# Remakes of Comedies as Dramas **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 15, 2007, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-of-comedies-as-dramas/388040 "2007-01-15T06:51:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-of-comedies-as-dramas/388040/1 "2007-01-15T06:51:37Z")
Most remakes (all that I can think of, with one exception) are remakes of dramas as dramas, or remakes of dramas as comedies. Have there been any remakes of comedies as dramas? I am aware of the series “The Brady’s” which tried to tell stories about the family from The Brady Bunch as drama instead of comedy. Any others, though? Hopefully better attempts? Today I was thinking it would be fun to rewrite some old comedies as dramas. The Honeymooners, Hogan’s Heroes, My Favorite Martian, are the three that come to mind. I was even thinking F-Troop could be done sort of this way, though it would have to be a story along the lines of Catch-22 or something like that, so that would be a sort of dark comedy, rather than a straight drama. But I mean to include the possibility of dark comedy in the kind of drama I’m thinking of. I mean, that’s basically what you get when you combine the absurdity of a sitcom premise with any attempt at serious plotting. Has something like this ever been done? Successfully? -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-of-comedies-as-dramas/388040/2 "2007-01-15T08:22:33Z")
Trapper John, MD. Trapper from MASH becomes annoying Pernell Roberts. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-of-comedies-as-dramas/388040/3 "2007-01-15T08:36:47Z")
This isn’t quite the same thing, but the character of Lou Grant went from the comedy program _The Mary Tyler Moore Show_ to the drama program _Lou Grant_. ---
**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:** [January 15, 2007, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-of-comedies-as-dramas/388040/4 "2007-01-15T08:44:07Z")
I kinda get the impression that people who watched _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ weren’t tuning in in the hope that they’d be treated to more PeeWee Herman dying in an alley. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-of-comedies-as-dramas/388040/5 "2007-01-15T09:11:19Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] I kinda get the impression that people who watched _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ weren’t tuning in in the hope that they’d be treated to more PeeWee Herman dying in an alley. [/QUOTE] And… that’s a whoosh. What’s the story behind your comment? -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-of-comedies-as-dramas/388040/6 "2007-01-15T09:12:58Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] Today I was thinking it would be fun to rewrite some old comedies as dramas. The Honeymooners, Hogan’s Heroes, My Favorite Martian, are the three that come to mind. [/QUOTE] **Hogan’s Heroes** was essentially a comic remake of [Stalag 17](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046359/) , a drama with comedic moments. Tim Burton’s **Batman** was arguably a less-comedic remake of Adam West’s. [Mayberry RFD](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062587/) was intended as a continuation of The Andy Griffith Show. IMDB calls it a comedy, but I remember differently. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-of-comedies-as-dramas/388040/7 "2007-01-15T09:19:45Z")
[QUOTE=Krokodil] \*\* Tim Burton’s **Batman** was arguably a less-comedic remake of Adam West’s. [/QUOTE] That’s an interesting idea. When I was a kid, I remember people around me thinking of Burton’s Batman as being in some way a complete rejection of the TV series. But come to think of it, many of the TV series’ elements are there in Burton’s film. But I never followed the comics, so I don’t know what to chalk up to the Batman mythos in general and what to chalk up to the series, if anything. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remakes-of-comedies-as-dramas/388040/8 "2007-01-15T09:30:27Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] And… that’s a whoosh. What’s the story behind your comment? [/QUOTE] The referenced scene was in the movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Paul Rubens played one of the vampires, and he spent…probably about 5 miniutes, total, dying after he got staked. Really over-acted. The TV series wasn’t nearly that ridiculous. (Which is part of why Joss wanted to do the series - the movie was yanked rather further along the ‘silly’ axis than he’d wanted.)