Get your damn dirty hands off these franchises!

By Michael Avila

updated 1:19 p.m. ET May 8, 2009

Previously we looked at five examples of how to properly resuscitate a pop culture franchise. You don’t need a Project Genesis or the Phoenix Force to do it; just a talented producer/writer/director team that understands what makes a particular character or concept exceptional, gutsy enough to go off in bold directions.

J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” has successfully done that and finally breathed new life in a property that was on creative life-support for years, including (as seen here) major missteps like the Bill Shatner-directed “The Final Frontier.” So giving the unsuccessful attempts equal time, here's a look at the Top 5 Worst Franchise Face-lifts ever.

Dishonorable mention
The “Pink Panther” movies with Steve Martin earn a spot in the Reboot Hall of Shame for neutering Peter Sellers’ classic films and loading them with childish pratfalls and silly, dated comedy bits.

We could also mention about a dozen TV remakes — we're looking at you “Honeymooners” and “McHale’s Navy” — but “Bewitched” with Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell gets its own special nod. Not just because that wretched film soiled the memory of one of a classic sitcom or because Nora Ephron’s “TV show remake-within-a-remake” story simply outsmarted itself, but because it made one of the funniest guys on the planet — that would be Ferrell — painfully unfunny. And that’s something we just won’t put up with.

5. ‘Knight Rider’ (2008)
As bad a small-screen reinvention as “Battlestar Galactica” was good.

Sure, casting a soap opera guy as Michael Knight’s son and new hero was rather symmetrical. Before he became “the Hoff”, David Hasselhoff cut his teeth on “The Young and the Restless.”

Problem is, when your leading man is less interesting than the car he’s driving, your show’s in trouble. And Hasselhoff’s successor, Justin Bruening had the charisma of oatmeal. Plain oatmeal.

Speaking of the show’s headliner, did anyone really get excited about the new K.I.T.T.?

Instead of creating an action-adventure series for modern audiences, “KR2008,” thanks to lazy writing and stock characters pulled out of NBC inventory, managed to be as campy as its ancestor, without any of the charm of the original.

4. ‘Lost in Space’ (1998)
We like our science fiction camp-free, unless it’s having fun with the concept, a la “Galaxy Quest.” But this big-screen revival of the beloved 1960s TV show took itself way too seriously.

There was absolutely no sense of fun or adventure, and the lackluster special effects didn’t help. This also may have been the worst casting job the genre’s seen since Anthony Perkins and Ernest Borgnine were creating classic unintentional comedy in Disney's “The Black Hole.”

William Hurt and Gary Oldman seemed to have no idea what the hell was going on, Matt LeBlanc could’ve used Shatner’s old girdle from the last season of “Star Trek,” and a very young, “Party of Five”-era Lacey Chabert looked like she wanted to scream for Charlie and Bailey to come take her home.

Raise your hands if you ever stop to watch this movie when you stumble upon it while channel surfing? Yeah. Didn’t think so.

3. ‘Godzilla’ (1998)
Size does matter. And Roland Emmerich’s “Godzilla” was a monstrous disappointment.

More on ‘Star Trek’ AP Khan, Shatner could appear in ‘Trek’ sequel In a recent interview with MTV News, director J.J. Abrams said he’s open to bringing back both of these beloved “Trek” players. Shatner almost had part in new ‘Star Trek’ Hardcore fans ready to judge ‘Star Trek’ Reality check for ‘Star Trek’ tech Can Star Trek's non-violent utopia happen? Quinto ready to live long and prosper as Spock Quiz: What do you know about ‘Star Trek’? First Person: Fans don Trekkie gear Newsweek: How the geeks inherited the earth Newsweek: A 'Trek' writer spills show secrets

After nearly a year of hype built through an effective marketing campaign that kept the title creature’s look under wraps, when the big reveal finally happened, there were no “oohs” or “aahs” ... just ‘eh.’

We sat through a year of Taco Bell ads for this?!?

The man who came up with the creature’s design, Patrick Tatopoulos, said his monster was “not a dinosaur at all. It’s like a dragon.”

Uh ... Patrick, it sure looked like a dinosaur to the rest of us.

The fact that Spielberg had dropped “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” on us the previous summer also took the wind out of the film’s “Monster in Metropolis” angle.

The worst part about Godzilla was not that it was awful. It wasn’t. It was ordinary. The spectacle that should be a monster movie’s bread-and-butter was nowhere to be found.

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