True enough: in 1987, NBC aired a TV movie called “Bates Motel,” which starred Bud Cort as Alex West, a fellow with a few mental troubles who shared some quality time with Norman Bates in the state insane asylum and, as a result, finds himself the beneficiary of the Bates Motel in Norman’s will. The intent was to use the movie as a backdoor pilot for a weekly anthology series of sorts, following the lives of individuals passing through as guests of the motel, but when ratings for the movie proved disappointing, the plan for the series was abandoned.

But A&E’s “Bates Motel” isn’t a retread of that premise. Instead, it’s a prequel, revealing how Norman Bates became the kind of guy who’d grow obsessed with his mother that he’d take on her identity on occasion and kill anyone who looked at him sideways.

Oh, wait, you say that’s already been done, too?

Yep, it sure has: in 1990, Showtime produced “Psycho IV: The Beginning,” which pointedly ignored the aforementioned TV movie and showed a very-much-still-alive Norman (Anthony Perkins) calling into a radio talk show about – what are the odds? – matricide, using the conversation as a framing device to flash back to his youth and reveal the bond between Norma Bates (Olivia Hussey) and her son (played by Henry Thomas). It doesn’t exactly hew 100% to the continuity established by the preceding three films, but as a standalone film for casual fins, it holds up relatively well, thanks in no small part to Perkins’ performance.

Actually, A&E’s “Bates Motel” isn’t a retread of that premise, either. Not really, anyway. I mean, yes, it starts at approximately the same point in Norman’s life, and the general idea is the same, in that it’s looking into all the Oedipal-ness of the Norma/Norman relationship. This time, though, it isn’t a period piece. For better or worse, it takes place in present day, which means that it’s arguably not a prequel at all but, instead, more of a complete reboot of the franchise.

Don’t worry, though: the Bates Motel itself still looks just as decrepit and foreboding as ever.

But, of course, “Bates Motel” is far from the first occasion of an existing property has been turned into a prequel for TV. Heck, it’s not even the first time it’s happened in 2013!

Muppet Babies (CBS, 1984-1990): Although baby versions of the Muppets first appeared in a scene in “The Muppets Take Manhattan,” the film only appeared in theaters a few months before “Muppet Babies” joined the CBS Saturday morning line-up, so it’s clear that the powers knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that kids wouldn’t be able to resist the li’l darlings. As it turned out, though, the writing on “Muppet Babies” and the incorporation of its characters’ imaginations and their resulting fantasies made it one of the most enjoyable Saturday morning series in many moons. It’s just a shame that we’re likely never to see a complete-series set of the show, as the funds it would require to secure the rights to include the episodes featuring clips from other TV series and films would be decidedly cost-prohibitive. Sigh…

Star Wars: Droids (ABC, 1985-1986)
Star Wars: Ewoks (ABC, 1985-1986)

Unlike “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” which was always designed to serve as a bridge between the goings on in the second and third chapters in the “Star Wars” saga, no one knew in 1985 if George Lucas would ever deign to fill in the blanks he’d established for a possible prequel trilogy. As such, younger “Star Wars” fans lost their minds when they learned of “Droids,” which was intended to loosely establish what R2D2 and C3P0 had been doing in the years immediately prior to “Star Wars IV: A New Hope.” Decidedly fewer viewers cared what the Ewoks had been doing prior to “Return of the Jedi,” but we got the answer to that, too.

The Flintstone Kids (ABC, 1986-1988)
A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (ABC, 1988-1991)

Not that animated series are required by law to follow their established chronologies, but there’s something really obnoxious about the way Hanna-Barbera decided to cheapen the legacy of two of its most iconic series by saying, “Hey, let’s make ‘em little kids and wring a few more bucks out of the franchise!” In fairness, we never really knew how Scooby and the gang got together, so “A Pup Named Scooby-Doo” might well be considered part of the canon, but in the Season 4 “Flintstones” episode, “Bachelor Days,” we got the back story on the first meeting of Fred and Barney and Wilma and Betty, and it definitely didn’t take place when they were wee.

