TV Show adaptations: What works and what doesn't?

[Lt. Kettch]

http://www.foxmovies.com.au/content/fox_films/430/images/BeverlyHillbillies-DVD-FLAT.jpg Best example of an adaptation that worked. The show was never meant to be taken seriously. It was always about someone trying to scam the Clampets out of their money and the Clampets driving Mr. Drysdale crazy with their antics. This adaptation didn't attempt to change the rules or the premise of the show.

http://www.agirlsworld.com/rachel/beat-street/reviews/pix/bewitched_bigposter.jpg Worst example. They couldn't even come up with a decent storyline so they decided to make a movie about making a movie about an old TV show. I never even bothered with watching this but I know there was a point in the movie where Will Ferrell points out that the old show re-cast Darren and no body noticed. While that's true, its not funny. Don't mention th show you are making a movie about. Make a movie about that show. Come up with a decent script and a great cast to replace the phenomenal cast from the original show. Keep Nicole Kidman because she is sexy as all get out but dump Wills @$$ and find someone better suited for the role.

[glue]

Worst example. I never even bothered with watching this

Neat.

I'm not sure if it counts but I love A Night at the Roxbury.

[Sean Whitmore]

I don't have any theories about it, but I think the Addams Family movies worked pretty well. Get Smart was also okay (which is fair, since the show was only ever okay).

And I'm fairly certain that's about it.

So maybe that's my theory. Theatrical adaptations of television shows don't work as a rule, but there are exceptions.


SEAN

[Lt. Kettch]

Neat.

I'm not sure if it counts but I love A Night at the Roxbury.

Please the premise itself exudes fail. Bewitched not Roxbury.

Addams family was decent I suppose I never watched it all the way through but then I never really watched the series either. Didn't the movie go for a more dark feeling compared to the series comedic essence.

The first mission impossible atleast kept with the whole you have no idea what is going on until they tell you premise but they added a james bond feel to it that went way to far in the second movie. I never even saw the third one. Was it any good?

[Legato]

Please the premise itself exudes fail. Bewitched not Roxbury.

Addams family was decent I suppose I never watched it all the way through but then I never really watched the series either. Didn't the movie go for a more dark feeling compared to the series comedic essence.

The first mission impossible atleast kept with the whole you have no idea what is going on until they tell you premise but they added a james bond feel to it that went way to far in the second movie. I never even saw the third one. Was it any good?

The first Addams Family movie was not dark really. The sequal however was pretty dark

[Sean Whitmore]

The first Addams Family movie was not dark really. The sequal however was pretty dark

It was a bit more darkly comic than the show, especially the scenes with Wednesday and Pugsley.

Or even better, the revelation that there are teeny tiny people in all the trains that Gomez crashes. That shot always got a laugh out of me.


SEAN

[Bouncing Boy]

I think that Addams Family and Beverly Hillbillies worked because they were both Fish out of Water shows, so they were able to keep true to the characters and still put them in an updated setting. Turning the Brady Bunch into a Fish out of Water comedy was what made that movie work well too. Perfect casting helped all three of those as well.

[kalorama]

Please the premise itself exudes fail.

That may or may not be true. Regardless, if you hold something up as an example (let alone "the worst example") of a trend, having first hand knowledge of the thing in question is pretty much a prerequisite for the legitimacy of the argument.

[Lt. Kettch]

That may or may not be true. Regardless, if you hold something up as an example (let alone "the worst example") of a trend, having first hand knowledge of the thing in question is pretty much a prerequisite for the legitimacy of the argument.


Sorry I refused to see it. You want me to watch a movie about a show. put sports night back on the air. Otherwise come up with a decent script.

[Chiasm]

Serenity worked but then it should since it was basically a direct sequel to the show with the same cast.

[Sean Whitmore]

Serenity worked but then it should since it was basically a direct sequel to the show with the same cast.

Yeah, continuations like X-Files, Simpsons, etc aren't really adaptations. Nothing has to be reimagined.


SEAN

[kalorama]

Sorry I refused to see it. You want me to watch a movie about a show. put sports night back on the air. Otherwise come up with a decent script.

I don't care less you see it. But if you haven't seen it, then arguing that it's the "worst example" of anything is pretty much meaningless. Because if you haven't seen it, you don't know what you're talking about. For example, if you haven't seen it, on what basis can you comment on the "decency" of the script? None. The only thing you appear to know about the movie is the premise. And while I acknowledge it sounds like crap, I also recognize it's perfectly possible for a decent movie to be made from a faulty premise and a lousy movie to be made from a great premise. So saying a movie you've never seen is the worst ever because you don't like the sound of the premise is pretty giant leap.

[glue]

Please the premise itself exudes fail. Bewitched not Roxbury.


