By John Jurgensen

Johnny Lawrence was supposed to be left in the 1980s with a kick to the face at the end of "The Karate Kid." Instead, the movie's former teen villain is one of the biggest things on television at the center of "Cobra Kai," a streaming series that carries on the "Karate Kid" tale with a mix of satire and sincerity.

"Cobra Kai" vaulted to No. 1 on Netflix's internal Top 10 chart with the Jan. 1 release of its third season. After "Cobra Kai" first hit Netflix last August, it spent two weeks as the most-watched TV series on major streaming platforms, and spent five weeks total in the top 10, according to Nielsen. Sony Pictures Television, which produces the show, says "Cobra Kai" draws a balance of young and older viewers that is rare among today's diffuse TV audiences.

Johnny is an unlikely character to unite the masses in 2021. The fictional beer-swilling sensei is clueless about computers and social media. He's more interested in Ratt and other ancient rock bands than the shifting social norms that rendered much of his vocabulary obsolete, including an offensive word for coward. The p-word is Johnny's go-to descriptor for wimpy trainees, light beer, and even the unresponsive legs of a star pupil who got paralyzed in a high-school "karate riot."

"People get to live vicariously through Johnny's ignorance of the times. That's what's endearing about him," says William Zabka, the actor who played Johnny in "Karate Kid" at age 18, and again at age 55 in "Cobra Kai." "He's never heard the term 'cancel culture' in his life. He's not informed about what you can say, what you can't say. He's an artifact of the '80s."

In the quest to launch TV hits with cross-generational appeal, producers are retrofitting vintage Hollywood stories with contemporary context. In the works: "Bel-Air," a dramatic take on the sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" for the Black Lives Matter era. A new continuation of "Saved by the Bell," the comedic high-school soap opera from the '90s, has gotten strong reviews on Peacock for popping the bubble of privilege its characters once existed in.

"Cobra Kai" takes the ham-handed Hollywood tropes of 1980s movies and, as if executing some kind of risky martial-arts move, attempts to flip them in a way that both honors and pokes fun at "The Karate Kid."

The show is set three decades after the tournament that ended in Johnny's defeat. He has a messy personal life and simmering resentment against his former high-school foe, Daniel LaRusso. That character, reprised by Ralph Macchio, is now a family man who parlayed local karate stardom into success as a car dealer who hands out bonsai trees to customers. In each 10-episode season, the two middle-aged characters circle each other and train young karate pupils who have alliances and showdowns of their own.

When Johnny scoffs at social-media beefs, or tells his students, "show the world you're not a bunch of pansy ass nerds," viewers from the "Karate Kid" generation might recognize a guy out of step with the times; younger viewers get a comedic twist on the influences that shaped their parents.

"We liked the idea that there is something in these lessons he learned in the '80s -- the G.I. Joe, Rambo, Arnold Schwarzenegger lessons -- that could maybe help some of these Gen-Z kids," says executive producer Hayden Schlossberg, who created the show with Josh Heald and Jon Hurwitz.

The producers, all in their early 40s, were previously known for R-rated movies like "Hot Tub Time Machine" and the "Harold & Kumar" comedies. They're longtime friends who bonded over their love of "The Karate Kid," specifically the actor who also played jocks and studs in other '80s movies such as "Back To School." "All three of us were obsessed with Billy Zabka," Mr. Hurwitz says.

"I didn't realize the '80s was going to be this crystallized decade and those things were going to stick for so long," says Mr. Zabka, who had a role in "Hot Tub Time Machine."

"Cobra Kai" first premiered in 2018 as a flagship series for YouTube, which commissioned the show's three seasons. After YouTube pulled back on scripted originals, Netflix acquired "Cobra Kai," and has ordered a fourth season.

The "Karate Kid" lineage includes three '80s releases starring Mr. Macchio, and later movies featuring Hilary Swank and Jaden Smith. Over the years, various writers had pitched potential TV adaptations, but those ideas only rehashed a familiar premise, says Sony Pictures TV president Jeff Frost. He says "Cobra Kai" worked because "it elevated the original story to another level without deviating from its sensibility."

For one thing, in "Cobra Kai" the bullies get back stories that explain why they act like relentless jerks. In the new season, flashback scenes reveal that the franchise's biggest villain, a glowering karate instructor with the credo "no mercy," was misshapen by family trauma and a tormenting commander in the Vietnam War. The writers say that kind of drama enables the show's more absurd elements. Like when that same sensei, John Kreese (played by Martin Kove), commands high-schoolers to wage war on rival dojos in the San Fernando Valley, telling his teen henchmen, "Prepare yourselves for combat. Only the strong survive."

"The major thing the audience needs to accept is that karate in the Valley is like football in Texas," says Mr. Heald. "That one little buy-in means we don't have to rack our brains saying, 'Is this believable?' "

In the third season -- spoiler alert -- Johnny starts a new dojo that he, true to form, dubs Eagle Fang. That opens the plot to a three-way karate rivalry and new levels of teen combat and melodrama.

Looking back, Mr. Zabka recalls his concerns during the filming of the first season. The actor was protective of the legacy of "The Karate Kid" as a family touchstone, and wanted his character to redeem his infamy. "I had to let go of my micromanaging of what I hoped he would turn out to be," he says.

He questioned the producers about bits like the p-word and the overall tone of "Cobra Kai." "They assured me it was going to be safe but funny but dramatic, but it was going to have action and heart and nostalgia. Well, how is it going to be all of these things?" he says. "In the end they balanced it out."

Write to John Jurgensen at john.jurgensen@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-06-21 1224ET