MAS*H is probably the most well known example of the ‘movie made into a TV series’ phenomenon. My question, though, is what was the first movie to be followed by a TV show.
I have a guess which film it might be. But, to prevent spoiling things on the remote chance that I’m right, I’ll put it in a spoiler window:
Was it the Life of Riley?
(By the way, I tried to search the archives, but the search function’s been unresponsive for the last couple of hours.)
No, that was a spin-off of a popular radio program.
Lucy and Desi made a film called “The Long Trailer” which, despite the fact that their characters were named differently and they didn’t live in New York, could have been the pilot for “I Love Lucy.”
But you are probably looking for something more direct.
Oooh, oooh, check this out:
http://epguides.com/Casablanca_1955/
There are earlier series based on Robin Hood, Superman, Flash Gordon, and Sherlock Holmes, but although those characters had movie incarnations before the TV series they had originally appeared in print media, so the series and the movies were both derivitive.
Maybe Rin Tin Tin (1954) fits your criteria.
Actually, it was a movie. Check in the IMDB.
And, my guess was definitely earlier than Rin Tin Tin.
Hey, maybe I am right?!
How about “Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea”? The connections from the movie to the TV show are numerous. I suppose the production company really wanted to get their money’s worth out of all the models and special effects used in the movie. I remember the TV show using exact scenes from the movie. (Subs imploding, MP’s on top of the sub as it submerges, etc)
According to my copy of The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows three shows which debuted in 1949 were based on movies
The Front Page
The Life of Riley
Mama (based on I Remember Mama
As for TV shows that were so tied to movies that they actually reused old footage, the first was probably The Cisco Kid in 1950.
How about 1947 movie The Farmer’s Daughter, made into the 1963 TV show, the Farmer’s Daughter
You’re right that there was a movie, but that movie is based on the same source material as the TV show- the aforementioned radio show, which premiered sometime (I don’t have my Dunning handy) in early 1944 (cite).
There’s a book called * The Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network and Cable TV Shows*, by Earle Marsh & Tim Brooks, that has a list of movie-to-TV transfers.
And I see as I preview that this was already brought up. Looks like we’re both right.
I asked a similar question in a different forum a while back. Here’s the answers that were given.
The idea you offered, movie and TV show were both 1949.
The best candidates given to me were as follows.
The first TV series to be based on a movie was * Mr & Mrs North* (1946) based on the 1942 movie
The first movie that had a TV version made was *Topper * (1937) though the TV spin off didn’t come until 1953.
Other early ones :
I Remember Mama (1948) had a spin-off in 1949.
“Life with Father” 1947 movie and a TV series in 1953
“Date with Judy” 1948 movie and a TV series in 1952
I also asked about the earliest TV show with a movie version.
Life Of Riley & Date with Judy were both radio shows before they were movies.
Someone suggested Dragnet as the first TV show to get a movie.
I was going to ask that Q.
I knew that Dobie Gillis was based on a movie but I only heard this past week that the movie was based on a book.
Excellent!
Thanks everybody!
Henry Aldrich led a complicated and schizophrenic life for such a normal teen.
According to Wikipedia, “The character originated in a Broadway play, What a Life by Clifford Goldsmith, and [Ezra] Stone played the role on stage and in skits on both Rudy Vallee and Kate Smith’s programs, beginning in 1938, before the full half-hour series began.” Which was in 1939. But also in 1939, a series of Henry Aldrich movies began, with Jackie Coogan as the first Henry.
The radio series would last 14 years with four others besides Stone playing Henry. The firm series lasted two movies with Coogan and 11 more with Jimmy Lydon squeezed into three years.
While the radio show was still transmitting, the tv series began in 1949 with Robert Casey as Henry, and ended in 1953 with Robert Ellis at the fifth tv Henry. They grew up so fast in those days.
This makes Henry Aldrich as early as Mama in the transition.
Mr. And Mrs. North don’t quite fit the criteria, though. The 1946 version was a one-shot tv movie. The tv show didn’t start until 1952, says IMDb.