History Series / Reboot2022

* BitingTheHandHumor: The in-universe sitcom is produced for Hulu, just like ''Reboot'' itself, allowing the show to make fun of its corporate owners.

* YoungerAndHipper: In-universe, realty TV star Timberly is not-so-subtly brought in to attract younger viewers, much to the chagrin of the rest of the cast. Could also apply to the writers, as the newer, more diverse, and much younger writers clash with the old hands brought in.

* ItOnlyWorksOnce: In one episode, Zack wants to ask out Elaine, but learns from Hannah that he can only ask her out once per HR's rules (if he asks her out again, it's considered harassment). Elaine declines, not because she doesn't like him but because of the DoubleStandard of a female executive dating an actor.

* MsFanservice: Bree goes topless in the first episode.

* RomanceOnTheSet: In-universe. Leads Reed and Bree had a rocky relationship during the show's original run; this causes a few issues with the reboot when they meet up again.
* ShowWithinAShow: The show is about the revival of a fictional sitcom called ''Step Right Up''.

* TomHanksSyndrome: In-Universe, Reed quit his sitcom career to take serious roles in dramatic films and plays, and only returns to the show when he believes it's going to be more high-brow. When Gordon wants it to be shallow comedy again, he nearly quits again.

* BitingTheHandHumor: The in-universe sitcom is produced for Hulu, just like ''Reboot'' itself, allowing the show to make fun of its corporate owners. The third episode has Disney (Hulu's owner) issue an HR complaint about Reed getting an erection during the show, but with Disney's typical whimsical tone.

* DoubleStandard: Elaine turns down Zack's offer to go out because as a new, female junior executive, it's a bad look for her to date an actor on her first show, even though a male executive likely wouldn't have the same problem.
* DreamsOfFlying: Invoked in "Bewitched", the crew shoots a flying DreamSequence involving floating rigs and greenscreen that, according to the director, represents Jake wanting to escape his work stress.
-->'''Clay:''' All I'm hearing is that my nuts are gonna get wrenched.

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: The episodes are named after the titles of other sitcoms.

* PlotParallel: "Bewitched" is united by studio romances. Costars/exes Reed and Bree get closer, Gordon tries to set up Hannah with Mallory from HR, and Zack tries to ask out Elaine.

* ShipperOnDeck: After finding out that Hannah might be attracted to a woman in HR she's been talking to, Gordon tries to push them together and bands all the writers together to help, which deeply annoys her. When Hannah finally gets to courage to ask the coworker out on a date, all the writers are eagerly watching it happen and cheer her on when it goes successfully.

* UnflatteringIDPhoto: In "Bewitched" Hannah tells Zaack that she's stuck with a driver's license photo that looks like Creator/JohnCReilly.

* DisgustingVegetarianFood: Gordon complains about how appetizing a doughnut with bacon is (since he's Jewish and bacon isn't kosher). Dennis immediately comes up to tell him that the doughnut is gluten-free and the bacon is made with beans. He immediately throws it away since it's lost the appeal.

* LGBTAwakening: [[spoiler:Bree sleeping with Timberley causes her to question her sexuality for the first time in her life since she's never had a sexual encounter with a woman before.]]
* MomentKiller: In-universe, a touching and emotional father-daughter reunion between the fictional characters of Lawrence and Whitney is broken up by the character of Jake flushing the toilet.

* TakeThat: The fifth episode throws a few jabs at Creator/ChuckLorre when Gordon and Reed come across his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and proceed to mock him, with Gordon complaining how he always struggled to get pilots off the ground because the network "put three new Chuck Lorre shows to go along with his eleven other shows". It culminates in Reed drunkenly pissing on his star.

* BedmateReveal: The final scene in "Growing Pains" has a SplitScreenPhoneCall between Reed and Bree, where the latter is naked in bed. Once the phone call ends, we see who's in the other half of her bed: [[spoiler:Timberly]]!

* CuteClumsyGirl: An attempted invocation of a gender inversion. Sitcom showrunner Gordon suggests a plot where the women crush on a hot delivery guy and watch him trip over a box.
-->'''Gordon:''' Hot plus clumsy, always funny.

* InhumanResources: After an embarrassing moment with the leads in bed together where Reed gets an erection, it prompts a mandate from HR, including a clueless letter being read to the cast and preventative measures that Reed must now wear.

