TV shows are now often revived as movies, but TV shows were/are sometimes based on successful runs in other formats.
Some of the oldies, for example:
The Odd Couple was a play and movie first
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet was a radio show
Lassie was from the book and movie Lassie Come Home
Others include …
Plenty of 1950s TV shows transferred over from radio:
Dragnet (!)
**Amos and Andy
Jack Benny**
Barefoot in the Park was a Neil Simon play, then movie, then TV show.
The Hot L Baltimore is the odd case of a play tha went direct to TV without being a movie.
Little House on the Praire-book series, based on the real life experience of the Ingalls family
MASH*-originally a movie
Let’s see. Just off the top of my head:
Gunsmoke
The Lone Ranger
Both were radio shows well before coming to TV
Stargate SG1
The Ghost and Mrs Muir was a movie before the serie
I believe the BBC show Absolute Power with Stephen Fry was a BBC4 Radio show before it was on tv
Originally a book, actually.
Then a movie.
Even I Love Lucy kind of had its roots in radio, via My Favorite Husband. I think most popular radio shows from the era had TV incarnations, even if they’re not well remembered today – I believe George Burns and Gracie Allen were on TV as well.
I think The Brady Bunch was inspired by the movie Yours Mine and Ours. There were TV cartoon versions of Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice, and probably others.
A few shows based on movies…
Delta House was the TV version of Animal House
Planet of the Apes had a short lived TV series based on it
The Young Indiana Jones Adventures (movie)
I Remember Mama (radio and movie)
The Farmer’s Daughter (movie)
Twelve O’Clock High (movie)
Topper (book and movie series)
Ferris Bueller (movie)
Adventures in Paradise (book by James Mitchener)
Batman (comic books, movies)
Adventures of Superman (comic books, movie serials, radio show)
The Green Hornet (radio show)
Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (book then movie)
Mortal Kombat (video game then movie)
Blade (comic book character then movies, TV later this year)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a movie first
Alice was based on the movie “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”
Homicide: Life on the Streets arose out of a non-fiction book by David Simon about a year in the life of Balitimore PD’s Homicide division (Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets). Much of first couple seasons are based on actual events covered by the book.
Well, The Howard Stern Show on E! was originally a radio show, I’m told. And Mad TV has some connection to a popular children’s magazine.
The West Wing is arguably an outgrowth of The American President.
PBS’s Mystery!, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Masterpiece Theater invariably adapt popular novels.
The Lost World claims an Arthur Conan Doyle novel as its inspiration, and there was a Conan the Barbarian show in syndication starring a guy who looked like a muscular Al Bundy. It was based on the stories of Robert E. Howard.
The Waltons had its origins in an Earl Hamner novel called Spencer’s Mountainb.
The Addams Family and My World and Welcome To It both had their origins in New Yorker cartoons.
Nobody mentioned **Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy{/B] yet? Or is it not considered a TV show as they only made 6 episodes?
-Otanx
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea 1961 film 1964 tv show.
The movie followed the TV show.
" And Mad TV has some connection to a popular children’s magazine."
I take exception to that…Mad is not just a children’s magazine. I haven’t missed an issue since 1987 myself. I do think that the show should be called something else, since it is nowhere near as funny as the magazine.
War of the Worlds
Rocket Robin Hood
well, maybe not the rocket part, but still…