A few years ago, when it was announced that TNT would be rebooting the legendary nighttime drama Dallas, fans of the original show were both thrilled and apprehensive. Would watching it be as gripping as it was the first time around, or would it be a permanent stain on the brand? In the three seasons that Dallas 2.0 graced the airwaves, Cynthia Cidre proved that you can not only breathe life into an aging brand, you can make it better.

1. Don’t fall into the trap of “The Dog and His Reflection”. The most important thing going into any rebranding effort is to keep your core audience in mind. Had Cidre failed to bring Larry Hagman, Linda Gray, and Patrick Duffy on board, the existing viewership would not have been interested. For people like me—my ringtone is the Dallas theme song—changing too much would have been a complete turnoff.

When you decide to rebrand, don’t forget that there are people who already know and love what you do. While you’re trying to appeal to new people, it’s important not to change so much that your loyal clients or customers can’t connect with you anymore or simply forget about you.

Don’t let your rebranding story echo that of “The Dog and His Reflection” in Aesop’s Fables—the one where the dog has a bone in his mouth, sees his reflection in a pool of water, thinks there is another bone, opens his mouth to get it, and loses the bone he already has.

2. Find a new aesthetic. In the 80s, Dallas never quite kept up with the wardrobe of its primary competitor, Dynasty. In the reboot, the outfits echoed those worn on Suits. Everyone was perfectly dressed and perfectly coiffed, and it was more visually stimulating to watch than it ever had been in its original run (except, of course, for the episode in which Victoria Principal, Morgan Brittany, and Audrey Landers all appeared in a single shot— it was a jaw-dropping collection of beautiful people—or the first time viewers were introduced to Lucy).

3. Keep up with the changing times. There were a few noticeable differences in the new Dallas. With fast-paced shows—like House of Cards and Scandal— being all the rage, the slightly languid, deliberate pace of the original show would have felt borderline daytime-y. The new show took note of this and, in their 10-15-episode seasons, packed more drama, action, and intrigue than the original show did in its 23-to-31-episode seasons.

Then, there were the cliffhangers you never saw coming. With shows like Sherlock featuring cliffhangers on which the main character presumably dies and is then shown watching their own funeral before cutting to the credits, a killer cliffhanger is de rigueur in modern television. Sure, J.R. being shot at the end of the original run’s 1979-1980 season inspired t-shirts, but, come on, who couldn’t see that coming? Cidre and company liked to end the season with an I-can’t-believe-that-just-happened moment, like Rebecca (who, as it turned out, was actually Pamela Rebecca Barnes) being Cliff and Afton’s daughter or Christopher getting blown up (while, simultaneously, Elena discovers that she is pregnant and John Ross discovers that he has a sister, presumably Callie’s daughter).

The truly successful part of the way they kept up with the changing times with these jaw-dropping cliffhangers was that many of them honored the original show and the core fan base, proving to be another of the many ways that they perfected the delicate balance between old and new in their evolving brand. Keep up with the changing times, but don’t go too far. For example, Nordstrom adding live chat as part of their commitment to customer service is a good way to keep up with the times, but, if in doing so they had eliminated the in-store customer service that they are famous for, their brand would immensely suffer.

4. Young blood can bring new energy. Josh Henderson was relatively unknown when he was cast as John Ross Ewing. With Larry Hagman in a supporting role, it was questionable if he would be able to carry the manipulation-driven action that has always been at the heart of Dallas. As it turned out, John Ross was more complicated than his father ever was, and it was entirely compelling to watch. John Ross’s evil machinations were usually inspired by him feeling hurt or betrayed—he would wear his father’s devious persona as a cloak to protect himself and hurt the people who had hurt him.

These days, we love our complicated characters—Emily/ Amanda on Revenge or any of the characters on Orange is the New Black (and Walter White has even inspired academics to try to “unpeel” his “layers”)—and Josh Henderson delivered. If your brand is struggling to revive itself, new people can bring new ideas, new energy, and a new vision to the table—just don’t let it override your core values, common sense, or anything that doesn’t feel right (when you watch the Honda commercials with He-Man and Skeletor, you can just see the pitch: Geeks are hot, think ‘The Big Bang Theory’!, and a room of executives shrugging their shoulders and saying “kids these days… I guess this is what they like”).

5. Learn from the past. Let’s face it: season nine of the original Dallas was pretty awful without Patrick Duffy. So awful, in fact, that they had to pass the entire season off as a dream. Recognizing this, it was important that Bobby be a central character in the reboot.

If you have tried to change certain aspects of your business in the past, and customers and clients have responded negatively, keep this in mind as you go into a rebranding effort.

In its reboot of Dallas, TNT provided an excellent example of rebranding done the right way. They took the brand to a fresh, interesting, of-the-moment place, but without doing so to the detriment of their core audience. Any business that is looking to rebrand can take a few lessons from Cynthia Cidre’s book.