Last weekend at the movies it was back to the 1980s. Wax on, wax off Karate Kid! Pity the fool who messes with the A-Team! Movie studios have been feverishly taking old hits and giving them shiny new coats of paint. This fall’s 2010 TV season goes one step further: it is not “everything old is new again” it is “everything old is what you liked so here is plenty more of it!”

Last weekend at the movies it was back to the 1980s. Wax on, wax off Karate Kid! Pity the fool who messes with the A-Team! Movie studios have been feverishly taking old hits and giving them shiny new coats of paint. This fall’s 2010 TV season goes one step further: it is not “everything old is new again” it is “everything old is what you liked so here is plenty more of it!”

Not content with just continuing the remakes trend of the past few years, the fall TV previews showed we will get more spinoffs, police dramas, and legal dramas fed to us. Why? Studios feel that we will always watch the television equivalent of comfort food and the ratings are guaranteed to be there. Way better than spending big bucks on new things only to see them fail. That and apparently the only ones awash in juicy, morally questionable activities are lawyers, police officers, or doctors. Comforting to know it’s all the people with authority who are so messed up.

Still, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Sure it would be nice to see original stuff from the conventional networks. Another unique breakout hit such as Glee would be great. However, perhaps the time has passed to count on them to deliver this content to us. Now when we want quirky and intense, we get our fix from the specialty stations that bring us things like Dexter, Burn Notice, True Blood, etc.

Without tipping my hand to what specific shows to watch for (saving that for later), here are the “Numbers” from the previews for all of you:

• 1 new Law & Order spin-off (of course)

• 1 remake...uh reboot!

• 4 new legal dramas

• 3 new police dramas

• 1 thinly veiled remake of a show that just ended last season!

• 2 shows clearly based on cult movies

• 1 show based on a twitter feed

• 1 show already being called the next 24 or Lost

• 1 show suffering from Alex “Love him, he’s the next George Clooney, really, we swear!” O’Loughlin syndrome

• 2 shows dangerously close to being offensive to minorities, or just plain offensive

Though the show formats stay the same, what could be different this season is a changing of the guard in the station rankings. Years ago during the era of the Must-See-TV comedies like Seinfeld, Global ruled the roost. Then those shows ended and CTV took over #1 in what was the age of dramatic hits like the CSI franchise, Lost, and Desperate Housewives. In 2010-11 both Global and City TV will build upon their strong stables of fresh shows while CTV/A Channel watches its programs race to the end of their life spans. Biggest sign it is happening: CTV bought the new shows from the pitiful CW network this year! Only a desperate station picks those up!

The general mood of the stations during the TV presentations was upbeat and positive. That’s not hard to accomplish when playing it so safe! However, because of all the sameness, it is hard to see any giant sized hits this coming season. Is it too early to reboot Frasier? Kelsey Grammer could use the work.