I assure you the premise of ANatR exudes fail as well. I still love it, though. I enjoy Chris Katan and Will Ferrell.

Sorry I refused to see it. You want me to watch a movie about a show. put sports night back on the air. Otherwise come up with a decent script.

So if they put Sports Night back on the air you'll watch the Bewitched movie? What an odd stipulation.

I'm kidding.

[Lt. Kettch]

I don't care less you see it. But if you haven't seen it, then arguing that it's the "worst example" of anything is pretty much meaningless. Because if you haven't seen it, you don't know what you're talking about. For example, if you haven't seen it, on what basis can you comment on the "decency" of the script? None. The only thing you appear to know about the movie is the premise. And while I acknowledge it sounds like crap, I also recognize it's perfectly possible for a decent movie to be made from a faulty premise and a lousy movie to be made from a great premise. So saying a movie you've never seen is the worst ever because you don't like the sound of the premise is pretty giant leap.


So if they said OK we're going to make an a-team movie but its gonna be about making an a-team movie and Murdock is going to be played by an actual crazy ex-marine and none of the other three actors are going to know and its gonna cause all sorts of shenanigans for them on the set. does there seem to be any possible way that movie would work?

[Agent Helix]

Sure, sounds like it could work. Sounds like it could be pretty funny, actually.

Here's the big secret about these movies:

Hollywood doesn't give a crap about your nostalgic feelings for bad television.

[Phil Clark]

The Addams Family worked because they went back to the original source material, the old New Yorker strips, and took it's tone from that as opposed to the only slightly watered down tv series. That, and they had a FANTASTIC cast.

So did Beverly Hillbillies.

[Loren]

Box Office Mojo (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=basedontv.htm) has a handy list of TV-to-movie adaptations. Since I agree with Sean that big-screen continuations with the same original cast aren't adaptations, that leaves us with the following:

The Addams Family I and II
The Avengers
The Beverly Hillbillies
Bewitched
The Brady Bunch Movie I and II
Car 54, Where Are You?
Charlie's Angels I and II
Dragnet
The Dukes of Hazzard
Flipper
The Fugitive
Get Smart
The Honeymooners
I, Spy
Leave it to Beaver
The Little Rascals
Lost in Space
Maverick
McHale's Navy
Miami Vice
Mission Impossible I, II and III
The Mod Squad
My Favorite Martian
The Saint
Sgt. Bilko
Starsky and Hutch
S.W.A.T.
The Untouchables
Wild Wild West

Since most of the other good adaptations have already been mentioned (other than The Fugitive and The Untouchables, whose credentials are pretty impeccable), I'd like to throw in a good word for Maverick.

[Loren]

*double post*

[rick]

They remade the Honeymooners?

That is just too scary to think about.

[Loren]

They remade the Honeymooners?

Starring Cedric the Entertainer in the role of Ralph Kramden, no less.

I assume it was the same studio mindset that looked at Sidney Poitier's "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," and decided to remake it with Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher.

[Guy1]

Kamen Rider the First. Movie adaptation of the orgional Kamen Rider series. Very good. Kept the basic idea and went with it.
Kamen Rider the Next. Movie adaptation of Kamen Rider V3. Oh god. Now, this was good, but, for some unfathomable reason...they put a Ringu ripoff in it, who you didn't freaking care about, and kept switching between that boring plot line which has nothing to do with Kamen Rider's or Shocker, and the important characters. If they had just dumped the Ringu-ripoff and focused more on V3, it would have been way better.

[Loren]

I just realized that the list above is completely missing cartoons that got turned into live-action films.

Alvin and the Chipmunks
Dudley Do-Right
Fat Albert
The Flintstones I and II
George of the Jungle
Josie and the Pussycats
Masters of the Universe
Rocky & Bullwinkle
Scooby-Doo I and II
Underdog

I'll cop to being a fan of the Josie movie. And the first George movie was silly fun.

[EZMOHR]

Box Office Mojo (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=basedontv.htm) has a handy list of TV-to-movie adaptations. Since I agree with Sean that big-screen continuations with the same original cast aren't adaptations, that leaves us with the following:

The Addams Family I and II
The Avengers
The Beverly Hillbillies
Bewitched
The Brady Bunch Movie I and II
Car 54, Where Are You?
Charlie's Angels I and II
Dragnet
The Dukes of Hazzard
Flipper
The Fugitive
Get Smart
The Honeymooners
I, Spy
Leave it to Beaver
The Little Rascals
Lost in Space
Maverick
McHale's Navy
Miami Vice
Mission Impossible I, II and III
The Mod Squad
My Favorite Martian
The Saint
Sgt. Bilko
Starsky and Hutch
S.W.A.T.
The Untouchables
Wild Wild West

Since most of the other good adaptations have already been mentioned (other than The Fugitive and The Untouchables, whose credentials are pretty impeccable), I'd like to throw in a good word for Maverick.


