Some movies become more than movies. They leave indelible marks on the psyches of millions of fans, and become touchstones in people’s lives. Sometimes, they seep their way into other corners of pop culture as well; they get turned into toys or video games, or they get adapted to television.
There are plenty of examples of TV shows based on movies that equaled or even exceeded their cinematic inspirations. For a lot of people, the first thing that comes to mind when you say the word “M*A*S*H” is the long-running Alan Alda sitcom, not the earlier Robert Altman movie. The same goes for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Close your eyes and picture Buffy and you probably envision Sarah Michelle Gellar, not Kristy Swanson.
Which is surely why Hollywood has made so many television shows based on movies over the years; when they hit, they hit big. But when they don’t, well, they really don’t. Take the 20 television shows listed below, all based on films in that “more than movies” category, that unlike their source material, have vanished into the TV ether. If, like me, you forgot these shows even existed, there are videos embedded to jog your memories. (In some cases, though, it was probably better to forget.)
Doctor Dolittle (1970-1)
1967’s Doctor Dolittle became one of the more notorious flops of its era; a big-budget musical extravaganza that nearly cost triple its original $6 million budget and wound up scoring a surprise Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards anyway. (Mark Harris’ great film history book Pictures at a Revolution chronicles the whole story if you want to learn more.) But that Dolittle brand was still strong enough that Fox Television decided to make an animated series a few years later — one clearly inspired by the film. It featured its own version of the movie’s Oscar-winning song “Talk to the Animals,” and had lead voice actor Bob Holt imitate the Dolittle film’s lead actor, Rex Harrison. Much like the big-screen version, though, the animated Doctor Dolittle was not a hit with audiences, and it ended after a single season of 17 episodes.
Shaft (1973-4)
It’s not uncommon for a hit movie to spawn a television series; it’s a lot rarer for the star of said movie to appear on the show. But the brief series of Shaft TV films that aired in 1973 and 1974 on CBS did feature Richard Roundtree as iconic detective John Shaft. Seven films were produced with Roundtree as Shaft but, in a curious choice, CBS aired Shaft on alternating Tuesdays with a show called Hawkins, starring Jimmy Stewart as a small-town Southern lawyer — not necessarily the same target audience as a show about the cat who won’t cop out when there’s danger all about (John Shaft). The combination did not take off, and both Shaft and Hawkins got the shaft after the 1973-4 season.
Planet of the Apes (1974)
When Hollywood had squeezed all the juice it could out of the original Planet of the Apes film series, the property was briefly moved to television. For the umpteenth time, a crew of astronauts from the human world were sent into outer space and somehow wound up in the far future, when Earth had been transformed into [dramatic pause for a twist you’ll never see coming] a planet of the apes! Franchise mainstay Roddy McDowell starred as a new ape character. But the same issue that afflicted the later Apes movies became even more of a problem on TV: The budget, and the fact that the less producers spent on their ape costumes and masks, the less convincing the sci-fi reality looked. Only 14 episodes were produced before CBS canceled the show due to poor ratings, at which point die-hard Apes fans screamed “You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to development hell!”
Delta House (1979)
National Lampoon’s Animal House barely got away with depicting the exploits of an anarchic fraternity in a big-screen movie with an R-rating. How did anyone think it could work under the restrictions of broadcast television? — or without the live wire personalities like John Belushi who made the film such a smash hit? And even if they thought it might work, who decided that the best time to air that show was at 8PM on Saturdays? One disastrous conceptual choice after another doomed Delta House from the start. It flunked out after 13 episodes in the winter and spring of 1979.
Starman (1986-7)
John Carpenter’s Starman left dangling a plot thread — the alien’s hybrid baby — which helped spawn this one-season wonder of a TV show. Set over a decade after the events of the film, the Starman’s baby is now a confused teenager (Christopher Daniel Barnes, better known as the voice of Peter Parker on the ’90s Spider-Man cartoon), and said E.T. (now played by Airplane!’s Robert Hays instead of Jeff Bridges) returns to Earth to help his son adjust to life on Earth. The show mimicked the format of The Fugitive; each week, the pair searched for the boy’s missing mother while using their alien abilities to help strangers they encountered along the way. Despite the intriguing premise, the series only survived on ABC for a single season.
