Movies You Didn’t Realise Got A TV Spin-Off

The latest Hollywood trend is turning successful movies into TV series. An adaptation of the Coen brothers’ ‘Fargo’ proved to be big hit for FX and there’s currently shows based on ‘Rush Hour’, ‘Ghost’, and ‘Uncle Buck’ being developed for the small screen too.

Interestingly, this won’t be the first time the John Candy comedy has been turned into a TV show. There was a short-lived adaptation on CBS back in 1990, which was cancelled after the ratings tanked, which begs the question – is it a good idea to try again?

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Here’s some more much-loved films that you may not have realized were turned into live-action TV shows…

Original: ‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure’
Spin off: ‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventures’

The time-travelling 1989 comedy inspired not one but two TV spin-offs. Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, and George Carlin returned to voice the 1990 animated CBS series, but the live-action 1992 didn’t fare so well, with Evan Richards and Christopher Kennedy stepping in to play the Wyld Stallyns for just seven episodes.

Original: ‘Blade’
Spin off: ‘Blade: The Series’

This spin-off from the Wesley Snipes vampire films starred rapper Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones in the lead role and was well received on its 2006 debut. However, it was never recommissioned, with Spike TV nixing the show after just one season.

Original: ‘Casablanca’
Spin off: ‘Casablanca’

There have been two small-screen series based on the classic Humphrey Bogart romance and both were prequels. The first ran in 1955-56 on ABC, starring Charles McGraw as Rick, while the other was broadcast on NBC in 1982 David Soul in the lead, Ray Liotta as the bartender Sascha, and Scatman Crothers from ‘The Shining’ as Sam.

Original: ‘Clueless’
Spin off: ‘Clueless’

One of the more successful movie-to-TV adaptations, ‘Clueless’ ran for three series from 1996-1999 starring Rachel Blanchard in the role of Cher. Stars of the film made cameos in the show including Paul Rudd and Brittany Murphy, and it even survived a network change, moving from ABC to UPN after one series.

Original: ‘The Crow’
Spin off: ‘The Crow: Stairway To Heaven’

Martial arts star Mark Dacascos played the hero in a show that ran for 22 episodes in 1998. Despite the first series ending on a cliffhanger, the show never got a second series, and plans for a TV movie to tie up the loose ends never made it to screen.

Original: ‘Animal House’
Spin off: ‘Delta House’

This sitcom, based on the raunchy comedy ‘Animal House’, featured many original cast members reprising their roles. Josh Mostel stepped in to play Blotto, the brother of Bluto, as the show’s John Belushi-alike, and John Hughes wrote five episodes of the 13-episode series.

Original: ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’
Spin off: ‘Ferris Bueller’

Another John Hughes movie remade for TV was ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’, but the filmmaker was not involved and refused to let the network use his name to promote the show. Charlie Schlatter played Ferris for just one season, which weirdly featured a scene where Ferris took a chainsaw to a cardboard cut-out of Matthew Broderick. Meta. It also featured Jennifer Aniston in an early screen role as Ferris’ long-suffering sister Jeannie.

Original: ‘Honey, I Shrunk The Kids’
Spin off: ‘Honey, I Shrunk The Kids: The TV Show’

The Joe Johnston film spawned two direct sequels plus this small screen iteration that ran for 66 episodes from 1997-2000. None of the original cast returned with Peter Scolari taking on the role of Wayne Szalinski made famous by Rick Moranis.

Original: ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’
Spin off: ‘Lock, Stock…’

Ralph Brown was the biggest name in this TV off-shoot of Guy Ritchie’s cockney crime classic which only lasted for one season. ‘The Hobbit’ star Martin Freeman appeared as Dutch druggy Jaap in two episodes, in one of his early screen roles.

Original: ‘Police Academy’
Spin off: ‘Police Academy: The Series’

Michael Winslow, AKA the one who could do all the crazy noises, was the only cast member to return for the 1997 spin-off which lasted for just 26 episodes. There was also an animated series which featured a group of talking police dogs called the Canine Corps.

Original: ‘Private Benjamin’
Spin off: ‘Private Benjamin’

Eileen Brennan, the ball-busting drill sergeant, reprised her role for this TV adaptation, which featured another actress playing Judy Benjamin instead of Goldie Hawn. The show was cancelled partway through its third season.

Original: ‘Starman’
Spin off: ‘Starman’

John Carpenter’s 1984 sci-fi film, which earned Jeff Bridges a Best Actor Oscar nomination, seems an unlikely target for a TV spin-off, but it really did happen. ‘Airplane!’ star Robert Hays played the alien this time around, who was a clone of a deceased photographer, returning to earth to spend time with his teenage son.

Original: ‘Dirty Dancing’
Spin off: ‘Dirty Dancing’

This TV version of the classic Patrick Swayze dance film came just two years after the movie’s release. None of the original cast returned, but interestingly Paul Feig, the filmmaker behind ‘Bridesmaids’ and the forthcoming ‘Ghostbusters 3’, played a character named Norman Bryant in all 11 episodes.

Original: ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’
Spin off: ‘Fast Times’

Cameron Crowe’s 1982 high-school comedy ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ was a raunchy R-rated film, probably best known for that Phoebe Cates swimming pool scene. When CBS brought it back in 1986, they made it much more family friendly and it only survived seven episodes, despite having an Oingo Boingo theme song.

Original: ‘Uncle Buck’
Spin off: ‘Uncle Buck’

Kevin Meaney was a poor replacement for John Candy in the 1990 TV version of John Candy’s classic comedy about an slobbish uncle who has to care for his nieces and nephews when his brother and sister-in-law died in a car accident. It was panned by critics and lasted for just one season before the plug was pulled.

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Image credits: CBS/Spike TV/NBC/ABC/Channel 4