Just when you thought there was nothing left to reboot, remake or revive, TV is riding a new wave of nostalgia. And this time, there’s a turn-of-the-century twist.

Shows from the late 1990s and early 2000s are back in play: “Scrubs,” which ran from 2001 to 2010, relaunches on ABC on Feb. 25 with new and returning cast members. Sarah Michelle Gellar returns as part of the “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer” (1997-2003) sequel series from Chloé Zhao, expected to premiere on Hulu in 2026. And Disney+ is behind the limited-series reunion of “Malcolm in the Middle” (2000-06), expected in the spring and featuring Bryan Cranston, Frankie Muniz and the rest of the original cast.

That’s just the top of the list of reboots and revivals in the works. Hulu just ordered to series a new version of “Prison Break” (2005-09, with a 2017 revisit), from Elgin James and starring Emily Browning. Kerry Washington is developing a new take on “Desperate Housewives,” dubbed “Wisteria Lane,” at Onyx Collective. The teams behind “blue sky” series like “White Collar” and “Royal Pains” are also attempting to revive their shows. And a “Community” movie has been greenlit by Peacock, though scheduling conflicts have held up production.

These projects all join recent entries including a double shot from TV megaproducer Greg Daniels, whose updated take on “King of the Hill” (with Mike Judge) was met with rave reviews — and has just been renewed for two more seasons — while his “The Office” offshoot, “The Paper” (created with Michael Koman) did well for Peacock and premieres on NBC for a linear run this Monday.

What’s driving this trend, in part, is demographic shifts: As millennials hit middle age, they’re more interested in nostalgia for the shows from their youth. And their Gen Z children, who binged them on streaming, are intrigued too.

“Millennials are reaching that age where they’re watching things because they want to pass a lot of them to their kids, and they have a lot more force as a consumer group because of their size, as well as just having nostalgia for these things,” says former The WB president Jordan Levin, who was instrumental in programming for that age group when they were teens.

Reboots, remakes and revivals have been a part of the TV landscape since the beginning (think of the many iterations of “The Honeymooners,” “Dragnet” or later, “The Brady Bunch”). The idea of “getting the band back together” intensified in the multichannel age, as programmers leaned on familiar titles because their built-in awareness made them easier to market in a cluttered landscape.

Streaming in its early days was built on the backs of revivals: “Arrested Development,” “Fuller House” and “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life” were early Netflix entries, while Hulu ramped up its slate with “Veronica Mars” and “Animaniacs” revisits, Peacock launched with “Punky Brewster,” “Saved by the Bell” and “Bel-Air” and Paramount+ came out of the gate with “The Real World” reunion seasons, new “Rugrats,” a return to “iCarly” and a new take on “The Twilight Zone.”

But it’s not easy to recapture the magic of the original — which is why the majority of these revivals don’t last more than a handful of seasons. The return of “Will & Grace” opened big in 2017 but quickly fizzled, as did attempts to bring back “Murphy Brown” and “Mad About You.” “Punky Brewster” and “Saved by the Bell” quickly went away, and more recently, “Frasier,” “That ’90s Show” and “Night Court” couldn’t go the distance. (CBS Studios tried to shop “Frasier” to other platforms after the show was canceled at Paramount+, but had no luck.)

“They’re never as good, and you can’t help but compare it to the original,” says one TV showrunner who has chosen not to reboot their show.

Series that have successfully been revived include “Roseanne,” which continued as “The Conners” for seven seasons even after Roseanne Barr was fired. In animation, besides the roaring return of “King of the Hill,” the new seasons of “Futurama” and “Phineas and Ferb” have also made a splash in their comebacks.

With so much stigma on trying to revive long-dormant shows, some stars and showrunners would rather just gather for a reunion special. “Friends” did one on HBO Max in 2021, while CBS just taped a 30th anniversary “Everybody Loves Raymond” event that will air on Nov. 24. And in January, the cast of “Married … With Children” is coming together onstage in Los Angeles for a non-televised reunion. Then there are the countless rewatch podcasts hosted by former stars of fan favorite shows.

Perhaps there’s a lesson somewhere that not everything needs a revival. “It fundamentally comes down to, is there a reason for it to be that is artistic?” says Levin. “Is there a purpose? Is there a catalyst for it that goes beyond simply economics and marketing and awareness? We certainly have seen underlying intellectual property that gets rebooted in a fresh way because someone takes it and makes it their own.”