Teen Wolf (1986-7)
The Teen Wolf series on MTV in the 2010s became a bit of a pop culture phenomenon. It lasted on the air for six seasons and 100 episodes, then went out with a feature film finale on Paramount+. But did you know that’s not the first Teen Wolf TV show? Just over a year after the premiere of the original Michael J. Fox Teen Wolf film, CBS debuted an animated show based on the film, with Townsend Coleman — AKA Michaelangelo from the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon — voicing Fox’s character. The show was so crummy it was done before Teen Wolf Too debuted in theaters in the fall of 1987.
Police Academy (1988-9)
One of the stranger pop culture trends of the 1980s was the kidification of R-rated movies into children’s entertainment. Numerous films that started as adults-only fare — RoboCop, First Blood, Police Academy — all wound up as Saturday morning or afterschool cartoons. In the case of Police Academy, all the familiar heroes from the film franchise returned, all voiced by soundalikes, with an emphasis on slapstick humor instead of raunchy pranks and double entendres. The show did well enough in the late ’80s to stay on the air for two seasons, but as the Police Academy film series faded into obscurity, the already lesser-known kiddie TV adaptation faded right along with it.
The Karate Kid (1989)
Like Teen Wolf, The Karate Kid had its own long-forgotten animated series decades before a popular TV revival. The animated Karate Kid began airing on NBC just a few months after The Karate Kid Part III opened in theaters with a plot and character designs inspired by the second Karate Kid film, when Daniel LaRusso followed his karate teacher, Mr. Miyagi, back home to Okinawa. On the animated series, an all-important shrine has been stolen, and Daniel-san and Miyagi must track it down. Although soundalikes replaced Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita in the key roles, Morita did provide voiceovers for most episodes in the show’s only season.
Uncle Buck (1990-1)
Terrific John Candy performance and sensitive John Hughes script aside, Uncle Buck always had a vaguely sitcomy premise: A single guy agrees to babysit his brother’s three kids while the brother and his wife leave on an important family trip. In the TV version — with Kevin Meaney in the Candy role — the parents die and Buck becomes the trio’s permanent guardian. (Dark!) Despite holding the dubious honor of being the first show in history to use the phrase “You suck!” Uncle Buck didn’t even get to finish out its first and only season before it was canceled. Six episodes (including one called, tee hee, “Sixty Candles”) were never aired. Despite the show’s failure, a second TV remake was created in 2016 with Mike Epps as Uncle Buck. That version had an even shorter shelf life, and ended after just eight episodes.
Fievel’s American Tails (1992)
One of the most improbable franchises in history, An American Tail, about a family of Russian Jewish mice who emigrate to America, continued into a sequel, Fievel Goes West, in which the family moves out to the frontier, and then the Fievel’s American Tails series, in which Fievel continues his adventures in the West. Several original voices from the film returned for the series, including lead actor Phillips Glasser, but other voices were replaced. Jon Lovitz’s character, for example, was now played by Homer Simpson voice actor Dan Castellaneta.
A League of Their Own (1993)
Only six episodes were produced — and only five were aired — of this show based on the hugely popular film about a team of female baseball players during World War II. It featured most of the characters from the movie — like abusive Coach Dugan and star catcher Dottie Hinson — but almost an entirely new cast. Which goes to show: It’s not always the premise that draws people into a movie; it’s the personalities of the performers that bring that premise to life. A second League of Their Own series premiered on Amazon in 2022. It was supposed to get a second season, but the plans for more episodes were abandoned in the aftermath of the 2023 Hollywood strikes.
Problem Child (1993-4)
I vividly remember the live-action Problem Child films, with John Ritter as a man dealing with the adopted son from hell. I have zero recollection of the Problem Child television series, which aired on USA for two seasons in the early 1990s. And I watched plenty of USA Network cartoons in that period. I even remember the cruddy Highlander animated series. (Yes, they made a cartoon about the movie where immortal warriors cut each others’ heads off. I told you theydidn’t give a crap about whether content was appropriate for kids back in the day.) Anyway, I guess I am part of the problem. Sorry, Problem Child.
