My Choices for Movies Based on Television Shows

This blog entry was inspired by two things. The first thing is news that 21 Jump Street, a movie based on a television show about police officers who investigate youth crime, did very well opening weekend. How well? How does bringing in $35 million sound? (Sounds good to me.) The second thing is an article on MSN Movies about fantasy dream casts of television shows turned into movies, such as Seth Rogen as Gilligan in the movie update of Gilligan’s Island or Emma Stone and Gael Garcia Bernal as Lucy and Ricky in the movie version of I Love Lucy. Well as you can guess, those things got me thinking. (Yet, again.) So, if I had the wherewithal to bring a television show to the silver screen, here are my choices for movie treatments. (Yes, I know, I rail against television shows that are turned into movies. Still, can’t I use my imagination and have a little fun?)

Hardcastle & McCormick
This television show aired on ABC from 1983 to 1986. This show featured Brian Keith as Los Angeles Superior Court judge Milton C. Hardcastle and Daniel Hugh-Kelly as the smart alecky ex con and ex race car driver Mark (Skids) McCormick. McCormick steals a car and is Judge Hardcastle’s last case. Hardcastle offers a deal to McCormick. Either work for the judge as he seeks out the 200 felons whose cases he presided over and were let go due to legal technicalities or go to jail. McCormick chooses to work for the judge and together they seek out the bad guys. As the series progresses, their relationship grows from employee/employer to almost a father/son relationship.  So, as for the movie version, how about having women in the title roles? Angelina Jolie as the judge Melinda Hardcastle and Lindsay Lohan as the ex con and ex extreme athlete (motorcycle stunt racer) Martha (Marty) McCormick. Together they turn heads and turn in the bad guys.

Six Million Dollar Man
This show aired on ABC from 1974 to 1978. Test pilot, astronaut and Air Force Colonel Steve Austin (Lee Majors) is seriously injured in the crash of an experimental aircraft. Austin’s body is rebuilt with nuclear powered bionic limbs. This gives him superhuman strength. He can run at speeds up to 60 mph, he can snap an iron crowbar like a twig and he has a an artificial eye that allows him to see things more than a mile away. Since the government rebuilt him, he has to pay them back by working as a spy. This was such a popular show that it spawned a spin-off called The Bionic Woman in which Jaime Sommers, (Lindsay Wagner) a professional tennis player is given bionic limbs, as well. Yet, instead of an eye, she gets a bionic ear, which allows her to hear the faintest whisper to the people talking behind soundproof doors. She too has to repay the “debt” by working as a spy.

Now for the movie version of this television show. How’s this for an interesting plot twist? The man would be second to receive the operation and a woman, who just happens to be an Iraq veteran, would be first bionic person. Therefore, that would make her the “senior” agent. Also, they would work together to save the world from a doomsday device, rouge cyborgs or things like that. Lastly switch the names. The woman would be Colonel Stephanie Austin and either Sarah Michele Geller or maybe even Meg Ryan would play the part. (Meg Ryan played a Persian Gulf War helicopter pilot in the 1996 film Courage Under Fire, so she could pull it off.) The man would be James Sommers and he would be played by Ryan Gosling or Ben Affleck.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Yes, the television show that showed the world that Moore could do more than just be housewife Laura Petrie on the Dick Van Dyke Show. This show aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977. In that show Moore, played 30something Mary Richards, a spunky gal who works in a Minneapolis television station and is determined to be a success in life. Still, since this blog entry is about television shows turned into movies, with an added twist, what twist will I come up with for The Mary Tyler Moore Show? How’s this? First of all the movie would be called The New Guy, since there would be a guy in Mary Tyler Moore role. His name would be Mark Richards and he would be played by Justin Timberlake. Instead of working in a broadcast television station, he would work in a cable network, similar to Comcast, just not as big. He also has deal with his boss, the hard nosed Louise (Lou) Grant, who has been working in cable since 1970’s when cable systems were available for purchase as franchises. She would be played by Rhea Perlman. Ted Baxter would still be a guy and he would be played by Alec Baldwin. The downstairs neighbor Ron (Rhoda) Morganstein would be played by Zach Galifianakis. As for the other cast members, I’ll let the powers that be, pick them.

Speaking of which, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one, if not all of the television shows I mentioned were currently in development. After all, the television to movies trend shows no signs of letting up. Of course, if a powers that be person is reading this and just got an idea for an upcoming movie, please contact me in care of this blog. My fee is negotiable.

