Classic TV Shows We Almost Forgot Were Based On Hit Movies

#1 Some TV Shows Are Actually Based On Movies Instead Of The Other Way Around

If you think the remake trend has hit an all time high you're probably right. But Hollywood has been rehashing ideas since it first began, and taking a story from the big screen and adapting it for a series is difficult. It doesn't alway end with a success. People normally don't want to to see a film they enjoyed in the theatre remade into an hour or 30-minute format.

Barely a TV season goes by without at least one big-screen spin-off but there's a very spotty rate of success, for everything that spawns a multi-season smash, there's another that proves to be a complete disaster that barely makes it to air.

However, as hard as they try, and they try and try... every once in awhile one of those films hits the small television screen at just the right time and it's a big hit. Here are some of the best television series that were based on a hit film.

#2 MASH

Both the 1970 film and the 1972 series were based on the bestselling book by Richard Hooker. Despite struggling to stay on the air after it's first season M*A*S*H ended up running for 11 years (much longer than the three-year war itself) and the final episode was the most watched TV episode in US history at the time. Most of the film cast was entirely replaced, making household names out of Loretta Swit, Alan Alda and Jamie Farr.

#3 The Odd Couple

The original Odd Couple sitcom debuted on ABC in 1970. It was based on the 1968 movie starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, which was based on the stage play by Neil Simon. The show was cancelled after only 6 months, but when ABC ran it during the summer as reruns, it caught on and became a big hit that lasted for 5 seasons. Both the film in 1968 and the series had casting issues before they finally settled with the players we know today as Felix and Oscar.

On the series, ABC wanted Dean Martin and Art Carney to play the leads, then switched to Martin Balsam and Dick Van Dyke. Eventually, they got Randall and Matthau together and the rest is television history.

The series was just the first of adaptations, however, as in 1982 ABC tried a reboot with African American actors Ron Glass and Demond Wilson, but it didn't fare very well. In 2015, CBS tried once more with Matthew Perry and Thomas Lennon and they can't decide what to do with it as the rating are high enough but there doesn't seem to be a spot on the schedule for it. It has been renewed for a second season, but the first season was only 7 episodes.

#4 FAME

While the film and the TV show (not to mention the theme tune) are equally famous the tone of each is quite different. Alan Parker's 1980 film followed students through their first year at a performing arts school and had a much grittier feel with issues like addiction, poverty, suicide and abortion sitting alongside the cheery dance numbers. It was so popular with young adults that a series was rushed onto the air the very next year by NBC.

The TV series kept much the same cast but had a more family-friendly feel and featured more musical numbers and television friendly themes. While most story lines focused on the kids at the school, a large portion of the plot was set aside for star Debbie Allen and the faculty. Although it wasn't a massive hit in the US, it did last five seasons and it proved to be so successful in the UK that the BBC co-produced later seasons.

#5 Friday Night Lights

The 2004 adaptation of writer Buzz Bissinger's seminal book was a movie that nobody expected, and audiences fell in love with it. It combined sports, smart, grown-up dialog and enough dramatic flair to keep all ages interested. The film was shot in a docudrama style and focused on a small town Texas sports team.

Arriving on NBC only two years after the movie, the small-screen "Friday Night Lights" departed substantially from the film (moving the setting to the fictionalized town of Dillon) but kept the spirit intact. The show was a popular hit with fans but the rating were not there. It was cancelled twice and brought back after diehard fans came together to urge NBC to keep it alive. It eventually ran from 2006 to 2011, though the episodes were sporadic for 2 years as NBC struggled to keep it on air before Direct TV kicked in and picked up the final 2 seasons.

#6 Buffy The Vampire Slayer

It;s been said that movie remakes are worth doing the most when the original was something that didn't quite work, and "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" is the clearest example that a similar maxim could be applied to the TV spin-off: it took a mostly forgotten film, and turned it into a bold, funny, inventive, rich show that changed TV forever, and remains one of the very best of the 1990s.

The film from 1992 starred Kristy Swanson and Luke Perry and was about a snobbish cheerleader who was told that she was a Slayer, a powerful being destined to battle vampires. The series ran from 1997-2003 and made superstars of then unknowns David Boreanaz and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

#7 Alice

Based loosely on the 1974 Martin Scorsese film "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" this series was a smash hit for CBS from 1976 to 1985. Focusing around the diner at which Alice works in the film, the show ran for over 200 episodes, as well as spawning a short-lived spin-off, "Flo" (about the character played by Diane Ladd in the movie but portrayed by Polly Holliday).

After her husband is killed in a trucking accident, Alice Hyatt packs up the car and her son, Tommy, and heads to Hollywood, dreaming of a singing career. Her car breaks down in Phoenix, forcing her to take a job at Mel's Diner, a greasy spoon where gruff owner Mel, played by Vic Tayback, barks orders to Alice and her fellow waitresses.

