Everybody dreads a remake, a modern re-imagining of a beloved old classic that threatens to strip the original premise of the brilliance that made it work in a cheap bid for commercial success and exploiting audience interests in the laziest way possible. That being said, there have been some great small-screen remakes, with U.S. versions of The Office and Shameless becoming major hits, but this doesn’t mean that every show should, or even can, be re-worked.
Ranging from critically acclaimed crime series to some of the most famous sitcoms of all time, from groundbreaking triumphs of television entertainment and even to some cult classics that never made the impact they should have, these 10 series are truly untouchable and should never be remade. In some cases, it’s simply because modern audience sensitivities wouldn’t accommodate for an adequate recreation, in others it’s because they stand as pioneers of TV genres and deserve to be remembered as such, and then some of these series are simply perfect as they are and should never be tampered with.
10
‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ (1997–2003)
Turn-of-the-century television was a fascinating era for small-screen spectacle. The period flaunted several groundbreaking series that were actively reconfiguring TV drama as they aired, but there was a litany of other trends as well, with lively teen thrillers being something of a contemporary fad. Most were defined by their low-budget production value, campy aesthetic, and borderline B-grade benevolence, but whereas some series suffered from these qualities, others used them as a distinct strength, with Buffy the Vampire Slayer being the absolute best example of this inspired creative excellence.
Following the titular Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) as she slays all manner of monsters while navigating teenage life, the series became a hit with its quirky eccentricities, its genre-blending intrigue, and the note-perfect punchiness of its performances. This aesthetic would be impossible to recapture today with authenticity and charm. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a defining icon of late-90s, early-2000s television, and that is exactly the way it should stay. Fans will watch with bated breath as the prospect of a Buffy sequel series becomes increasingly possible.
9
‘House’ (2004–2012)
A medical drama inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes character, House excelled as a darkly comical spin on hospital-set melodrama that thrived on the back of Hugh Laurie’s exceptionally barbed performance as the titular Dr. Gregory House, an unconventional genius in the field of medical diagnosis whose gifted brilliance is often undone by his callous, blunt nature. What is interesting about any potential prospect of a remake is that the series has undergone something of a resurgence in recent years, with many people enjoying even brief snippets of the show that illustrate Dr. House’s misanthropic hilarity as he clashes with patients.
The series always flaunted an air of heightened reality that made its tone richly enjoyable and somewhat detached from reality, granting it leeway to play with House’s cynicism and frankness. However, it is difficult to see any potential remake having the same impact on a large audience now, with modern sensitivities and widespread dissatisfaction with the medical system working against it in today’s world. Furthermore, any effort to replicate Laurie’s outstanding work in the role would be futile, ensuring House is a hit series that should remain untouched even as it remains popular.
8
‘All in the Family’ (1971–1979)
When one reflects on the history of American sitcom entertainment, a few titles stand out as defining and pioneering triumphs of the prolific television genre. Chief among them is the important All in the Family, a crude though socially attuned series that follows the Bunker household, emphasizing patriarch Archie’s (Carroll O’Connor) callous world views that marry common sense with cynicism, while also depicting how they conflict with the experiences and ideals of other members of his family.
By modern standards, All in the Family is obscenely offensive, but it maintains a sense of social insight and dramatic conviction that ensures it is far more than just a litany of outlandish gags. It is widely heralded as the series that brought an air of realism and cultural discussion to sitcom entertainment, qualities that have defined the genre ever since. While it strikes a balance between social commentary and crude comedy that would be impossible to replicate today, All in the Family should also remain untouched because of how integral it is in the context of television entertainment at large.
7
‘Breaking Bad’ (2008–2013)
The most recent series to appear on this list, Breaking Bad should never be remade for the obvious reason that it is a universally adored masterpiece of television drama that, even over 10 years on from its finale, remains one of the most beloved and discussed crime-drama series of today. However, a more piercing point that decries any ideas of recreating the series is how it has utilized spin-offs to expand the narrative and treat audiences who love being immersed in the story world of drug crime and compelling characters.
Through Better Call Saul and El Camino, Breaking Bad has set a template for how modern television can counter the idea of remakes while still giving fans more of what they want. It can’t be said that its implantation of spin-off series has revolutionized television—plenty of series have thrived through multiple spin-offs before—, but it does illustrate how modern TV drama can have its cake and eat it too, how the medium can return to cherished stories without retracing the same ground. Breaking Bad will never be remade because any effort to do so would be ridiculous on the grounds of the enduring quality of the original series, but its ability to further expand its story beyond its finale is, hopefully, a triumph that other showrunners and studios will take inspiration from in lieu of simply remaking popular old shows.
6
‘Freaks and Geeks’ (1999–2000)
On the surface, Freaks and Geeks probably seems like a great candidate for a remake. Mishandled by NBC in its first season, its story of adolescent angst and self-discovery was tragically cut short as the network not only botched its release strategy, but then discontinued the series after just one season. Since then, however, it has steadily grown in popularity, becoming a true cult classic of television comedy through its laugh-out-loud hilarity and its authentic exploration of teenage life.
Many networks—and even streaming services today—would understandably view a remake with an adequate release as being a prime opportunity to capitalize on a popular series that was never given the chance to reach its full potential, but they would be misguided. Part of Freaks and Geeks’ appeal is that it was short-lived, with many fans discovering it years after it was canceled and feeling a resonance that, as all good art should do, feels like it was made especially for them. Efforts to remake the series and make it a bigger phenomenon would shatter this air of poignant relatability. As much as the prospect of seeing a full series realized is enticing, Freaks and Geeks belongs as a dismissed outcast, a cult gem of television that has a happy knack of finding viewers precisely when they need a dose of nostalgic teenage awkwardness.
