We’ve seen it occasionally happen over the years: movies that hope to cash-in on iconic television shows by using them as a basis for a feature film. Typically, these outings are awful. They seldom do anything to improve upon the performances and premises on which they are based. The recent ChiPs is an example. A bumbling film of poor taste that does damage to the show’s reputation by recreating it as a comedy with insipid, juvenile humor and frankly, poor taste. Other TV to film enterprises include the Scooby-Doo films, Bewitched, The Flintstones, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Brady Bunch, Charlie’s Angels, Dragnet, Dukes of Hazzard, Fat Albert, The Fugitive, Lost in Space, The Smurfs, South Park, Thunderbirds, Veronica Mars, 21 Jump Street, The Avengers, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Inspector Gadget, The Honeymooners, Miami Vice, Mission: Impossible, Star Trek (myriad inceptions), and The Mod Squad. This is just a partial list, but as you glance through it, only a handful stick out as having been faithful, entertaining adaptations of their original sources. Why is it that so many films that found their genesis in popular TV shows have failed to ignite on the big screen? How does this bode for the upcoming and eagerly-anticipated (by some) Baywatch film?