Out of that list...I think Maverick or The Fugitive were the best, or the ones I liked the most. I used to like The Untouchables, but just watched it hte other day and it has not aged well AT ALL. The Adams Family movies were really fun...especially the darker moments. Miami Vice was a novel concept to do as the movie (ie Mann was back) but Foxx was way over his head with the material, and movie just came off as bad. MI:1 was alright as was MI:III, but MI:II was awful and all bore no resemblence to the show. Brady Bunch I was actually damn good for its time, and I liked what Brady Bunch II was trying to do...to a lesser extent. On the cartoon front...I only liked George of the Jungle. Oh, and I'm the only person that liked Speed Racer, so there you go.

OVerall, I guess what I'm saying is that if you stay pretty true to the formula of the show (Maverick, The Fugitive, Brady Bunch, George of the Jungle) your movie has a chance of being a success quality and cashola wise.

[StoneGold]

They remade the Honeymooners?

That is just too scary to think about.

Yes. They called it The Flintstones.


Good movies work. Bad ones don't. Generally, the good ones have an idea beyond "let's take an old product and stretch it out for two hours!"

[Cyke]

Traffic the film is based on the mini-series Traffik, if that counts. Though, since it's a mini-series, that might disqualify it as a TV "show."

Oh, and George of the Jungle was a surprisingly faithful adaptation, I think. For the most part, the film even has some of the same word-play and verbal style jokes as the cartoon.

[Lt. Kettch]

Traffic the film is based on the mini-series Traffik, if that counts. Though, since it's a mini-series, that might disqualify it as a TV "show."

Oh, and George of the Jungle was a surprisingly faithful adaptation, I think. For the most part, the film even has some of the same word-play and verbal style jokes as the cartoon.

Is it the same cast and is it a continuation of the mini series.

[kalorama]

So if they said OK we're going to make an a-team movie but its gonna be about making an a-team movie and Murdock is going to be played by an actual crazy ex-marine and none of the other three actors are going to know and its gonna cause all sorts of shenanigans for them on the set. does there seem to be any possible way that movie would work?

So utterly not the point. It doesn't matter if it could work or not (and, really, pretty much any premise has a chance to work if it's executed well enough). The point is, you made a definitive statement of quality concerning something you, by your own admission, know nothing about. You said flat out that it not only didn't work, but that it failed more than any other attempt of its kind. Everything and anything you say about the movie is suspect (at best) because, having never seen it, you have no basis for forming a meaningful opinion of the movie.

[Cyke]

Is it the same cast and is it a continuation of the mini series.

No, different cast and not a continuation. The mini-series aired in 1989. The story was adapted for the film, to reflect more modern times, and with a more US/Latin slant. The movie credits the mini-series as the source material.

[rick]

Yes. They called it The Flintstones.



Yeah, but that was in 1960.

[Chiasm]

Thanks for the list.

The ones I think that worked are:

Miami Vice - it was a good action flick in its own right.

Scooby Doo - I'm not fond of CGI Scooby but the casting was great. Especially Shaggy,

Addams Family - funny, great casting.

[Toreador]

Well I did watch the movie Bewitched (it was on pay cable) and it was a crap of an adaptation of a tv show. Not only did the Samantha actress (Kidman) was an actual witch she had a magical aunt just as ditsy as the one in the tv show, a father just like the one in the show and a slightly older female friend who dressed and acted like the mother in the show. Also an Uncle Arthur but it wasn't really made clear if he actually existed or was some kind of delusion of the Will Ferrel character.

[Johnny_Luck]

Ones That worked


The Addams Family I and II
Charlie's Angels I and II
The Fugitive
Get Smart
S.W.A.T.


Ones That sucked beyond reason


The Avengers
The Beverly Hillbillies
Bewitched
The Brady Bunch Movie I and II
The Honeymooners
I, Spy
Leave it to Beaver
The Little Rascals
Lost in Space
Miami Vice
Mission Impossible I, II and III
Wild Wild West


Lost in Space both in B&W and in Color was an amazing show and Wild Wild West as tv show was brilliant. They didn't even remotely take stuff from the show for the movie and just as an over the top action will smith fest. Selma hot isn't enough to make up for a crap movie.

[Lt. Kettch]

Ones That worked



Ones That sucked beyond reason



Lost in Space both in B&W and in Color was an amazing show and Wild Wild West as TV show was brilliant. They didn't even remotely take stuff from the show for the movie and just as an over the top action will smith fest. Selma hot isn't enough to make up for a crap movie.