* RagingStiffie: Reed gets an erection while filming a scene in bed with his ex-girlfriend and costar Bree. It turns into a whole (comedic) HR incident where the Walt Disney Company has to step in.

* SplitScreenPhoneCall: The third episode ends with a phone call between Reed and Bree on opposite sides of a split-screen, before Bree hangs up and Reed's side of the screen disappears to reveal who she's in bed with.

* AllWomenHateEachOther: Reed calls out Bree for sabotaging their young, pretty, charming costar Timberly's acting out of envy. She retorts that she came up in a Hollywood where women were cutthroat towards each other and cites examples of female costars who sabotaged her. Reed responds that she's now just perpetuating the same cycle of abuse and misogyny, prompting her to make up with Timberly.

* BrickJoke: In episode 2, Hannah wants to use an indie song for the closing credits of the first episode, but Gordon thinks the $80K for the licensing is too expensive and suggests a PublicDomainSoundtrack instead. The end credits of the actual episode becomes one of the public domain songs he suggested, "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain".
* ChekhovsGag: In the second episode, Hannah rejects a gag involving popcorn coming out of the washing machine, to the dismay of a crew member who's hauling a giant bag of popcorn around onset. The joke returns at the end of the episode where [[spoiler:Hannah has stuffed Gordon's car with the popcorn]], and it spills out when he opens the door.
-->'''Gordon:''' You're right. It's too broad.

* HollywoodBeautyStandards: Mentioned. Co-showrunner Hannah is dismayed when Timberly, a conventionally beautiful reality star, shows up at the table read supposedly playing Hannah's frumpy AuthorAvatar. Hannah assures the cast that she had hired a classically trained actress who looked like a real person, not "the TV version of [a real person]". It turns out that the [[ExecutiveMeddling the network had insisted]] that Timberly be stunt-cast in the role because reality stars like her get people talking even if they can't act.[[invoked]]

* YiddishAsASecondLanguage: Invoked when the non-Jewish character Reed is playing says he should have been a ''mensch''. It's out of place, judging by Hannah's reaction to it, but she understands that it's her Jewish father (and co-showrunner) Gordon's way of apologizing to her.

* TheEndingChangesEverything: At first, the pilot indicates Hannah wants to reboot the show just because she was a fan and is upset at Gordon returning as he's ignoring her new vision for it. But the pilot ends with the revelation Hannah is mad because she's Gordon's daughter who he abandoned at the age of seven and created this entire show about his new step-family while never mentioning her. Thus, she wanted to tell "her" story and upset her dad is once more trying to make it about his own life.
* ExactWords: When Bree divorces her husband, she figures she can at least get a good settlement out of it under "The Kettle System" which she assumes is named after some lawyer. It turns out that it's a law of the country saying a divorced woman can only leave with what she can fit into a kettle, meaning Bree is flat broke.

* FirstEpisodeTwist: Near the end of the first episode, it's revealed that the new showrunner Hannah is the abandoned daughter of the original showrunner Gordon.

* RebootSnark: In the opening scene, the Hulu exec is reluctant to greenlight Hannah's pitch to reboot ''Step Right Up''. His team rattles off a laundry list of shows that got remade/rebooted/revived [[note]]''Series/FullerHouse'', ''Series/SavedByTheBell2020'', ''Series/ICarly2021'', ''Series/GilmoreGirls'', ''Series/GossipGirl2021'', ''Series/PartyOfFive2020'', ''Series/PartyDown'', ''Series/OneDayAtATime2017'', ''Series/GirlMeetsWorld'', ''Series/HowIMetYourFather'', ''Series/TheWonderYears2021'', ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', ''Series/DoogieKamealohaMD'', ''Series/TheOddCouple2015'', ''Series/VeronicaMars'', ''Series/BelAir'', ''Series/FraggleRockBackToTheRock''[[/note]]. He admits the trend makes him feel safe about greenlighting the show.
-->'''Executive:''' What the hell, let's remake something original.

* WhamLine: At the end of the first episode, the cast tries to talk Hannah into coming back for the show and work with Gordon, insisting "he's not so bad once you get to know him."
-->'''Hannah''': Oh, I got to know him pretty well for about seven years until he dropped me off at ballet class one time and he started flirting with my super-skinny teacher. And then he moved in with her and her super-creepy son Seth. And then he created a ''television show'' all about his new step-family that acted like his ''daughter'' never existed.
-->'''Reed''': Are you... telling us... Gordon is your father?

