seems really ripe for a remake. It's 40 years old and has all of the things that a new generation could find cool in the 21st century: a hero who has a small gun that shoots out of his shirt sleeve, a pimped-out train with secret compartments and a bar and crazy villains bent on either controlling the world or destroying part of it (so they could rule what was left).

It was great back then and could be fun today, and that's partly what scares me about the reboot.

Wouldn't it be great to have a standard, traditional Western on TV again? And not "standard" and "traditional" in the negative sense, but a Western that is more about horses and posses and saloons and relationships and the happenings of small Western towns. You know that a modern Western is going to focus more on the gadgets and the fancy camera work and the special effects than the stuff you'd find in a more traditional version. Something tells me that cool train will now have a swimming pool and Gordon will invent the first Blackberry so he and West can communicate, or maybe the train can now fly in some way, so West and Gordon can solve crimes in Hawaii too.

Bikinis!

Today's producers probably wouldn't make a truly traditional Western -- something like 'Gunsmoke' or 'Bonanza' or 'The Big Valley' or 'Rawhide.' It's not that a quirky, off-kilter Western couldn't work. 'The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.' is one of my favorite shows, and that was a Western about a power-mad villain who was looking for three glowing orbs. 'Outlaws' started out as a typical Western but then the guys went through a time portal and ended up in modern times. Richard Dean Anderson's 'Legend' was fun but was hardly your father's Western. 'Peacemakers' sounded like a traditional Western at first, but then we found out that it was 'CSI' in the West. Kind of a cool idea but again, a Western with a twist. CBS did try with 'The Magnificent Seven' but it didn't last long.



Remember 'Legacy?' It was pretty much a traditional Western, but it lasted for only one season. There have been a few other shows set in that era, but they've been more family-oriented shows -- 'Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman' and 'Little Men' come to mind -- and not shows about guys shooting at each other. Unless it was 'Walker, Texas Ranger,' but that was a modern show, and it had more kicking than shooting.

'Deadwood' was a great show, but with its almost Shakespearean dialogue and messy morality, it wasn't traditional either.

TV doesn't seem to want to do Westerns in a that way. You're more likely to see remakes of Westerns like 'The Wild, Wild West' -- a show with a modern twist already -- instead of 'The Rifleman.' The same with private eye shows. Private eyes are more "private investigator" these days. Gone are hard, chain-smoking private eyes with an office like Mike Hammer. They've been replaced by quirky characters who happen to solve crimes on shows like 'Psych' and 'Monk,' or they're spies on shows like 'Burn Notice.' All fine shows, but the genre has changed (though TNT is working on a P.I. show set in '50s L.A.). Same with Westerns. Maybe they think modern TV viewers won't want to see something "old-fashioned," TV industry code for "without quick edits and less sex."

So Mr. Moore, go ahead and remake 'The Wild, Wild West.' I look forward to any Western on TV. I know you have to keep the more outlandish elements of the show, but at the same time fans hope you remember the saloons and the horses and the fights and the dusty cowboy hats. Also remember -- though most of us are trying to forget -- what happened when Will Smith and Kevin Kline stepped into the boots of Robert Conrad and Ross Martin. Remember what happened in that movie and then, you know, do the opposite.





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