They made Dragnet into a movie. I mean the one in the 80’s with Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks of course. But they haven’t made any of the spin-offs, like Adam-12 or Emergency into movies yet.
[QUOTE=elfkin477]
So, is this where an expression I don’t understand (“living the life of Reilly”) comes from, or the other way around? And what sort of life did he have, a charmed one, or a bad one?
[/QUOTE]
“Living the life of Riley” means living the good life, specifically living a life of luxury or spending freely without having to work hard for it. The title of the radio series, movie, and tv show The Life of Riley was meant somewhat ironically, as Riley was a blue-collar industrial worker. The Life of Reilly is a film of a one-man stage show by Charles Nelson Reilly.
[QUOTE=elfkin477]
Some folks at work were talking about yet another TV show being made into a movie, and it made me wonder, what’s left from the 50s-70s to make into movies? Eventually they’ll run out…
I came up with:
…
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (I don’t think TV movies with the orginial actors should count, ftr)
…
And that’s about it. There’s more, aren’t there?
[/QUOTE]
Actually, “Dobie Gillis” was based on this 1953 movie with Debbie Reynolds.
As for other old TV shows mentioned in this thread, over the last 20 or so years there have been talks to make movies out of “I Dream of Jeannie,” "Gilligan’s Island, “Have Gun Will Travel,” and “Hogan’s Heroes.” So far, none of these projects made it out of the early stages of development.
Several years ago in another thread, I suggested “Kolchak – The Night Stalker” would make a good movie if they stayed fairly true to the source material (unlike the short-lived TV remake which was basically a retread of “The X-Files”).
Streets of San Francisco. A Quinn Martin Production.
Many great suspension-bashing, hill-leaping car chases possible. Hollywood likie.
[QUOTE=kunilou]
There are literally hundreds of shows from that era. Think about it – 3 networks (in those days it was 3) times 3 1/2 hours of programming (in those days prime time was 3 1/2 hours) times 7 days a week = 75 hours per week, for 20 years.
Looking only at the #1 rated program for 1955-1975 we see:
The $64,000 Question
I Love Lucy
Gunsmoke
Wagon Train
Beverly Hillbillies
Bonanza
The Andy Griffith Show
Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In
Marcus Welby, M.D.
All in the Family
Leave out I Love Lucy and Andy Griffith (both star-driven) and the $64,000 Question and Laugh-In (both impossible to turn into a script) and you have six #1 shows with the built-in name recognition that could be turned into movies. The only one that has been is The Beverly Hillbillies.
Not to mention shows like Green Acres, The Waltons, Mannix, The Defenders and a bunch of others that are either unforgettable or a sturdy enough genre that they could easily be turned into movies.
[/QUOTE]
It was so bad you may have blocked it from memory, but there was a Beverly Hillbillies movie.
I can see The Avengers or The Saint as movies, not to mention *I Spy * and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Avengers as a movie? As long as you keep Uma Thurman away from it, it might work.
[QUOTE=JThunder]
The Avengers as a movie? As long as you keep Uma Thurman away from it, it might work.
[/QUOTE]
I’m thinking more along the lines of Keira Knightly. In thigh high leather boots. And a mini skirt. And umm, I’ll be in my room.
WKRP in Cinccinatti
I’m surprised no one has made a new Baretta movie. It was the grittiest show on TV at the time, and had a pretty compelling lead character. It seems like a good candidate for a modern remake.
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
There were actually some Bonanza “made for TV” movies in an attempt to revive the series a generation later. Didn’t go anywhere.
Happy Days hasn’t been remade (thank goodness).
There was an attempt to make Sanford & Son into a film. When Chris Rock was approached for Lamont he replied (per Rock) “There’s no way you can do it without Redd Foxx- it was way more The Redd Foxx Show than any of the The Redd Foxx Shows ever were”, which is true; it’d be about like trying to make I Love Lucy without Lucy and Desi.
[/QUOTE]
If they had the gall to make Bilko without Phil Silvers then, believe me, nothing is sacred.
[QUOTE=Rhubarb]
It was so bad you may have blocked it from memory, but there was a Beverly Hillbillies movie.
I can see The Avengers or The Saint as movies, not to mention *I Spy * and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
[/QUOTE]
How quickly they forget:
Considering that The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was TV’s stab at James Bond, only with less sex (and more tongue in cheek), it’s perfectly understandable that there isn’t a big push for an U.N.C.L.E. movie. We already have Bond, and we already had more than enough Bond spoofs (the Flint movies, the Matt Helm movies, and Get Smart).
In any event, there already HAVE been U.N.C.L.E. movies – two were released while the series ran, and with the original cast, no less. A third was a made-for-TV movie in the early 80s (and which featured George Lazenby driving an Aston-Martin as an all-but-name James Bond!)
Russell Crowe has been connected to the *Hogan’s Heroes * project for some time, but I don’t know if it will ever come to be.
I can barely remember a thing about it, but I know I used to love Vendetta.
Whatever it was about!
IMDB tells me it ran for 3 seasons from 66 - 68, yet it never seems to get name-checked…
[QUOTE=Sampiro]
Happy Days hasn’t been remade (thank goodness).
QUOTE]
Happy Days is now being done as a stage musical. Can a movie musical be far behind?
[QUOTE=kunilou]
Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In
[/QUOTE]
Sort of movie-d as The Maltese Bippy in 1969.
The Rifleman
Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford; who could step into those boots?
This thread is giving me the heebie-jeebies. I’m not sure which of the movies suggested alarms me the most, but Patty Duke and the Flying Nun have got to be near the top.
[QUOTE=kunilou]
The Defenders
[/QUOTE]
Been done.
Green Acres?
[QUOTE=ArizonaTeach]
Being done.
[/QUOTE]
Oh dear.