Classic TV Shows that Bombed as Movies

[71dude]

Car 54 Where Are You

 

[Nate Wesley]

some (but not all) of the Star Trek movies.

Since the first movie did well enough to warrant sequels, that's got to be seen as a success regardless of quality.

 

[Nate Wesley]

Kojak

I can't find any information on a Kojak movie being in theaters.

 

[LKellerIII]

Kojak

I can't find any information on a Kojak movie being in theaters.

Voice of Reason probably mistakenly thought that the 2005 revival of[ i]Kojak[/i] was a movie. It was also a TV show, starring Ving Rhames as Theo Kojak. It could be considered a 'bomb' however - only lasted 10 episodes.


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439375/

 

[Nate Wesley]

Voice of Reason probably mistakenly thought that the 2005 revival of[ i]Kojak[/i] was a movie. It was also a TV show, starring Ving Rhames as Theo Kojak. It could be considered a 'bomb' however - only lasted 10 episodes.

More likely 'bombworthy' in that it wasn't renewed. It is cable, after all.

 

[EZway2go]

I guess one way to tell the difference between a hit and a bomb is if they make a second movie. So, The Addams Family was probably a hit... not sure about Addams Family Values.

How did Dennis The Menace with Walter Matthau do?

 

[anotherguyTN]

I guess one way to tell the difference between a hit and a bomb is if they make a second movie. So, The Addams Family was probably a hit... not sure about Addams Family Values.

How would you consider a movie that had a direct to video sequel rather than a theatrical one?

 

[Braves2005]

Dennis The Menace with Walter Matthau did pretty good at the box office but the others (the one with Don Rickles and Betty White playing the Wilsons and Robert Wagner as Mr. Wilson) went straight to VHS and DVD.

H.R. Puf 'n' Stuf was made into a movie in 1970 to follow the success of the show on Saturday mornings on TV and was called "Puf 'n' Stuf" featuring Jack Wild and Mama Cass Elliott playing a witch I believe. Flopped big time back then and I don't think that movie has ever been released on either VHS or DVD.

 

[LKellerIII]

I guess one way to tell the difference between a hit and a bomb is if they make a second movie. So, The Addams Family was probably a hit... not sure about Addams Family Values.

Both Addams family films did well. On that point, The Brady Bunch Movie not only made money, it spawned a sequel, aptly named A Very Brady Sequel. It was also considered a success.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118073/

 

[Braves2005]

The Munsters' Revenge came out either before or after the TV show was canceled in 1966 and probably a few reasons why it wasn't a huge hit.

1. People didn't want a color version of The Munsters and besides that they could watch it at home on TV if it started in syndication in reruns in 1966 and moreso the reason why not only The Munsters but The Addams Family on TV didn't get a third season (1966-1967) because the shows would have been in color and were much expensive at the time to run in color than black and white.

2. It was more or less a two hour version of The Munsters but in color and in theaters.

3. Pat Priest wasn't in it as she was deemed "too old" by producers (she was 30 at the time) and was replaced by a much younger actress.

 

[therealjm12]

Wasn't there a Munster Movie featuring the original cast "MUNSTER GO HOME"?

 

[bpatrick]

I think "Munster Go Home" was made during the run of the series.

I seem also to recall that "Starsky & Hutch" and "S.W.A.T." didn't
do too well at the box office; neither did "The Dukes Of Hazzard."
And don't get me started on "The Beverly Hillbillies," with Jim (Ernest
P. Worrell) Varney as Jed Clampett.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

I seem also to recall that "Starsky & Hutch" and "S.W.A.T." didn't
do too well at the box office;

"S&H" did OK, I thought; It was played for laughs, like the Hanks/Aykroyd "Dragnet", with a lot of emphasis on the "ho-yay" between Starsky and Hutch.

 

[jwk1979]

I seem also to recall that "Starsky & Hutch" and "S.W.A.T." didn't
do too well at the box office;

"S&H" did OK, I thought; It was played for laughs, like the Hanks/Aykroyd "Dragnet", with a lot of emphasis on the "ho-yay" between Starsky and Hutch.

At least, the movie version of "Starkey and Hutch" stayed true to era in which it came on and was set in 1975/76 instead of trying to set it in the year it came out (2003/2004) like they have tried to do with a lot of other TV series made into movies. It don't think "S&H" would have worked as a parody if it had been set in 2003/2004 or so. So many of the movies based on Classic TV series they either try to set in the Current time (which takes away the charm and the believablity) or they tried to do a REVISIONIST VERSION of it (Wild, Wild West) in which they change the entire scope of the series to PREACH their Propaganda.

 

[therealjm12]

The trend I have noticed with remakes of old TV shows and turning them into films seems to be trying to modernizing them and giving them too much plot. I first noticed this when they made the movie STRANGE BREW with the McKenzie Brothers from SCTV. The first half hour was hysterical and then just went downhill with a foolish plot that was overacted and hard to follow.
Dragnet's first 20 minutes or so were great when they were introducing the characters then the movie fell into the same problem. Too much plot and had nothing to do with the series -which deserved to be satirized.
The first Addams Family drifted away from the series and the Charles Addams characters. The Addams were a gentile folk that were a very loving family. They were non conformists that wouldn't harm anyone. It was the rest of the world that had the problem. The second movie was much better and more on target.
I liked Jim Varney as Jed Clempett but the rest of Beverly Hillbillies just didn't work and it could have. I would hate to see what they would do to Green Acres.

 

[ajmcwhorter]

Dennis The Menace with Walter Matthau did pretty good at the box office but the others (the one with Don Rickles and Betty White playing the Wilsons and Robert Wagner as Mr. Wilson) went straight to VHS and DVD.

Wow I didnt know those existed, Robert Wagner or Don Rickles as Mr. Wilson??

 

[ajmcwhorter]

Wasn't there a Munster Movie featuring the original cast "MUNSTER GO HOME"?

What was the 1981 made for tv movie with the "Munsters" cast called??

The only thing I liked about the "Beverly Hillbillies" movie was seeing Buddy Ebsen as "Barnaby Jones", that I wish he could have revived before he died like a series of 2 hour movies....

 

[Nate Wesley]

I guess one way to tell the difference between a hit and a bomb is if they make a second movie. So, The Addams Family was probably a hit... not sure about Addams Family Values.

How would you consider a movie that had a direct to video sequel rather than a theatrical one?

The Dukes of Hazzard was quite profitable, and had a direct to video prequel.

I don't think anybody's clamoring for another installment, though. John Schneider was right, the initial movie was horrible.

 

[bpatrick]

Maybe, as Jackie Gleason would say, "the biiiggggest bomb" of them all:
"The Legend Of The Lone Ranger" from 1981. Somebody named Klinton
Spilsbury played the title role (James Keach did the Lone Ranger's voice).
Some of you may recall that Clayton Moore was forced to wear wraparound
sunglasses instead of the mask in public, but when this movie tanked he got
his mask back.

 

[landtuna]

Some of you may recall that Clayton Moore was forced to wear wraparound
sunglasses instead of the mask in public, but when this movie tanked he got
his mask back.

The Clayton Moore "sunglasses" thing was because Moore and the owners of the Lone Ranger character (Wrather?) couldn't agree on a contract allowing Moore to do personal appearances as the LR. I don't think it had anything to do with the movie (at least in a direct way).