Beethoven (1994)
The Beethoven movies were about an oversized St. Bernard who causes havoc for his owners. But it wasn’t like Beethoven was a magic dog or had some sort of ongoing inner monologue where he gloated over screwing with Charles Grodin. But when the decision was made to convert Beethoven to a cartoon series, it was also decided that he should behave according to the laws of cartoons, in which animals routinely talk and possess human personalities. Only 13 episodes were aired on CBS before the show landed in the network’s doghouse. Woof.
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Dumb and Dumber (1995-6)
The cult of personality around Jim Carrey was such that all three of his breakthrough 1994 movies became animated series, none of which featured Carrey’s voice. Of those three series, the most successful was The Mask, whose cartoonish superhero was tailor-made for an animated show. That one hung around for a respectable three seasons and even got its own line of action figures. Ace Ventura’s rubbery face and outlandish antics also translated to cartoons; his series hung around for three seasons as well. Last and certainly least of the bunch was the Dumb and Dumber cartoon, which crapped out like Jeff Daniels after guzzling coffee filled with laxatives after only 13 episodes.
The Crow: Stairway to Heaven (1998-9)
The Crow film franchise had already introduced the idea of different people getting resurrected with the powers of the Crow, so spinning the concept off into a TV series should have been a cinch. Curiously, the TV version of The Crow instead brought back the Brandon Lee character from the first movie, now played by Mark Dacascos. That would just seem to invite all sorts of unnecessary comparisons to the original film and to Lee, who died during filming when a stunt went terribly wrong. The syndicated Crow series was eventually canceled after one year on the air.
The Mummy (2001-3)
Few film franchises evoke more Millennial nostalgia than the Brendan Fraser Mummy movies, thanks to their crowd-pleasing blend of horror and swashbuckling adventure. But you don’t hear a lot of talk about The Mummy’s subsequent animated series that was part of the Kids WB! animation block for two seasons in the early 2000s. It used the continuity of The Mummy Returns — which gave Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz’s characters a son to include on adventures. He became a convenient protagonist for a show targeted to children.
Blade: The Series (2006)
David S. Goyer, the main writer of the Wesley Snipes Blade franchise (and director of the final film, Blade: Trinity), created this sequel series for Spike TV. Kirk Jones, AKA Sticky Fingaz, replaced Snipes, and Goyer wrote the pilot with DC Comics writer Geoff Johns. The show garnered solid ratings on cable, but its special effects and action made it costly to produce and Spike decided not to give it a second season. The creative team protested, of course, because some motherf—ers are always trying to ice skate uphill.
Spaceballs: The Animated Series (2008-9)
The recently announced Spaceballs sequel made good on the original film’s promise to reunite its heroes someday for The Search For More Money. But Mel Brooks had already made one (sort of) sequel to Spaceballs: A little-seen animated show that aired on the now-defunct cable channel G4 in the 2000s. In addition to its continuing parody of Star Wars, specific Spaceballs episodes spoofed other aspects of pop culture, including Jurassic Park and Grand Theft Auto. Some of the original cast did return, including director Mel Brooks, but those who had retired (like Rick Moranis) or passed away (like John Candy) were replaced. Hyped at San Diego Comic-Con 2007, the show didn’t materialize on G4 until a full year later, and then quietly blew through its single season of episodes.
Napoleon Dynamite (2012)
Quirky movie comedies tend to have a tough time on television. Clerks, one of the defining indies of the 1990s, had a very rocky go of it at ABC, despite the fact that it was created by Kevin Smith and featured most of the film’s original cast. History repeated itself a few years later when Jared and Jerusha Hess turned their cult hit Napoleon Dynamite into an animated show. Just like Clerks: The Animated Series, the Napoleon Dynamite cartoon got canned after only six episodes on Fox. How could they do that, those freakin’ idiots!
The Continental: From the World of John Wick (2023)
The Continental failed to leave much of a mark on pop culture, even though it was the first television series based on to the phenomenally popular John Wick series of action films. Rather than include John Wick himself, the show filled in the backstory of Ian McShane’s character Winston, and showed how he rose to power in his younger days at the New York Continental hotel. I enjoy the strange mythology of the John Wick universe more than most, but you had to really care about the staff of a posh hotel to to get into this one. With so many streaming shows and film glutting the market, Peacock decreed The Continental “excommunicado” after its premiere in 2023.
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Gallery Credit: Emma Stefansky