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (ABC, 1992-1996)

For my part, I don’t think I’ll ever forgive the way this series, when it was released on DVD, opted to trash all of the book-ending sequences featuring George Hall as an elderly Indiana Jones, presumably because Harrison Ford was getting a little too close to that age by that point. Still, this was a fun series which helped fill in some gaps in Dr. Jones’ history while also helping younger viewers learn history.

The Little Mermaid (CBS, 1992-1994)
Jungle Cubs (ABC, 1996-1996)
Hercules (Syndication, 1998-1999)

Disney may have done to the characters from “The Jungle Book” basically the same thing that Hanna-Barbera did with “The Flintstones” and “Scooby-Doo,” but darned if they didn’t do it in such a beautifully animated fashion that you tend to be more forgiving of their efforts. “The Little Mermaid” and “Hercules,” however, were slightly less egregious in their flashbacks, with the latter actually turning out to be an extremely funny series filled with tons of great guest voices.

Ponderosa (PAX-TV, 2001-2002)

You don’t have to be all that well-versed in TV history to know that the turn of the millennium was not exactly what you’d call the glory days of the western genre, but given that PAX-TV was trying to cater to an older, gentler demographic, it’s understandable why they’d decide that it might be a reasonable plan of action to try and revisit the lives of the Cartwright family and reveal what was going on in the years prior to those portrayed in “Bonanza.” Unfortunately, series with gentler tones don’t tend to draw a lot of attention to themselves, especially when they’re on a relatively small cable network.

Star Trek: Enterprise (UPN, 2001-2005)

The idea of doing a series about the earliest days of the United Federation of Planets was a reasonable one, given the amount of history which had been established in various other “Star Trek” series over the course of the preceding decades. Unfortunately, “Enterprise” spent so much more time trying to create its own new history that by the time the creators realized that they’d made a tactical error, the writing was already on the wall for the series’ fate. It’s a shame, really, as the last series was easily the best season of the bunch.

Clifford’s Puppy Days (PBS Kids, 2003-2004)

We all know that Emily Elizabeth’s love made Clifford grow so big that her family had to leave their home and relocate to Birdwell Island. What we never knew, however, was what life was like for this little girl in the early days of her relationship with her then-little red dog. This was possibly not need-to-know information, as “Clifford’s Puppy Days” only lasted for a single season.

Caprica (SyFy, 2010)

For those “Battlestar Galactica” fans who wanted all the deets on how the Cylons first came to be created, Ronald D. Moore came up with “Caprica,” starring Eric Stoltz as Daniel Graystone, the man who used his daughter Zoe as the model for the very first Cylon. Although critics embraced the series for the most part, viewer became increasingly less enthused, resulting in only a single-season run for the show.

The Carrie Diaries (The CW, 2013)

Since the odds of seeing another “Sex and the City” movie seem to be shrinking with each passing day, it’s not entirely unreasonable for The CW to decide to move forward on a series based on Candace Bushnell’s story of Carrie Bradshaw’s life circa 1984. Surprisingly, the series is a great deal of fun, offering an inevitably awesome soundtrack while providing a sweet, nostalgic look back at day-glo days gone by while offering a bit of new insight into the character of Carrie that was established on the HBO series.

These comments, as you may have guessed, are the way Jordan Hembrough, host and star of the new Travel Channel series “Toy Hunter,” bookended our phone conversation a few days ago. Like myself, he’s both a father and an unabashed sci-fi geek, so it should be no surprise that I enjoyed watching the initial installment of his show, which finds him traveling the country in search of various toys and action figures, including just about everything that was part of my pop culture diet growing up, including “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “The Six Million Dollar Man,” and even relative obscurities like “Space 1999” and Disney’s “The Black Hole.”

“Toy Hunter” premieres tonight at 10 PM (9 PM CST) on Travel Channel. If it isn’t already programmed into your TiVo – and if you’ve ever been called a geek or a nerd in your time, it really should be – then perhaps this chat will inspire you to fix that situation post-haste.

Bullz-Eye: First of all, I’ve got to tell you that not only did I enjoy watching the screener, but I’ve got a seven-year-old daughter, and she was digging it right along with me.

Jordan Hembrough: You know, Will, I’ve got to tell you: you just hit something that’s…it’s a real special chord with me. I’m really hoping that families will watch this show together, because when I watched it with my kids, they were enjoying it and asking me about old toys as well.

