Do you think the reboot would have been more successful if they had just waited until 2028 and released That 00s Show (with the same time gap)? It would have made more sense for the gang to have teenage kids in the 2000s (without them having to be teen parents) and I feel like people have more nostalgia for the 2000s than the 90s but maybe that's just me
That's tough to speculate because who knows what the U.S. will be like in 2028?
That '90s Show isn't a strict reboot. It's a continuation that's modeled on the original material (That '70s Show) in form and shows a possible future for the T7S characters and focuses on Red/Kitty and a new generation of teens.
The creators' original vision for the show was cuckoo-town, and Netflix thankfully rejected it. The creators had to straddle the fine line between attracting new, younger audience while appealing to fans of the original show. Their choices were influenced by several real-world factors involving T7S's cast rather than purely being built from the foundation of the canon S1-S7 episodes of T7S (S8 isn't considered canon by T7S's series director; he recognizes what most of us do about S8).
What made season 8 T7S fail is partly what made T9S fail but only partly: building the show's foundation not from character but from other factors.
I'll use the reimagining of One Day at a Time as a counterpoint, a successful show (that was canceled too early due in significant measure to the pandemic). The original One Day at a Time, which I've seen episodes of in syndication on random channels through the years, centers around a single mom raising her children -- relatively novel for its time. The modern One Day at a Time keeps the fundamental premise but recasts the family as Cuban-American instead of (waspy) white. The characters have the immigrant experience, as the grandmother matriarch and grandfather (deceased) patriarch escaped Cuba to the U.S. for safety.
The modern One Day at a Time also changes the kids from two sisters to an older sister and younger brother. Significantly, the older sister is gay, this aspect of her character is explored in-depth. Her partner is (afab nonbinary -- afab being relevant because they don't experience body gender dysphoria as far as the show depicts them and the sister is sexually attracted to female bodies / nonbinary bodies with biologically "female" secondary sexual characteristics; the description is difficult to navigate as English doesn't yet have precise enough language to explain it).
The T9S creators played it safe when building its shows foundation. T7S's creators took risks (showing its teen characters regularly smoking pot in a mainstream network sitcom, for example). Even with all the discontinuity between T7S and T9S, had T9S been bolder within its own canon, it might have been more successful.
Pairing Leia with Jay Kelso was the safe, heteronormative, Ashton-Kutcher/Michael-Kelso fan-service choice. Had they followed the character they built instead of forcing compulsory heteronormativity onto her, Leia would've been written as gay or bisexual. It's wrought through her character in the pilot and season 1. Her interest in / infatuation with Gwen does not come across as a simple discovery of a girl who has freedom of self-expression.
I say this from an author's point of view. I had no expectation of anything LGBTQ+ when I watched the first season, but the writing, actor performances and chemistry make queerness so evident that it can't be ignored. Allowing Leia and Gwen's characters and relationship to develop organically would've been far more emotionally satisfying and realistic. But they were forced to fit the T9S creators' vision rather than given the space to grow according to their fundamental core characterization -- given to them (unintentionally) by the writers.
The show runners knew what they'd done and explicitly address it in part-whatever of the series when Jay sings Leia a song using the fan-created ship names for Leia/Jay (Jeia) and Leia/Gwen (Geia). His lyrics state, "It's Jeia, not Geia." Statement by the T9S creator: this show isn't going there (Leia/Geia) and purposely keeps Leia and Gwen separate for most episodes after that -- and good ves Gwen a boyfriend.
It's very reminiscent of what happened in T7S S8. S7 was the final last season all the way through episodes already airing and more being produced. The original finale had Hyde and Jackie engaged. S8 is greenlit; new J/H-hating show runners and contract negotiations force Jackie's character to end up with Fez at the end of the new series finale.
But T7S fans launched a campaign mid-production of S8 episodes to have J/H reunited. Hundreds of letters are brought to a taping by a fan representative and given to a producer who tells her, "It's not going to happen; Jackie and Hyde are done."
The only change made was letting go Sam's character due to live audiences' consistent and loud negative reaction to her character whenever she was in a scene. The boos disrupted tapings, and instead of Sam/Hyde being S8 endgame as planned, Sam is removed from the show.
So I can't say with any certainty whether That '90s Show would've been more commercially successful had T7S's S1-S7 canon and albeit wonky timeline been left intact, the new protagonist having organic characterization, Jay being Kelso and Brooke's son, and so many other different writing choices / approach, imo -- but I do believe T9S would've been a more successful show creatively with these changes.