Source:
http://www.movieweb.com/news/box-office-beat-down-21-jump-street-takes-in-35-million

http://entertainment.msn.com/beacon/editorial12.aspx?ptid=cf1e691e-8bc2-4ac8-ac8a-a20e7e30a92e&silentchk=1&wa=wsignin1.0&photoidx=1

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085029/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071054/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115956/

http://www.amazon.com/The-Mary-Tyler-Moore-Show/dp/B00005JLIC/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1332707279&sr=1-1

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From the Tube to the Silver Screen

Would you believe that a movie version of the 1990’s FOX television show 21 Jump Street will be released on March 16, 2012? Yes, it’s true. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, 21 Jump Street was a police drama about a special unit of police officers who investigate youth crime. These police officers were chosen to be a part of this unit because they could pass for high school and college age students.  It’s headquarters is located at 21 Jump Street (hence the title). The show launched the careers of Johnny Depp and Holly Robinson Peete.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, let me be the first to tell you that I’m not exactly going to be camping out for tickets to this film. Still, the idea of television shows that are turned into movies makes for a good blog subject. So, I will be spotlighting television shows that got the big screen treatment. Of course, the most famous example of a television show that made the transition to the big screen is Star Trek. Still, there have been others that have made the transition, some successfully, some not so successfully. Such as:

The A-Team (2010)
I pity the fool who thought I wouldn’t include this film. Actually no, I don’t, I just wrote that for the heck of it.  This film is based on the NBC television show that ran from 1983 to 1987 about four Army veterans framed for a crime they didn’t commit. (In the television series they were Vietnam veterans, in the movie they were Iraq War veterans.) So, they make their living as soldiers of fortune who help ordinary folks in trouble, such as rescuing people from cults. The film version features the team tracking down counterfeiters. Like the television show, the film featured its fair share of car chases, explosions and pithy banter between the actors.

The Addams Family (1991) /Addams Family Values (1993)
These films started out as a comic in the New Yorker that was drawn by Charles Addams, which then led to a television series that ran on ABC from 1964 to 1966, which then led to two films staring Raul Julia as Gomez Addams, the eccentric patriarch of the gothic Addams family and Anjelica Huston as his macabre, yet loving wife Morticia. Since the powers that be were smart enough to get actors like Julia and Huston, who played their roles well without going overboard both the films were commercially successful and got good reviews.

Bean, the Movie (1997)
This show was a hit on the BBC and soon became a hit worldwide. Actor Rowan Atkinson (who is also is famous for his Black Adder and Johnny English roles) plays Mr. Bean, a museum security guard who doesn’t talk but gets into all sorts of trouble and his attempts to rectify the situation makes it worse (and funny). In the film version, museum officials send Mr. Bean to the U.S. to accompany Whistler’s Arrangement in Gray and Black, No. 1: The Artist’s Mother, also known as Whistler’s Mother, as a way to get rid of him for a few weeks. After the painting is delivered to a Los Angeles museum, Bean subsequently ruins it. His attempts to fix the painting initially makes it worse (and funny). Yet in the end, Mr. Bean saves the day, as well as the painting and to top it off, he actually speaks a few well chosen words.

The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)
This started out as a sitcom that aired on CBS from 1962 to 1971 about the Clampett family who fell into a fortune when oil was discovered on their land. Father Jed moves daughter Ellie May, nephew Jethro and mother-in-law Granny from their humble home in the hill country of Arkansas to Beverly Hills. It is there that the salt of earth Clampetts meet the phony social climbers of Beverly Hills and the end results are very funny. Yet, this was one movie treatment of a sitcom that should not have been greenlighted. The characters in the film were all one-dimensional and the story of someone wanting to marry Jed for his money didn’t hit the jackpot, so to speak.

Of course, this is just a short list of the many television shows that were made into movies. Still, it would be nice if the suits in Hollywood would stop with the TV shows into movies trend. While there have been some television shows that were turned into great movies, such as The Addams Family and Bean. There were others that were real duds, such as The Beverly Hillbillies. So, listen up suits. How about you folks leave the television shows alone and actually seek out some original projects. Yes, I’ve said that in other blog entries and if you want me to stop saying it, then greenlight something that didn’t start out as a television show!

Sources:
http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/12/19/21-jump-street-poster-jonah-hill-channing-tatum/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092312/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084967/

http://www.amazon.com/Bean-Rowan-Atkinson/dp/B00007AJF7/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1324578809&sr=1-1

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/whis/hd_whis.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Addams-Family-Values/dp/B000FIHN52/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1324578847&sr=1-1

http://www.tv.com/shows/the-addams-family/

http://www.amazon.com/Beverly-Hillbillies-Diedrich-Bader/dp/B0002XL2ZW/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1324575748&sr=1-2

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055662/