BE: One of the funniest things – and you may have experienced this, too – was that one of the most frequent comments I heard from my daughter was, “You really played with that?”

JH: [Laughs.] You know, that’s exactly what my son said to me. He goes, “So did you get this with an iPhone application?” “No.” “So does it hook up to a computer?” “No, it doesn’t hook up to a computer!”

BE: In prepping for this conversation, I discovered that you had an affiliation with Starlog when you first got started in the toy business.

JH: Yeah! You know Starlog?

BE: Absolutely. I’m 41, so I used to read it back in the day.

JH: Well, there you go: I’m 42. Yeah, I was the buyer for their chain of retail stores. It was awesome. I had a great time. In fact, that’s how I actually got my start doing what I do. When the company shut down, I bought a lot of the inventory. It was fantastic. I was excited about that.

BE: So what first got you into the geekier pursuits, as it were, of sci-fi and whatnot?

JH: [Laughs.] Well, I’ve got to be honest with you: I’ve always been a diehard collector. It’s something I’ve done all my life. I was a huge “Star Wars” collector when I was a kid. And when I was in college, right before I graduated, I used to shop at Starlog, and they were just starting up the giant franchise corporation and asked me to come on as a merchandise coordinator, which turned into a buyer for the company. So when you talk about sci-fi and geek stuff, it’s because when I was a kid, I was a huge “Star Wars” collector.

BE: So what made you decide to turn it into a career? Certainly, when Starlog closed its doors, you could’ve just as easily said, “Well, that was fun, but I’ve done my time.”

JH: You know, Will, the truth of the matter is that I didn’t know what else to do with my life. [Laughs.] I basically said, “I don’t want to become an accountant. I don’t want to be a lawyer. What can I do?” And I said, “Y’know what? I really love toys. Let’s see if I can really do this. Let’s see if I can make a career out of it.” And I have. And I’m very fortunate to do what I do.

BE: Earlier this year, prior to “Toy Hunter” going to series, you did a one-hour “Toy Hunters” special. How did you cross paths with Travel Channel in the first place?

JH: I was actually contacted by Sharp Entertainment a little over a year, and Sharp Entertainment…they’re very known for “Man vs. Food” and “Adam Richman’s Best Sandwich in America,” and they have a really great working relationship with Travel Channel as well. So Sharp pitched the show to Travel, and Travel picked it up as a one-hour special. And we did exceptionally well in the ratings, but I think what really turned it around was the fan support on social media, because a lot of fans came out on various social media sites and on the website and said how much they loved the show and wanted to see more of it.

BE: A lot of people may think it’s more or less the same as Kevin Smith’s show on AMC (“Comic Book Men”), but it’s actually the flip side, one could argue, because you’re actually going out into the field.

JH: I would agree. We’re out in the field, we’re hunting through basements and attics everywhere in America, and…what I always say, what I tell everyone, is that I’m on the Great American Toy Hunt. America is essentially my co-pilot on this journey with me, and…well, as I said, I’m very, very lucky to do what I do. And it is Travel Channel, so we are out there in the field as often as not.

BE: “Star Wars” is obviously a big deal for you, but is there a specific toy genre that you’d say that you specialize in? I’ve read that you’re pretty deep into “Thundercats.”

JH: Yeah, you could say that. [Laughs.] So are there any fields that I specialize in? Basically all of the ‘80s toys, both boys and girls. They’re my sweet spot that I really truly love. 1970s as well. So of course I’m partial to lines like “Star Wars” and “Battlestar Galactica,” because it’s what I collected as a child, but a lot of the other toy lines are really, really fun, too, like “Thundercats,” like “Masters of the Universe.” Even the girls’ lines like “Strawberry Shortcake” and “Jem,” they’re interesting to me because I’m always surprised at how much money some of them can get.

BE: Say, out of curiosity, how do the “Black Hole” figures hold up in value nowadays?

JH: [Laughs.] Boy, I gotta tell ya, it’s so funny you mention that, because aside from a couple of them, they’re only like $30 or $40. But I just came across a designer who actually worked on the original line and had some of the prototypes and some of the original wax sculpting for Maximilian and Vincent. Those sold for thousands of dollars each. They did very well.