Tayback was the only film cast member which starred Ellen Bursten, Kris Kristofferson, Jodie Foster, Diane Ladd and Alfred Lutter, to make the transition to the series, although Ladd later was written in as a replacement character for Holladay prior to the series finale.

#8 Fargo

Everyone in sin city thought it was a waste of money to try and reinvent The Coen Brothers' untouchably brilliant 1996 dark-comedy ‘Fargo', but the 2014 series on FX proved a hit with fans, critics and even the Coens themselves. The movie had been tried on the small screen previously, in 1997 starring Edie Falco, but lasted only 5 episodes. However, that version followed the film in every way possible. The FX version, created by Noah Hawley is "inspired" by, rather than spinning off the original, and features entirely different characters and stories.

#9 Parenthood

Ron Howard directed the 1988 comedy-drama that starred Steve Martin, Rick Moranis, Martha Plimpton, Mary Steenburgen and Dianne Wiest along with future stars like Keanu Reeves and Joaquin Phoenix. The movie was basically a big-screen sitcom, though well written, well acted, and pleasing to anyone who ever came from a messy big family.

Hence, it's understandable then that the films spawned two different sitcoms for TV. Ron Howard himself helmed the 1990 NBC series, which was cancelled after only 12 episodes though it starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Thora Birch and David Arquette.

The second attempt came in 2010 when the powers that be at NBC decided the show was pretty good but would make a better hour long drama. They made the right decision for once, and the show was a hit on the network. Starring Craig T. Nelson, Bonnie Bedelia, Peter Krause, Monica Potter, Lauren Graham, Mae Whitman, Erika Christensen, Sam Jaeger, and Dax Shephard, the show had it's finale in 2015.

#12 Parenthood

Critics still argue that the original television version by Ron Howard was one of the best comedy series ever and nobody is certain why NBC pulled the plug on the show before it could get any attention from viewers. Fans of Howards work say his television projects, like "Arrested Development," have never been given a fair shot and that they rank up there with most successful shows still on the air.

Still, nobody is arguing that the last incarnation of the film was not a pretty good TV series. It's a looser adaptation of the original with three generations in the family and one of the kid's having Aspergers syndrome. The change from comedy to drama allowed for more character building and family issues. Though the show has had its finale, there is talk of bringing it back once more on Netflix.

#10 In The Heat Of The Night

Very few television actors get more than one signature role throughout their careers. So when Archie Bunker proved to be massively popular, it would seem Carroll O'Connor would be forever typecast as the "loveable bigot." That all changed in 1988 when O'Connor was asked to play the lead on "In the Heat of the Night," based on the 1967 film and the 1965 novel of the same title. It ran for eight seasons, three on NBC and 5 on CBS, and gave O'Connor the career resurgence he deserved.

O'Connor stars as a small-town police chief (and later a sheriff) in fictional Sparta, Miss. which has its share of murder, rape, corruption, racism and drunken driving, so O'Connor's Chief William Gillespie has his hands full. He won three Golden Globe Awards for his role, and the series won 7 awards during its two network run.

#11 Lassie

Lassie is a fictional female Rough Collie dog character created by Eric Knight in a short story that was later expanded to a full-length novel called Lassie Come-Home. Published in 1940, MGM made the book into a film in 1943 and was followed by six more films through 1960.

In 1954, the long-running, Emmy-winning television series Lassie debuted and quickly became a fan favorite. The character actually had six different series over the years, two of which were repackaged shows for syndication.

The original series "Lassie" lasted an incredible 19 seasons. The show is the fourth longest-running primetime series in history, behind The Simpsons, Gunsmoke and Law & Order. And despite popular references, Timmy never did fall down a well.

#13 Bates Motel

Based on the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film "Psycho," this FX series was an instant hit for the new network when it premiered in 2013. The show is eerily fascinating because it acts as a prequel to the movie, which was done in 1960, allowing us to meet Norman and his mother Norma, but it's also a complete reboot in a modern-day setting which means that the story depicted in the film hasn't actually taken place yet. The well-written show stars former ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory‘ star Freddie Highmore as the lead and Vera Farmiga as his controlling but not unsympathetic mother.

#14 Honorable Mentions

Among the more successful of the ones that we didn't have space to include are...

"The Dead Zone," "Serpico," "Alien Nation," "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," "The Dukes Of Hazzard" (based on the movie "Moonrunners"), "Highlander: The Series," and "Uncle Buck" and "Planet Of The Apes".

Also..

"What's Happening!!"(based on "Cooley High"), "Harry And The Hendersons," "Teen Wolf," "The Courtship Of Eddie's Father", "Peyton Place" and "Weird Science."