* AnythingThatMoves: Subverted. Clay claims that Timberly is willing to have sex with anybody to get ahead, but this was just her reality show persona. She's sexually fluid, but not as promiscuous as she is on the show.

* ChildProdigy: Elaine invented a glucose monitor for pets that was immediately purchased by a pharmaceutical company at the age of six.
* CluelessBoss: Elaine Kim comes across as this; well-intentioned, but doesn't really "get" humor despite being the head of the humor department at the network. She actually tells Reed and Bree that her background is in software development and that she only ended up working in entertainment for Hulu because of a series of corporate acquisitions and reshuffles.

* EliteSchoolMeansEliteBrain:
** Promising indie screenwriter Hannah graduated from Northwestern with honors.
** It's a RunningGag that Janae, one of the writers, is prone to mentioning she worked on the ''Harvard Lampoon'' when credentials come up.

* FormerChildStar: Zack has been an actor since he was four and played the child character in ''Step Right Up'', but since the show's cancellation all he's done are direct-to-video kids' movies and no one, not even his old costars, recognizes him at first. However, unlike many examples of this trope, he seems to be decently well-adjusted and harbors no bitterness towards the entertainment industry, still being proud of his career.
* GirlOnGirlIsHot: Clay gets very interested when he learns that [[spoiler:Bree and Timberly]] slept together, reading sexual undertones into all their interactions and dropping not-so-subtle hints that he wants the juicy details.
* HairTodayGoneTomorrow: Everyone notices that Reed has lost all of his hair since the 2000s, and Gordon seizes the opportunity to add some bald jokes to the reboot's script.
* HiddenDepths: Clay, despite being a foul-mouthed comic who's had numerous troubles with the law, is shown to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and is genuinely trying to better himself and make amends with the people he's wronged, even if he doesn't quite get it half the time. He also does care about his co-stars and does his best to look out for them, such as going out of his way to pick up Bree and making sure she gets home safely when she gets high on mushrooms after attending a retreat.

* {{Kayfabe}}: After [[spoiler:Bree sleeps with Timberley]], Clay and Reed become convinced that Timberley is actually manipulating her based on some things she did on the reality TV show she starred in. When Bree confronts Timberley on this, she has to tell her that everything on that show was actually fake and that the producers just told the contestants what to do. Bree promptly calls out Reed and Clay for making her look like an idiot in front of Timberley.

* MyBelovedSmother: Zack's mother still comes with him to set even now that he's in his 20s; he attributes this to him being all she has left since his parents divorced.

* PromotedFanGirl: [[invoked]]An InUniverse example. Elaine Kim, Hulu's director of comedy in the series, tells Hannah that she loved family sitcoms growing up and especially loved the original ''Step Right Up''.

* RecoveredAddict: Clay is one. His redemption is played surprisingly straight, as he's seen taking group therapy seriously, struggling with being sober, and apologizing to people he's wronged.
* RichesToRags: Bree shows up acting like she's still living it up as a duchess. Turns out, she's divorced after discovering her husband cheating on her and, thanks to his country's quirky laws, is flat broke.

* SirSwearsALot: Clay has such a foul mouth, he had to use a SwearJar on the set of the original show because he kept cursing in front of the child actor.

* SmallNameBigEgo: Zack Jackson pretends he never lost his cute "child star" appeal and assumes he's quite famous, but even his old costars don't recognize him immediately.

* CuteClumsyGirl: * An attempted invocation of a gender inversion. Sitcom showrunner Gordon suggests a plot where the women crush on a hot delivery guy and watch him trip over a box.
-->'''Gordon:'' Hot plus clumsy, always funny.

* DisgustingVegetarianFood: Gordon complains about how appetizing a doughnut with bacon is (since he's Jewish and bacon isn't kosher). A PA immediately comes up to tell him that the doughnut is gluten-free and the bacon is made with beans. He immediately throws it away since it's lost the appeal.

* BrickJoke: In episode 2, Hannah wants to use an indie song for the closing credits of the first episode, but Gordon thinks the $80K for the licensing is too expensive and suggests a public domain song instead. The end credits of the actual episode becomes one of the public domain songs he suggested, "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain".

* DarkerAndEdgier: The initial appeal of Hannah's reboot of ''Step Right Up'' is that it's more serious and less shallow than the original, introducing "dark secrets" to the characters. However, when Gordon returns as showrunner, he wants it to go back to its shallow roots, much to Reed's dismay.