BE: When I grew up, my mother was a teacher and my father worked for the railroad, so, y’know, we were lower/middle class, which meant that our toys tended to not always be “Star Wars” but, rather, “Star Trek” or “Space 1999.”

JH: I love it! That’s great, too. “Star Trek” and “Space 1999” are great toys. In fact, the Eagle One play set from Mattel for “Space 1999” is one of the hardest toys to get on the market complete. And if you have one sealed, it’s probably close to $900.

BE: Well, I didn’t have one sealed for very long, but I did get it for Christmas one year.

JH: Awesome! Well, you opened it up and played with it. That’s the next best thing. [Laughs.]

BE: I know you go to New Jersey and North Carolina in the first “Toy Hunter” installments, but where else does the rest of the first season take you?

JH: Yeah, we went to North Carolina and to Jersey, we went to Los Angeles and to San Francisco. We kicked around parts of Texas for awhile, and now we’re just gearing up to…well, I’m gearing up personally to go to Florida, because I’m doing the “Star Wars” Celebration. I’m on a panel down there, giving a talk on what it’s like to follow me on the road and film toys for TV.

BE: What’s it like being in front of the camera?

JH: You know what? It’s not as hard as you would think for me. I’m talking about what I know, I’m talking about what I love. When I was younger, I was actually an actor and did a bunch of bit parts on TV and a lot of theater, so I’m really marrying two of my loves, and that really means a lot to me. So for me, it’s not that difficult. It’s the things that you don’t think about that become troublesome, like, “Did I pack enough clean underwear for the road?” [Laughs.]

BE: So what’s your favorite purchase that you’ve found thus far that you can talk about without giving too much away?

JH: Well, I can tell you that I was able to find… [Starts to laugh.] I was able to find some “Jurassic Park” toys that were very, very special to me. It was special, basically, because they went for a lot more than I thought they would, and it was a father-and-son collecting team together… I don’t want to give away too much, but I think it’s a great episode, and I think you’ll enjoy watching it along with everyone else.

BE: Do you find it hard to get some of the people you’re dealing with to part with these items?

JH: You know, I do, and I think I kind of shoot myself in the foot sometimes because I get so excited about the stuff. They start going, “Oh, you know what? I think I’m gonna keep this. I don’t know if I want to sell it!” [Laughs.] So every now and then, it does become difficult.

BE: When did you open your store, Hollywood Heroes?

JH: I opened Hollywood Heroes…we were incorporated in 1995.

BE: What was it like to step out on your own like that?

JH: Um…scary. [Laughs.] But it was also exhilarating. I think I feel everything that every other entrepreneur and business owner feels. You know, there’s trepidation when the market is down. I think the really differentiating factor between what I do and what someone else does is that nobody truly needs the toys that I’m selling. I mean, when you have a mortgage or the kids need braces, you don’t need a Batman figure. But on that same note, it always surprises me and amazes me how those people always find the money to get the toys that they love. And that really invigorates me to keep doing what I’m doing. Because to these people, this is very important, and if it’s important to them, it’s important to me.

BE: So how much time are you required to spend traveling for “Toy Hunter”? Does it take you away from the business?

JH: That’s a very good question. It’s taking a lot of time away from my business. Right now we’re in the early stages of trying to figure this out. It’s a juggling act for me. So what I’m doing is, I’m getting help from other people who work at the company with me part-time for shouldering the load, answering emails and shipping toys and picking up shipments and everything like that. So right now it’s a juggling act, but it’s like every other new business model. That’s the way I’m looking at this. I’m filming a show and running a business. It’ll work itself out. I’m happy to be here.

BE: In one interview I read online, you mentioned that you were very proud of a “Lost in Space” toy you’d found. Are there any other classics from your back catalog that you’re still particularly proud of? Not necessarily something you’ve found during the show, so you don’t have to spoil anything.

