NEW YORK – In the early 2000s, television viewers first discovered Malcolm In The Middle, the hilarious tale of a teenager trying to survive the antics of his dysfunctional family.

Twenty-five years later, the Malcolm gang is back on Disney+, with nearly all of the original cast including Emmy winner Bryan Cranston – part of a wave of revivals tapping into a public craving for cosy nostalgia.

The strategy is also a moneymaker for networks and streaming services, as tried-and-true content comes with minimal financial risk – and often huge fan interest.

From the Trojan War to Superman, “we’ve been continuing to take characters, universes, dramatic spaces, and repurpose them for a long, long time”, said Dr Robert Thompson, a professor of media and pop culture at Syracuse University.

But the trend has soared in the streaming era, because “going back to properties that are already established is one way of avoiding a lot of potential risks in that”, Dr Thompson told AFP.

“All of the millions of dollars that were spent marketing, promoting, establishing the brand of those things way back when they were on in the first place – those bills have already been paid.”

Beyond the rebooted Malcolm In The Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, medical sitcom Scrubs – which originally ran from 2001 to 2010 – returned to ABC and Hulu early in 2026 with most of the original cast including Zach Braff and Donald Faison.