In this age of remakes, reboots and revivals, it stands to reason that even a 2005-08 natural history series can return with new episodes.

Previously airing on Animal Planet, the reboot of “Meerkat Manor” from original series creator Caroline Hawkins and Oxford Scientific Films debuts at 8 p.m. Saturday on BBC America as part of its Wonderstruck nature programming lineup (the premiere is already available on streamer AMC+).

Hawkins said she first brought up the idea of a “Meerkat Manor” revival at a TV programming conference in Las Vegas a few years ago. Hollywood agents reacted positively and after writing a proposal for the update, she took it along with 25 other ideas to a wildlife film festival in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

“Nobody wanted to talk about the 25 other ideas,” Hawkins said, laughing during a Zoom interview Tuesday.

“Meerkat Manor: Rise of the Dynasty” follows the offspring of Kalahari meerkat Flower, matriarch in the original series. Flower was killed by a cobra in a 2007 episode.

“I hit on this dynasty idea because I could see that the dominant females were all Flower’s granddaughters and great-granddaughters,” Hawkins said. “12 years had passed and I wanted it to feel bigger. I often say ‘Meerkat Manor’ seasons one-to-four were a soap opera and ‘Rise of the Dynasty’ is the Netflix box set drama.”

Technical upgrades include the use of ultra-high definition cameras and drones, which didn’t exist during the show’s first run, and an orchestral music score.

“But in doing that I obviously wanted to stay true to what made it a hit in the first place: the lovable characters, the scrapes, the illicit relationships,” Hawkins said. “All that stuff is still there by the bucket load.”

Swift is now matriarch of the Whiskers who come up against new rivals, the Hakuna Matata and the Ubuntu, who are anything but aligned in oneness.

“They’re kind of a dysfunctional family,” Hawkins said. “They’re the neighbors-from-hell for everybody.”

Hawkins said the show always tries to be authentic (the meerkats are part of a long-term study by Cambridge University).

“We follow the day-to-day lives of the meerkats and we take what they do as our inspiration for the narrative,” she said, adding that producers have to put together episodes in roughly chronological order or the changing seasons would show in the landscapes (each season of the show is filmed over six-to-nine months).

On some occasions producers may miss a shot and grab it from a different day; in one instance they almost missed a whole dramatic arc.

Production on the new season began in January 2020 and halted in March 2020 due to the pandemic with camera crews returning home from Africa. Production resumed last August but in the interim there was an attempted coup among one meerkat clan, which occurred between the third and fourth episodes of the new season.

“Cambridge Researchers were still out there so I sent them running down to the building where we normally store our camera equipment, which was all put away, and I said, ‘Just get the nearest camera you can find, switch it on and point it and shoot it and see what you get,’” Hawkins recalled. “We captured a moment that we wouldn’t have caught otherwise.”

The meerkats are named by the Cambridge researchers, who compile a “look book” for the production that helps producers tell one meerkat from another. The dominant female in each clan is outfitted with a radio tracking collar.

The camera crew sends a report of what happens each day which helps producers back in England fashion stories and make decisions on which characters to follow.

The first six episodes of this 13-episode season will debut in the coming weeks before the show takes a break. The rest of the season will air later this year.

In this first batch of episodes, Hawkins promises some “edge-of-your-seat moments” but nothing as upsetting as Flower’s death in the original series.

‘The Republic of Sarah’

Knowing the outlines of the plot, viewers should approach The CW’s “The Republic of Sarah” (9 p.m. June 14, WPCW-TV) knowing suspension of disbelief is required.

Even at that, it’s dumbfounding how much the show elides fertile territory for dramatic story in favor of the usual, predictable CW-patented relationship drama.

When a mining company comes into Greylock, N.H., intent on digging up the town to extract a mineral, high school history teacher Sarah (Stella Baker, daughter of “The Guardian” and “The Mentalist” star Simon Baker and actress Rebecca Rigg) foments a revolution.

Through some clever cartography, Sarah convinces the town to vote for independence, saying Greylock was never legally and rightfully claimed by either the United States or Canada. When it comes to a believable premise, that’s a big ask.

But then the writers pile on more incredulous twists, like how someone arrested by the Feds for trying to overthrow the U.S. government could be bailed out.

Equally ridiculous, the show’s second episode picks up the story months later, skipping over a wealth of potential drama to hit a reset button that effectively erases the cliffhanger at the end of the pilot. That’s when I decided it was time to emigrate from this bananas republic in favor of other viewing options.

Kept/canceled

FX renewed British comedy “Breeders” for season three.

Unsurprisingly given the low ratings, NBC canceled watch-at-your-own-risk drama “Debris.”

Showtime renewed “City on a Hill” for a third season.

Apple TV+ will bring back “The Mosquito Coast” for a second season.

Channel surfing

Munhall’s Gabby Barrett and Dan + Shay (which includes Dan Smyers of Wexford) are both up for honors at the “2021 CMT Music Awards” (8 p.m. Wednesday, CMT). … The 43rd annual “Kennedy Center Honors” premieres at 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS. …“Evil,” which is moving from CBS to streamer Paramount+, will debut its second season June 20 on the streaming service. … “The Good Fight” returns for its 10-episode fifth season June 24 on Paramount+. … The first three episodes of the “iCarly” sequel series debut June 17 on Paramount+. … CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” returns to the Ed Sullivan Theater with a fully vaccinated audience on June 14. … “CBS This Morning” will move into a new Times Square studio this fall. … …“The Boss Baby: Family Business” will debut on streaming service Peacock Premium on July 2, the same day it hits theaters. … The 74th annual Tony Awards celebrating the pre-pandemic 2019-20 Broadway season will stream on Paramount+ at 7 p.m. Sept. 26 followed at 9 p.m. on CBS by “The Tony Awards Present: Broadway’s Back!,” a live concert event celebrating the reopening of Broadway shows. … The fourth and final season of Netflix family comedy “Atypical” debuts July 9. … South Side-based Fred Rogers Productions has secured $1 million in grant funding from The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation to support the production of “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” “Donkey Hodie” and newcomer “Alma’s Way,” debuting this fall. … FRP’s “Through the Woods” shorts, originally produced for the Curious World app, will air for the first time on PBS Kids after “Donkey Hodie” episodes beginning June 4. … Pittsburgher Nicholas Pasqual will compete on CBS’s “Let’s Make a Deal” (10 a.m. weekdays, KDKA-TV) on June 10.

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