# TV shows that were originally plays, movies, books, or radio shows **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 23, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722 "2006-02-23T02:07:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/41 "2006-02-24T04:24:14Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > “Bewitched” was ‘inspired’ by the movie [URL=http://imdb.com/title/tt0051406/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxxPUJlbGwsIEJvb2sgYW5kIENhbmRsZXxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8aHRtbD0x;fc=1;ft=20Bell, Book and Candle. > > The movies **Fame** and **Logan’s Run** became a short-lived TV series. > > The comic strip “Blondie” was adapted into a series of movies and then a TV series in the 1950s. **Fame, the series** was not shortlived - it ran 6 seasons - that’s pretty respectable ---
**Author:** ![Otanx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Otanx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otanx)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/42 "2006-02-24T09:48:55Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] But the radio show was first, as were the books. IIRC, the sequence was: BBC radio --\> books --\> BBC TV (also shown in the US) --\> more books --\> movie. You missed the H2G2 stage production, it has only ever been done “professionally” in the UK. No I don’t know what professionally means in this. That was how it was reported in a book I read about Douglas Adams. The play has been done in the US. My wife did it in high school, and I am jelous. -Otanx ---
**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:** [February 24, 2006, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/43 "2006-02-24T11:03:43Z")
There were Saturday morning cartoons of **King Kong** and **Fantastic Voyage**. Very little resemblance to the source material, though. **Cisco Kid** originated as an O. Henry short story, only Cisco was a cold-blooded murderer and Pancho wasn’t in the story. A bunch of made-for-TV minis were based on novels, like **The Winds of War** and **Salem’s Lot**. **The Untouchables** was based on a book that would make James Frey seem credible by comparison. **Bridget Loves Bernie** owed more than a little to an old play called “Abie’s Irish Rose.” Has anybody mentioned **Spenser for Hire** or **Mike Hammer**? ---
**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 24, 2006, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/44 "2006-02-24T11:55:27Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I’m waiting for the TV version of **Mame** , which would have: > > book → Broadway play → movie → Broadway musical → movie --(hypothetically)–\> TV You must have missed the tv version of **Anna and the King** , which may (or may not) have finished its one season. That means it went: real life → book → play → movie → musical play → musical movie → tv 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:** [February 24, 2006, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/45 "2006-02-24T13:47:09Z")
**Planet of the Apes** – Book, then movie, then short-lived TV series. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/46 "2006-02-24T14:05:04Z")
_Suspense_ was a radio anthology series that also had a brief run on television. _Dragnet, Amos n’ Andy,_ and \*Jack Benny \* have already been mentioned. \*The Life of Reilly \* was originally a radio show. \*Life with Luigi \* was a very popular radio show that got quickly canceled on TV due to protests from Italians about negative ethnic stereotypes. Burns and Allen made it to TV, though I can’t remember the title of the show. And of course the campy old _Batman_ TV series was originally a comic book, \*Smallville \* and \*Lois and Clark \* were based on DC comics, \*Sabrina the Teenage Witch \* came from a comic book, \*Up the Down Staircase \* was originally a book and a movie, _Dr. Kildare_ and \*Perry Mason \* were based on popular book series as was _The Saint_. _Stargate_ was based on a movie, _The Lost World_ was loosely based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel. Was there a Sherlock Holmes TV series at one time, or is my memory playing tricks on me? Red Skeleton had a variety show on radio before television. How come I can remember all this and I can’t remember how to do geometry??!? ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/47 "2006-02-24T14:05:51Z")
> [@Julius Henry](#): > > You must have missed the tv version of **Anna and the King** , which may (or may not) have finished its one season. That means it went: > > real life --\> book --\> play --\> movie --\> musical play --\> musical movie --\> tv show …-\> movie remake ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/48 "2006-02-24T14:17:23Z")
And \*Buck Rogers \* came from a comic strip. Do the _Peanuts_ TV specials count? \*The Addams Family \* was based on the old Charles Addams single panel cartoons. There’s some speculation that \*Lost in Space \* was a blatant rip-off of the \*Space Family Robinson \* comic book. _Hercules_, of course, was based on the great hero of Greek myth. A short-lived series was based on _Logan’s Run_. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/49 "2006-02-24T14:20:53Z")
Let’s not forget _Blondie_ and _Dennis the Menace,_ both based on comic strips. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/50 "2006-02-24T14:24:18Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > " 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. it wasn’t a \*\*children’s \*\* magazine at all. A lot of the references required some education and life experience - not to metion the puns in their TV and Movie parodies, and political commentary of the back cover fold ins ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/51 "2006-02-24T14:29:13Z")
\*The Lone Ranger \* was originally a radio series. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/52 "2006-02-24T14:36:20Z")
> [@anyrose](#): > > it wasn’t a \*\*children’s \*\* magazine at all. A lot of the references required some education and life experience - not to metion the puns in their TV and Movie parodies, and political commentary of the back cover fold ins Nevertheless, a lot of children read it. I was crazy about the magazine from the first day I discovered it, and didn’t quit reading it until some time in the mid-70’s. It was also originally a comic book in the 1950’s, not a magazine (though the difference between the two may be moot; a comic book is, after all, technically a magazine). ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/53 "2006-02-24T14:59:34Z")
It appears that \*Up the Down Staircase \* was never a TV series. I was probably thinking of _Room 222_. Sorry, folks, but after 30 or 40 years memories tend to get a little fuzzy. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/54 "2006-02-24T17:47:44Z")
_Gentle Ben_ was originally a book before it became a TV series. The site of the story, and most especially the type of bear was changed for the show. On TV Ben was a black bear, in the book he was a huge, wild, Kodiak bear. ---
**Author:** ![Charger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@Charger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charger)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/55 "2006-02-24T17:56:28Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > Another “Ghostbusters”, a live-action series with a gorrilla, predated the adventures of Peter, Ray, Egon, and Winston by nearly a decade. Half way through production of _Ghostbusters_, producers discovered that there was an unrelated Filmation cartoon series with the same title. They settled out of court to keep the title, but when an animated series came out based on the film, they had to adjust it, which is why the cartoon was titled “The **Real** Ghostbusters.” One of the possible titles for the movie was “Ghost Chasers,” but there was already a 1951 film by that title. As a footnote, the name “Slimer” was a product of the cartoon. In the movie, the “ugly little spud” was listed in the credits as Onionhead, a name given by the special effects crew. The sequel called him Slimer, which had originally just been a classification of ghosts in the first film. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/56 "2006-02-24T19:17:03Z")
> [@Charger](#): > > Half way through production of _Ghostbusters_, producers discovered that there was an unrelated Filmation cartoon series with the same title. They settled out of court to keep the title, but when an animated series came out based on the film, they had to adjust it, which is why the cartoon was titled “The **Real** Ghostbusters.” Close but no cigar. The Filmation “Ghostbusters” cartoon came out in 1986, the original Ghostbusters movie was 1984. The series that came before the movie was [The Ghost Busters](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072505/), a 1975 live action Saturday kid’s show featuring F-Troop regulars Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker, who, along with their pet gorilla tried to rid their local haunted castle of ghosts. Filmation owned the rights, and when the movie “Ghostbusters” became a hit, they made a cartoon based on their existing, similarly-named property (I believe the only element they retained was the gorilla). This led to legal threats and the release of the movie-based cartoon, “The REAL Ghostbusters”. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722/57 "2006-02-24T19:42:15Z")
> [@scotandrsn](#): > > The Filmation “Ghostbusters” cartoon came out in 1986… And was an animated remake of the 1975 live-action series, btw. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-that-were-originally-plays-movies-books-or-radio-shows/345722.md?page=2)