SciFi/Fantasy TV shows made after first being a movie?

[Melakon]

It's not really a new practice, as some of the earliest television shows in the late 40s-early 50s were based on comics, radio shows, or movies. Superman and Blondie had appeared in all four mediums before 1955. The Blondie series starred Arthur Lake, who had been Dagwood in the movie series. One of the earliest genre TV series, Lights Out, was based on a popular radio anthology series by Arch Oboler.

 

[T'Girl]

The Highlander TV series, while hit and miss in places, was decent and had a short live sequel, plus a few low budget movies.

AlienNation was pretty good in my opinion, certainly better than the original movie.

The cartoon series base on the Starship Trooper's movie, way way better than the movie (which was based very loosely on one of my favorite books).

 

[Dixie Flatline]

The Big Easy.

 

[Christopher]

Nobody's mentioned the live-action RoboCop: The Series yet. The same producers who made that went on to make F/X: The Series, based on the Bryan Brown movies.

The Dukes of Hazzard was loosely based on a movie called Moonrunners from the same creator.

The Universal Action Pack had a couple of segments based on Universal movies, Midnight Run and Bandit (based on the Smokey and the Bandit movies).

...The Stargate director simply stopped after the first movie for some reason.

Actually Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin have been trying to get a Stargate sequel going for years. As stated, they sold the rights to MGM, which preferred to focus on the series; really, the movie didn't do that well at the box office or critically, so I guess there wasn't much incentive to do a sequel. But Emmerich and Devlin would certainly like to.

Just checked wikipedia and saw all those shows only last one season, though Alien Nation was reasonably successful because it had 5 tv movies each year after it end.

Alien Nation actually got good ratings, and the network wanted to keep it. But at the time, FOX was only broadcasting a few nights a week and wanted to expand its lineup, and they calculated that they could produce four sitcoms for the same price as this one expensive SF drama. So the show was cancelled for reasons that had nothing to do with the show itself. FOX and the producers worked together for years to find a way to bring the show back, because they all wanted it to continue, but it took about four years before they finally settled on the TV-movie revival.

It's not really a new practice, as some of the earliest television shows in the late 40s-early 50s were based on comics, radio shows, or movies. Superman and Blondie had appeared in all four mediums before 1955. The Blondie series starred Arthur Lake, who had been Dagwood in the movie series. One of the earliest genre TV series, Lights Out, was based on a popular radio anthology series by Arch Oboler.

Sometimes '50s and '60s shows used theatrical movies as pilots for TV series, back when the ratio of moviegoers to TV viewers was much higher than today. The '66 Batman movie was meant to be the debut of the series, but ABC decided to start the series early so the movie had to be postponed until after the first season.

 

[theenglish]

Sometimes '50s and '60s shows used theatrical movies as pilots for TV series, back when the ratio of moviegoers to TV viewers was much higher than today. The '66 Batman movie was meant to be the debut of the series, but ABC decided to start the series early so the movie had to be postponed until after the first season.

If you include movies with TV series already in the works then shouldn't Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century also be mentioned.

Also, The Six Million Dollar Man started out as a series of made for television movies.

 

[od0_ital]

^

So did The Incredible Hulk tv series.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

If you include movies with TV series already in the works then shouldn't Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century also be mentioned.

BSG is actually an interesting case.

The 3-hour pilot for TV was edited for cinematic release. This movie version was released in several countries in the late 70s. But the TV show wasn't released close-by in all of those.

In the case of Germany, all TV stations up until the mid-80s were public service broadcasters, which were few and were picky about the content to air. Only when commercial broadcasters were licit did a TV station pick up BSG, and by then it was the late 80s.
Thanks to the success of the original movie version some episodes were edited and released as "Mission Galactica", as episodes of "Galactica 1980" were edited into a third movie, both released way before the TV show aired.

Thus, by the time the TV show was actually aired in Germany, people knew BSG as a movie series and considered the TV show to have been made afterwards in response to the success of the movies.