You forget that John Peters heavily influenced that crappy movie. Had it not been for him and Smith, it might have been a decent movie.

[Cyke]

Lost in Space both in B&W and in Color was an amazing show and Wild Wild West as tv show was brilliant. They didn't even remotely take stuff from the show for the movie and just as an over the top action will smith fest. Selma hot isn't enough to make up for a crap movie.

I have to admit, I liked Mission: Impossible III. While still not quite the same tone and spirit as the show, I thought it was the closest compared to the other movies. Namely, this movie had a more developed sense of teamwork and espionage (as opposed to loud explosions and just being Tom Cruise-only vehicles.

I remember being greatly enthusiastic about Wild, Wild West. Of course, I walked out of the theater with a huge sense of disappointment.

[Jared]

Miami Vice was an OK cop movie, but it didn't feel much like the TV series to me.

[KenK]

Ones That worked



Ones That sucked beyond reason






Mission: Impossible II I'll give you, but the first and third movies were fantastic! To say they sucked beyond reason is kind of harsh. Same for Miami Vice, at least it was Michael Mann directing it. It's not like someone took something he helped create and made it worse. It's just that the show was so much of its time that translating it to film for the present was a difficult task. But "sucked byond reason"?!? C'mon!

[DubipR]

I'd have to say The Untouchables, The Fugitive,Maverick, and The Brady Bunch (first one) were the best of the best. The Fugitive took the premise, the characters and gave it a new slant, as did Maverick, who brought some funny to it. But the Brady Bunch didn't take itself serious and literally mocked the series and distilled 3 seasons into a good 2 hour romp.

The worst of them have to be the kid shows turned movies, like Masters of the Univsere, Rocky & Bullwinkle, UnderDog, George of the Jungle, and Dudley Do-Right. Neither any of the Jay Ward shows turned movies caught the sarcasm and essense of their humor. Granted most of it was Cold War era humor but wasn't used properly.

I wanted Miami Vice to work because Michael Mann, the show's creator was going to do it but man....no shirt, no shoes, no script! Failed but had such potential, and didn't hit the marks.

[Sean Whitmore]

I can't believe I forgot about The Fugitive.

Actually I can believe it, because it was so good I generally associate the name with the movie instead of the TV show. A rare case of an adaptation actually working better than the original.


SEAN

[EZMOHR]

I can't believe I forgot about The Fugitive.

Actually I can believe it, because it was so good I generally associate the name with the movie instead of the TV show. A rare case of an adaptation actually working better than the original.


SEAN

Isn't the TV show's last episode still one of the most watched episodes of television ever?

[Sean Whitmore]

Isn't the TV show's last episode still one of the most watched episodes of television ever?

Beats me. What are we talking, like last-episode-of-M*A*S*H numbers?


SEAN

[EZMOHR]

Beats me. What are we talking, like last-episode-of-M*A*S*H numbers?


SEAN

Yeah, I think we are. I know for a long time, it was Top Ten. More than SuperBowls have done.

Edit...Okay just looked....nowhere near MASH, but #14 of all time. That's not bad.

[Jared]

I can't believe I forgot about The Fugitive.

Actually I can believe it, because it was so good I generally associate the name with the movie instead of the TV show. A rare case of an adaptation actually working better than the original.


SEAN

That's a good reminder for the "movies you've only see once" thread. The Fugitive was an awesome movie.

Miami Vice was OK as a Michael Mann cop movie, but it wasn't much of a Miami Vice flick. They should have changed the names.

[KenK]

The worst of them have to be the kid shows turned movies, like Masters of the Univsere, Rocky & Bullwinkle, UnderDog, George of the Jungle, and Dudley Do-Right. Neither any of the Jay Ward shows turned movies caught the sarcasm and essense of their humor. Granted most of it was Cold War era humor but wasn't used properly.

I read a rumor on another board that the Masters of the Universe film was actually developed to be a New God's film. Any truth to this?

[Frank]

No the director just wanted to give an homage to the New Gods when he did Masters.

But the best adaptation from tv to the silver screen was The Untouchables: both great but both different. Depalma just took the idea of Eliott Ness and Al Capone and ran with it without having seen anything of the tv show.

[Cyke]

The worst of them have to be the kid shows turned movies, like Masters of the Univsere, Rocky & Bullwinkle, UnderDog, George of the Jungle, and Dudley Do-Right. Neither any of the Jay Ward shows turned movies caught the sarcasm and essense of their humor. Granted most of it was Cold War era humor but wasn't used properly.

I agree with all except for George of the Jungle. I thought the dialogue and joke style echoed the cartoon far more than any of the slapstick gags did (aside from the classic "Watch Out For That Tree" gag).