Indie screenwriter Hannah Korman (played by Creator/RachelBloom) gets an invite to pitch an original series to Hulu, but surprises them when she chooses a seemingly simple idea: a reboot of her favorite childhood sitcom, ''Step Right Up''. However, the cast have all moved on to different life paths: Reed Sterling (Creator/KeeganMichaelKey) quit the show to become a serious actor, Bree Marie Jensen (Creator/JudyGreer) became the duchess of a small country, Clay Barber (Creator/JohnnyKnoxville) became a troubled comedian, and child actor Zack Jackson (Creator/CalumWorthy) mostly did teen movies. Despite their unresolved interpersonal conflicts, they agree to return when they hear Hannah's script is a more complex re-imagining of the original series. But when the original showrunner, Gordon Gelman (Creator/PaulReiser) returns to the scene, they have second thoughts, especially when they learn why Hannah won't work with Gordon.

* RebootSnark: In the opening scene, the Hulu exec is reluctant to greenlight Hannah's pitch to reboot ''Step Right Up''. His team rattles off a laundry list of shows that got remade/rebooted/revived [[note]]''Series/FullerHouse'', ''Series/SavedByTheBell'', ''Series/ICarly2021'', ''Series/GilmoreGirls'', ''Series/GossipGirl2021'', ''Series/PartyOfFive2020'', ''Series/PartyDown'', ''Series/OneDayAtATime2017'', ''Series/GirlMeetsWorld'', ''Series/HowIMetYourFather'', ''Series/TheWonderYears2021'', ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', ''Series/DoogieKamealohaMD'', ''Series/TheOddCouple2015'', ''Series/VeronicaMars'', ''Series/BelAir'', ''Series/FraggleRockBackToTheRock''[[/note]]. He admits the trend makes him feel safe about greenlighting the show.

* HollywoodBeautyStandards: Mentioned. Co-showrunner Hannah is dismayed when Timberly, a conventionally beautiful reality star, shows up at the table read supposedly playing Hannah's frumpy AuthorAvatar. Hannah assures the cast that she had hired a classically trained actress who looked like a real person, not "the TV version of [a real person]". It turns out that the [[ExecutiveMeddling the network had insisted]] that Timberly be stunt-cast in the role because reality stars like her get people talking even if they can't act

* RebootSnark: In the opening scene, the Hulu exec is reluctant to greenlight Hannah's pitch to reboot ''Step it Up''. His team rattles off a laundry list of shows that got remade/rebooted/revived [note]]''Series/FullerHouse'', ''Series/SavedByTheBell'', ''Series/ICarly2021'', ''Series/GilmoreGirls'', ''Series/GossipGirl2021'', ''Series/PartyOfFive2020'', ''Series/PartyDown'', ''Series/OneDayAtATime2017'', ''Series/GirlMeetsWorld'', ''Series/HowIMetYourFather'', ''Series/TheWonderYears2021'', ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', ''Series/DoogieKamealohaMD'', ''Series/TheOddCouple2015'', ''Series/VeronicaMars'', ''Series/BelAir'', ''Series/FraggleRockBackToTheRock''[[/note]]. He admits the trend makes him feel safe about greenlighting the show.

* CluelessBoss: Elaine Kim comes across as this; well-intentioned, but doesn't really "get" humor despite being the head of the humor department at the network.

* PromotedFanGirl: [[invoked]]An InUniverse example. Elaine Kim, Hulu's director of comedy in the series, comes from a software development background and only ended up working in entertainment because of a corporate reshuffle. However, she loved family sitcoms growing up and especially loved the original ''Step Right Up''.

Indie screenwriter Hannah Korman (played by Creator/RachelBloom) gets an invite to pitch an original series to Hulu, but surprises them when she chooses a seemingly simple idea: a reboot of her favorite childhood sitcom, ''Step Right Up''. However, the cast have all moved on to different life paths: Reed Sterling (Creator/KeeganMichaelKey) quit the show to become a serious actor, Bree Marie Jensen (Creator/JudyGreer) became the duchess of a small country, Clay Barber (Creator/JohnnyKnoxville) became a troubled comedian, and child actor Zack Jackson (Creator/CalumWorthy). Despite their unresolved interpersonal conflicts, they agree to return when they hear Hannah's script is a more complex re-imagining of the original series. But when the original showrunner, Gordon Gelman (Creator/PaulReiser) returns to the scene, they have second thoughts, especially when they learn why Hannah won't work with Gordon.