 

[IcecreamLtDan]

There was also the "Nightmare on Elm Street" tv series, also known as "Freddy's Nightmares" and there was a tv series based on "The War of the Worlds" which explored what happened after the movie starring Richard Chaves and Adrian Paul. I watched both these shows when they were aired, actually enjoyed the first season of "War of the Worlds". There was also a "Friday the 13th: The Series" though it didn't seem to have any connection to the movies at all.

 

[RoJoHen]

Why isn't this done more often?

Why would it? First, you need a concept that is popular enough to get a series greenlit even without the original cast, in most cases. Not to mention said concept has to support a whole show, and not be so complex that those who missed the movie are wary to join in. And the production budget has to be feasible. And the movie probably can't have any sequels or reboot already in the works.

That's a lot of hurdles.

I suspect that the biggest impediment is the desire to do more movie sequels. Why do, say, a RESIDENT EVIL or UNDERWORLD tv series when the movies are still making money?

Plus, TV shows just aren't money-makers anymore. Broadcast television is dying, so why would you make a new show when you can make a movie instead?

Most shows that have been listed are from past decades when TV was still a huge form of entertainment. TV just isn't that big anymore.

 

[Greg Cox]

Why would it? First, you need a concept that is popular enough to get a series greenlit even without the original cast, in most cases. Not to mention said concept has to support a whole show, and not be so complex that those who missed the movie are wary to join in. And the production budget has to be feasible. And the movie probably can't have any sequels or reboot already in the works.

That's a lot of hurdles.

I suspect that the biggest impediment is the desire to do more movie sequels. Why do, say, a RESIDENT EVIL or UNDERWORLD tv series when the movies are still making money?

Plus, TV shows just aren't money-makers anymore. Broadcast television is dying, so why would you make a new show when you can make a movie instead?
.

And the TV shows don't tend to come along until the movie series run out of steam, as with PLANET OF THE APES or ROBOCOP or BLADE . . . .

 

[Christopher]

...there was a tv series based on "The War of the Worlds" which explored what happened after the movie starring Richard Chaves and Adrian Paul.

But not at the same time. Chaves and co-star Philip Akin were killed off at the start of the second season, and Paul was brought in to replace them. Like all the other second-season changes, it was anything but an improvement.

 

[Greg Cox]

And, of course, nowadays we have both HANNIBAL and BATES MOTEL, spinning off from two different movie series . ...

 

[Galileo7]

Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea
Timecop
Back To The Future:animated series

 

[Christopher]

If we start listing animated series based on movies, we'll be here all night. They even made a kids' cartoon out of the R-rated Police Academy franchise (with several of the movie's actors reprising their roles).

 

[Galileo7]

If we start listing animated series based on movies, we'll be here all night. They even made a kids' cartoon out of the R-rated Police Academy franchise (with several of the movie's actors reprising their roles).

True. No animated series.

 

[IcecreamLtDan]

...there was a tv series based on "The War of the Worlds" which explored what happened after the movie starring Richard Chaves and Adrian Paul.

But not at the same time. Chaves and co-star Philip Akin were killed off at the start of the second season, and Paul was brought in to replace them. Like all the other second-season changes, it was anything but an improvement.

Oh, I agree completely, I enjoyed the first season and was confused as crap when the second season started and stopped watching about episode 3 or so. Just pointing out that there were some relatively well know actors in it.

 

[Kelthaz]

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys started off as a series of TV movies before transitioning into a series.

 

[Greg Cox]

And we're not done yet. Currently in development: new TV series based on Westworld (again!), The Exorcist, and 12 Monkeys . . . .

 

[Nagisa Furukawa]

And we're not done yet. Currently in development: new TV series based on Westworld (again!), The Exorcist, and 12 Monkeys . . . .

MTV is developing Scream as well, bafflingly adding a supernatural element.

 

[Leroy]

Would Babylon5 count? Wasn't it just a made for tv pilot movie before the show got green-light? I also remember there being a gap in between the pilot and the show, was there always plans to follow through and make it into a 5 year story the way JMS wanted?

Tales from the Crypt was a movie based on the comics before the HBO show.

True. No animated series.

So true just about everything has a cartoon.