# Big screen to small screen failures **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 24, 2005, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621 "2005-02-24T01:32:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/21 "2005-02-25T00:29:25Z")
> [@slortar](#): > > **Married to the Mob**. So awful, I risk going blind simply by remembering. Your comment got me smiling on a day when smiles were few and far between. Thanks. > [@TV time](#): > > Granted it (The Third Man tv series) had no simililarity at all to the original movie other than the main character’s name…portion in parentheses added in repost I just remembered the theme music was the same too. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/22 "2005-02-25T01:30:09Z")
> [@Dooku](#): > > **My Big Fat Greek Life**. Same cast as the movie except for John Corbett. Lasted 7 episodes. Ouch. This one has to qualify as some kind of megafailure. It so totally failed to deliver that it seems to have retroactively erased the public memory of the spun-off movie _and_ its star/writer Nia Vardalos, despite her modestly endearing personality, saucy brown eyes, and respectably big gazoinks. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/23 "2005-02-25T14:09:59Z")
My wife just mentioned one that might or might not qualify. Character actor Warren Oates made a pilot of **True Grit** the TV series but it never made it further than the pilot which was shown as a special TV movie presentation or something. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/24 "2005-02-25T14:25:30Z")
Wasn’t the TV series “McCloud” sort of based on the film “Coogan’s Bluff”? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/25 "2005-02-25T14:26:48Z")
**The Cowboys** **Planet of the Apes** ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/26 "2005-02-25T16:01:38Z")
A weird turn of events was when a successful show, The Fugitive begat a successful big screen adaptation. This inspired producers to give the thing a second shot on the SMALL screen. Flop. The sequel to the Big Screen film also did poorly. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/27 "2005-02-25T17:37:51Z")
Didja know that the successful TV series “Dukes of Hazzard” was based on the movie “Moonrunners” about a pair of moonshine smugglers? There was no Duke family, but you had Waylon Jennings as the Balladeer (narrator), James Best as Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane, and characters named Cooter (the mechanic), Uncle Jesse (the good-guy moonshiner), and Boss Hogg (the bad-guy moonshiner/brothel owner). They cleaned a lot of it up for the TV show. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/28 "2005-02-26T00:46:57Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > Clerks : The Animated Series. _Sigh_ Apparently, there was a failed live-action pilot too, but it was never aired. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0352045/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0352045/) ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/29 "2005-02-26T00:55:36Z")
I loved Friday the 13th The Series. It lasted 2 seasons, so I’m not sure you’d call it a flop, but not exactly a hit either. And little known fact is that it was supposed to cross over into the series by having them hunt down Jason’s hockey mask as one of the objects. However, that episode was never shot. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/30 "2005-02-26T06:29:51Z")
I Remember Mama/Mama Paper Moon Paper Chase Gidget . . . Although, all of these movies were adapted from literary properties, so it could be argued that the television shows were adapted not from the movie, but from the literary property. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/31 "2005-02-26T06:44:36Z")
**Odinoneeye** Do you have a cite for that? Droids It’s been a while since I’ve seen any of the episodes, but I remember this being a pretty good show. Buck Rogers I’d never describe it as good. But, if you want over the top fun with aliens, rayguns, robots and chicks in spandex, this is the show for you. I watched a few episodes just last year. And my own addition to the thread Nothing In Common Based on a very serious film starring Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason, this was a sitcom which left out all the important aspects of the characters. Uncle Buck Proving my hypothesis that without John Candy, Uncle Buck is a pile of crap. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/32 "2005-02-26T08:09:08Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Barefoot in the Park** , like many shows on ABC, started life as a pilot on **Love American Style**. The pilot was _good_. Unfortunately, the series wasn’t. One huge mistake they made was to switch all the characters from white to black. Everyone may be equal, but the black experience and the white experience do differ, and this switch didn’t fool anyone. They also didn’t put th same effort into it. Worse, they remade the pilot episode with th[e] new cast, so you could see how badly they were doing it. It bombed. I was under the impression the the TV show _Barefoot in the Park_ was based on the 1967 Robert Redford-Jane Fonda film (in turn based on the Neil Simon play). To be sure, _Love, American Style_ may have run the pilot, but while this may have been the beginning of life for the television incarnation, the concept of the newlywed Brattons, and the title predated _Love, American Style_ by a couple of years. And since my only example of a silver screen-to-CRT flop was going to be _My Big Fat Greek Life,_ I guess I’ll shut up here. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/33 "2005-02-26T09:53:28Z")
A League of Their Own. I’m not sure if it lasted an entire season or not. I watched it a couple of times and couldn’t believe how bland they’d managed to make everything. ---
**Author:** ![Balle\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/34 "2005-02-26T14:57:15Z")
> [@Odinoneeye](#): > > I loved Friday the 13th The Series. _Mmmmm…Robey…_ ---
**Author:** ![Julius\_Henry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8797f3/32.png) [@Julius\_Henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Julius_Henry)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/35 "2005-02-26T15:31:46Z")
**Clueless Down and Out in Beverly Hills Flipper The Courtship of Eddie’s Father** ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/36 "2005-02-26T16:15:59Z")
> [@Julius Henry](#): > > **Clueless > Down and Out in Beverly Hills > Flipper > The Courtship of Eddie’s Father** As I remember, **Clueless** lasted two or three seasons (I could be wrong) and **Flipper** and **Courtship of Eddie’s Father** lasted quite a few seasons (Ron Howard in that film, amazing) so they wouldn’t exactly qualify as failures. Actually, those three might even qualify in an even more rare list along with **Weird Science** - TV series that were better than the original film. It was definitely the case with **Courtship…**. However it might get a fight on **Clueless**. There are some people that love the film. Excellent choice with **Down and Out in Beverly Hills** , though. I vividly remember the film with Nolte, Midler, Dryfus et al, but have no recollection regarding the series. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/37 "2005-02-26T21:46:20Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > I Remember Mama/Mama > Paper Moon > **Paper Chase** > Gidget **Paper Chase** only aired one season in its initial run, but it was a critical success, and Showtime later picked it up and made three additional seasons. [Cite.](http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-2450/) ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/38 "2005-02-26T21:52:15Z")
[Swiss Family Robinson](http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-3465/) ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/39 "2005-02-26T22:26:12Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > I Remember Mama/Mama > Paper Moon > Paper Chase > Gidget > > . . . Although, all of these movies were adapted from literary properties, so it could be argued that the television shows were adapted not from the movie, but from the literary property. _Mama_ lasted from 1949 to 1956, [as shown here](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041039/). ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2005, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621/40 "2005-02-26T22:32:14Z")
_The Four Seasons_, no idea what the film was about, however, it was one of Alan Alda’s first post-_M_A_S_H\*\* films and it was turned into a TV series with Alan Alda starring in the pilot episode, but probably never appearing again (since the show was quickly cancelled). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-screen-to-small-screen-failures/291621.md?page=3)