JH: [Laughs.] You know, awhile ago I did purchase a prototype of Boba Fett from the original “Star Wars” line from Kenner. It was the original wax sculpt, and it truly was one of a kind. I don’t think I’ll see another one like it again. I regret that one leaving my inventory. But I’m happy, because it was known around the world, and I was the one that got it, and I was the one who brought it to market. That sold for $65,000. It’s in a very good home right now. It’s overseas in a private collector’s hands, and I know that it will not go anywhere. And usually when I know the toy will be locked up in a private collection and not for resale, it at least makes the parting less sorrowful. It makes me feel a little better about saying goodbye.

BE: I’d think it’d make you a little antsy when you’re selling to somebody who, in your heart of hearts, you suspect might be a little shifty.

JH: Yeah, you’re right, and that’s why you talk to people a lot about stuff. It’s a double-edged sword. I mean, you can say on one hand, “I got the money I wanted, so I’m good with it.” But on the other hand, it hurts when you see those items come up to market again. Especially if I’m not offered the chance to buy it back. [Laughs.]

The series takes place in Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, the comic shop Smith owns in Red Bank, NJ, and revolves around the guys who work there – Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Michael Zapcic, and Ming Chen – as they go through their daily routine, much of which…at least for the purposes of the series, anyway…will involve the people who bring items into the store in hopes of selling them.

Yes, that’s right, go ahead and figure on every review of “Comic Book Men” featuring some reference to the series being like “Pawn Stars,” except geekier. This is in no way an inaccurate comparison. In fact, to hear Smith tell it, his pitch for the series actually involved the words, “Let’s do ‘Pawn Stars’ in a comic book store.” But, look, I’m just gonna tell you outright: that sentence alone would’ve been enough to get me to sign up for a season pass on TiVo, and having now actually watched a rough cut of the first episode, I see no reason to backpedal on that theory. Not only do we see some pretty cool shit coming into the store – like, say, a still-boxed Six Million Dollar Man figure with bionic “scope” eye – but there’s a lot of incredibly geeky conversation, too, like the guys’ deepest superhero crushes. (For the record, mine was always Tigra. Just sayin’.)

By the way, speaking of Smith, you probably noticed that I didn’t mention his name as one of the guys who works at the Secret Stash. This, of course, is because he’s got better things (relatively speaking) to do with his time. Don’t worry, though: he’s still in every episode, since the goings-on in the store end up being discussed on the group’s podcast, of which Smith is a part, and the recording sessions have been filmed and are spliced into the proceedings.

I’d really hoped to be able to sit down with Mr. Smith for a one-on-one interview during the course of the TCA press tour last month, but the man’s schedule was pretty well booked up, so the best I could wrangle was a roundtable. The good news: there were only three of us sharing the table with Kevin. The bad news: we only had 15 minutes with him. Now, please understand that I’m not being Bitchy McMoaney about this, like, “Woe is me, I only got to spend 15 minutes with the man behind ‘Clerks’ and ‘Mallrats,’ life sucks.” My issue about the time frame is…well, look, if you’ve ever seen one of Kevin Smith’s live performances, you know that the dude can talk like nobody’s business. There is video documentation to confirm that he can take a single question and run with it for an hour, sometimes longer. In short, each of us got one question answered – I was third – and after he answered mine, the publicist said, “We’ve got time for just one more.”

So, basically, what I’m saying is that Kevin Smith is not a man whose responses lend themselves to roundtables…but, hey, at least I got one question answered.

Earlier in the discussion, Smith had made a comment about how AMC had been interested in the series because they wanted to try and maintain the “geek” audience that was watching “The Walking Dead.” As a geek myself, I felt obliged to ask: just how geeky is the show allowed to get?

Said Mr. Smith…

We make a G.I. Robot joke. [Laughs.] That’s fucking so obscure, dude, I don’t know who else is gonna get it. Maybe five people on the planet…? But they let it ride. So there’s a lot of stuff like that. I mean, yeah, there’s definitely, like, “Which superhero would you most like to be?” The kind of easy stuff that people do. But then we get into deeper discussions that are more along the lines of “Clerks” or “Mallrats” or something, where we get into it.