5
‘Twin Peaks’ (1990–1991; 2017)
A groundbreaking, surrealist masterpiece of ’90s television, Twin Peaks proved that the uncompromising vision of an auteur could thrive on American screens. However, it is an interesting candidate for a modern remake simply because 2017’s Twin Peaks: The Return proved that, even almost 30 years after the original run of the first two seasons, audience interest in the enigmatic story world remained well and truly intact.
That being said, the defining aspect of Twin Peaks—its unwieldy, eerie, genre-merging allure—was inseparable from the marvelous mind that created it, the inspired brilliance of filmmaking legend David Lynch. His passing early in 2025 was a devastating loss for cinema and television, one that made for the easiest of rebuttals for any potential interest in remaking or even revisiting. To put it simply, the sentiment of ‘there can be no Twin Peaks without David Lynch’ is impossible to argue with, thus enshrining the series as a pioneering landmark of modern television that should never be touched again.
4
‘Seinfeld’ (1989–1998)
A series of enduring popularity, Seinfeld famously reinvented the sitcom formula, dismissing notions of sentimentality and cozy comfort in favor of cynical, self-minded protagonists whose devious schemes and judgmental antics never get them what they want in life. Fundamentally, the series was a masterpiece of observational comedy, a skewering mockery of social gimmicks and the oddities of human behavior that extracts hysterical comedy in the most innocuous and grounded details of everyday life.
This talent has led to a wonderful social media trend where fans of the series hypothesize on how the characters of the series would interact with the modern world, be it George (Jason Alexander) navigating the rigors of internet dating or Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) facing workplace struggles after an autocorrected email makes a racist implication. As fun as these ideas are, the simple fact is Seinfeld’s comedy style would struggle to appeal in the modern world the way it did in the ’90s. Furthermore, the series, as it stand,s is already a timeless triumph of observational comedy that needs no reinvention and reprisal.
3
‘The Wire’ (2002–2008)
A series that is embedded in the camp of being so incredibly perfect that it simply can’t be remade, The Wire is a masterpiece of crime television, a sprawling epic that explores the drug trade of Baltimore as well as the faults and failings in the city’s institutional structures. Over the course of five seasons, it examines how crime impacts everything from the housing projects to the docks and even to kids in school, while also analyzing how and why corruption in the police force and politics continues to thrive despite the efforts of numerous people to curtail it.
When revisiting The Wire today, one of its most pressing qualities is its staying power. Despite being released 20 years ago, the series’ core issues of corruption, crime, poverty, and the utter inability of city hall to do anything meaningful about it remain painfully relevant, a point that only emphasizes the show’s dramatic might and its agonizing realism. The fact that the series should never be remade is obvious, but creators David Simon and Ed Burns have proven how a thematic idea and a stylistic approach can be reused and evolved over time, with the release of the miniseries We Own This City serving as a spiritual sequel of sorts to The Wire, one that highlights the original series’ integral ideas while still standing as its own distinct narrative.
2
‘M*A*S*H’ (1972–1983)
There is an irony in M*A*S*H being on this list, given that the series itself is effectively a remake of the 1970 movie of the same name, but the war dramedy does occupy a special place in the annals of television history in its own right. Following the crew of an American mobile army hospital during the Korean War, the iconic series thrives in showcasing the characters’ use of good-natured comedy as a means to cope with the horrors and brutality they are exposed to in their line of work.
Defined by its immaculate cast, it would be a thankless task for any modern series to try to match the inspired brilliance of M*A*S*H, which, despite running for longer than the war on which it was based, still held a contemporary urgency and impact within its comedy antics. Even efforts to re-imagine the series in a modern conflict would be awkward to watch, not only because recapturing the aura of M*A*S*H would be such a difficult task, but because audiences today are more aware of the intricacies of modern war, making the series light comedy regarding such material thematically and tonally impossible. That isn’t to say that M*A*S*H is outdated or stale. On the contrary, it remains one of the most beloved sitcoms in television history, which, in itself, is ample reason to dispel any notion of remaking it.
1
‘The Sopranos’ (1999–2008)
The defining pioneer of modern television, The Sopranos paved the way for so much of the small-screen drama audiences are treated to today, yet it remains unsurpassed as perhaps the greatest story the medium has ever seen. This is reason enough to suggest that the hit gangster show should never be remade, but there are so many elements of the series that would be impossible to recapture, spanning from James Gandolfini’s outstanding lead performance to creator David Chase’s revolutionary vision, and even to the impact of its violence and its emphasis on complex morality.
Some, including David Chase himself, have argued that the series’ content wouldn’t work in the modern social landscape, a point which is difficult to deny, but also a point that misses the true reason why The Sopranos could never be remade. It’s the same reason why Citizen Kane and Casablanca, and 2001: A Space Odyssey would never be remade: they are already perfect as they are, timeless pillars of artistic integrity that continue to resonate with audiences even decades after they were released. Like all 10 series this list has featured, to remake The Sopranos could only diminish its legacy, it could only cheapen the brilliance of the original series, and it could only bring ruin to those who tried.
The Sopranos
- Release Date
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1999 – 2007
- Network
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HBO
- Showrunner
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David Chase
- Directors
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Tim Van Patten, John Patterson, Alan Taylor, Jack Bender, Steve Buscemi, Daniel Attias, David Chase, Andy Wolk, Danny Leiner, David Nutter, James Hayman, Lee Tamahori, Lorraine Senna, Matthew Penn, Mike Figgis, Nick Gomez, Peter Bogdanovich, Phil Abraham, Rodrigo García
