# Successful books that became successful movies and successful TV shows **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 15, 2009, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524 "2009-05-15T14:36:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/21 "2009-05-15T17:02:58Z")
IMO comic books wouldn’t count unless they were originally in the graphic novel format (even if they weren’t advertised as such for instance if the term Graphic Novel hadnt been around yet, a limited edition series of comic books would count.) So then you could possibly have a successful Graphic Novel, Comic Book, TV show AND movie! But then again I’m not the OP 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/22 "2009-05-15T17:18:26Z")
I think Planet of the Apes would count. It started as a book, went on to a popular series of movies, and it also had (I think) two tv series from it (one live-action, one animated)-- that’s gotta count, tho I don’t know how successful the tv shows were. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/23 "2009-05-15T17:54:32Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Probably unfamiliar to Americans, but the best example I can think of, is the Keith Waterhouse novel _Billy Liar_. More British ‘New Wave’ cinema. Stan Barstow wrote _A Kind of Loving_ in 1960, the film version appearing in 1962. It won an award at the Berlin film festival. In 1982, Granada TV produced a 10 part series with Clive Wood as Vic Brown and Joanne Whalley as Ingrid. This version of the story was, I believe, based on the Vic Brown trilogy comprising _A Kind of Loving_, _The Watchers on the Shore_, and _The Right True End_. The last two novels were published in 1966 and 1976 respectively. There was also a play produced for the theatre in 1970. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/24 "2009-05-15T18:11:04Z")
Actually another one that I have read, and seen both as a movie and a TV show, and enjoyed each time (well for a while in the last case) was Stephen King’s _The Dead Zone_. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/25 "2009-05-15T18:15:09Z")
\*\*The Cisco Kid \*\* – based upon an O. Henry short story, it was made into a series of movies and eventually a TV series that ran for over 150 episodes. **Zorro** – originally appeared in _The Curse of Capistrano_, the character was immediately made into the movie _The Mark of Zorro_ (rereleases of the book changed the title to match). Disney made it into a TV series in the late 50s, and there have been many other iterations. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/26 "2009-05-15T18:23:20Z")
The Waltons. The book: Spencer’s Mountain by Earl Hamner. The movie: Spencer’s Mountain (1963) with Henry Fonda and Maureen O’Hara (also the television movie pilot The Homecoming: A Christmas Story). The series: The Waltons. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/27 "2009-05-15T18:27:00Z")
[The post: The Waltons.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11143973&postcount=16) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/28 "2009-05-15T18:43:52Z")
Also, [Logan’s Run](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run), novel in 1967, movie in 1976 and television series in 1977-78. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/29 "2009-05-15T18:44:57Z")
> [@5-4-Fighting](#): > > [The post: The Waltons.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11143973&postcount=16) > > 😃 :smack: Just call me The Skimmer…I totally missed that in my eagerness to post. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/30 "2009-05-15T18:57:25Z")
All Creatures Great and Small book by James Herriot (he’s the English vet with the animals) movie in 1974, with Anthony Hopkins BBC tv series starting in the late 70s and continuing the animal theme, Born Free book by Joy Adamson in 1960 movie in 1966 TV series in 1974 - it was only one season so I don’t know how successful we would consider that, but they must have syndicated the heck out of that thing because I remember it being on almost perpetually when I think back to the hazy summer broadcast television of my childhood. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/31 "2009-05-15T18:57:46Z")
Death Note: manga 2003-2006; anime TV series 2006-2007; 2 live-action films in 2006. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/32 "2009-05-15T18:59:50Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > :smack: > > Just call me The Skimmer…I totally missed that in my eagerness to post. That’s okay; Madge Thigpen forgives you. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/33 "2009-05-15T19:02:08Z")
> [@Kal](#): > > Also, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Didn’t _Hitchhiker’s_ start as a radio show? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/34 "2009-05-15T19:21:57Z")
Davy Crockett’s autobiography was a big best seller of the 19th century (there was probably a lot of fiction in it, too). His life was made into several movies starting with silent films and going on to a Disney-produced TV series in the 1950s. **Last of the Mohicans** was an extremely popular early US novel. It’s first movie adaptation was in 1920, but there were remakes in 1932, 1936, and 1992. In 1957, it was adapted for TV as **Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans** (with Lon Chaney, Jr.!). There was a miniseries in 1991. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/35 "2009-05-15T19:26:15Z")
_Brideshead Revisited_. Novel (1945) TV series (1981) and film (2008). ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/36 "2009-05-15T19:59:25Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Didn’t _Hitchhiker’s_ start as a radio show? Damn, yes it did. Poo. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/37 "2009-05-15T20:44:31Z")
Dewey Finn stole my thunder with the reference to Spenser’s Mountain (I own the tape). But there seems to be an elephant in the room that nobody’s brought up yet… Sherlock Holmes. Not only book…movies…TV shows, but also radio show and on the stage. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/38 "2009-05-15T21:44:30Z")
[_In God We Trust (All Others Pay Cash)_](http://www.amazon.com/God-We-Trust-Others-Cash/dp/0385021747/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242423108&sr=8-1), by Jean Shepherd. Never heard of it? It’s an anthology of short stories by the celebrated anecodtalist & rambler, orginally published in _Playboy_. [_A Christmas Story_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085334/maindetails) was adapted from several of the stories therein, and [_The Wonder Years_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094582/) followed from there. (Of course, not _much_ of Shepherd’s boozy, irreverent humour found its way into _The Wonder Years_.) ---
**Author:** ![Sodalite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@Sodalite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sodalite)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/39 "2009-05-16T02:32:50Z")
Peter Pan Multiple short stories, books, plays, movies, and a 65 episode animated series on the Fox network. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524/40 "2009-05-16T02:46:26Z")
_My Friend Flicka_, _National Velvet_ and similar stories all started as books, then made it to movies and finally TV (usually as shows targeted to children.) The very popular 1950s series _Mama_ started out as a novel, then a play and movie (both with the better known title _I Remember Mama._) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/successful-books-that-became-successful-movies-and-successful-tv-shows/496524.md?page=3)