Some of the stuff we’ve seen through has been absolutely amazing, you know? That’s been one of the fun things. Since there are transactions in the show, you get to see so much fucking shit come through the doors. So many toys, some things you’ve never seen before, and stuff like that. We had this guy bring in this Superman poster, and I’d never seen it…and I’ve seen a lot of Superman posters, but I’d never seen this particular one. And the back story he gave to it was fucking astounding. He was just, like, “This is Gay Superman.” “Well, what do you mean?” He’s, like, “The guy who painted this Superman, and he wanted this to be the representation of the ideal gay Superman.” I said, “Where did you learn this?” He’s just, like, “Everybody knows this.” [Laughs.] And I’m well studied, and I have never heard of this, never seen this depiction at all. And then Flanagan started buying into it, ‘cause he’s, like, “Look at his foot, he’s curling his toe!” It was ridiculous. But you get to see some stuff… I was, like, “That is a bad-ass poster, man! Where did that come from?”

The weird thing is, everyone that comes in to sell… Our store is not a buying place. Like, Walter believes in, like, “Get a book up on the wall, flip it, and get it off.” He doesn’t leave stuff up there forever. So you have all these people coming in to do transactions, and Walter’s, like, “Nah, it’s too much for us.” [Laughs.] “No, that’s too much. And that’s too much as well.” So there are a lot of people looking deflated. But he didn’t clown it up, he didn’t fake it for TV. He was just, like, “I wouldn’t buy this shit.” Like, at one point, he was just, like, “Am I supposed to buy things that we wouldn’t normally buy?” I was, like, “No, dude. Reality. Do whatever you would do.” He was, like, “Well, I ain’t buying this stuff!” This guy wants a thousand dollars for a Superman poster. I was, like, “Yeah, don’t buy that. Please.”

So you’re probably thinking, “What did the other two journalists ask Kevin?” And that’s a reasonable question, but I’m going to let those guys keep their own questions and answers to themselves in favor of closing with a few highlights from the panel which took place about an hour later, mostly because it produced some of the most entertaining moments of the TCA tour. Part of that comes from the fact that I’m a Kevin Smith fan, obviously, but, frankly, some of these panels can be pretty freaking lifeless. If nothing else, you can’t say that Smith didn’t liven up the afternoon for us…and to prove it, here’s a trio of quotes which sum up the general vibe of Smith’s performance:

“The experience (of working) with AMC has been religious. Now I’m going to do a bit of AMC cock suckery here, so if you have no stomach for that, just put on your iPod or something like that. I don’t watch the shit that’s on TV. I watch two channels: AMC, because I fucking love ‘Mad Men.’ I love ‘Walking Dead,’ ‘Breaking Bad.’ My wife loved ‘Rubicon.’ I couldn’t understand it, felt like a dumbass, but she liked it a lot. And I watch Oxygen because I love ‘Snapped.’ I love to see women who kill their husbands. Anyway, so AMC, the channel I watch, like I don’t really TiVo anything else. It’s just pretty much AMC now that ‘Battlestar Galactica’ is off the air, it’s pretty much all AMC shows.”

“All I ever hear single women talk about is not being able to find a good man. You will never find a better man than in a comic book store because if you throw a comic book guy just a little bit of attention and/or pussy, you got him for life. Life, the most loyal husband you’ll have. My wife, she gave me she dropped her standards this much, and she got me for life, man, much because she gave me a shot. Comic book guys are reliable dudes. So I don’t have to sell it beyond that. Ladies, if you’re looking for a man who will take care of your needs first, comic book dudes are all oral. This is where you want to be. That’s what will bring women into a comic book store.”

“AMC came down and met the boys (at Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash). They liked the boys, and Elyse (Seiden, one of the producers of ‘Comic Book Men’), calls me and she goes, ‘We got a show on AMC.’ And I was like…my fucking dick and head exploded because if I had tried to get on AMC, if that was my plan, if I had, like, fucking orchestrated it, it never would have happened. But the fact that it was just luck and happenstance that all of a sudden the network that I love, the one that I fucking watch, now I got not only do I have a show on TV where I can watch my friends for six weeks in a row, it’s on the fucking network that I love. And I’m just like I must have sold my soul to the devil or sucked a dick that I forgot about because this is great fortune that I’m experiencing. And I didn’t really earn it. So I’m just very happy to be here. Thank you.”

“Comic Book Men” premieres at 10 PM on Feb. 12, right after “The Walking Dead.”