18 TV Shows Based on Hit Movies That Bombed in the Ratings
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M*A*S*H. Friday Night Lights. Hannibal. Some of the best and most beloved TV shows of all time were movies first — but alas, this list is not about those shows.
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No, this list is about the TV shows that also took inspiration from very popular movies… and still managed to flop. Bringing a hit movie to the small screen is no guarantee of success, of course, and these shows really proved that with disappointing recasts, shoestring budgets and a general lack of cinematic magic. That may be why none of the shows listed here even made it to a second season.
You’ve probably heard of or seen all of the movies represented here, but did you even know there was a Dirty Dancing TV show? How about a Ferris Bueller TV show co-starring Jennifer Aniston? Or a Working Girl TV show starring a pre-fame Sandra Bullock? Yep, they all happened… and they all came and went with barely a whimper.
So grab a bucket of popcorn and read on to see our list of TV shows that were based on hit movies but were anything but hits themselves — including not one but two ill-conceived takes on Uncle Buck! Are you thinking of a movie-based flop we forgot? Hit the comments below to refresh our memory.
Ferris Bueller
Matthew Broderick was effortlessly charming in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but this 1990 NBC offshoot was not nearly as endearing, with Charlie Schlatter taking over the title role. John Hughes wasn’t involved in the production, none of the original cast returned and the show paled in comparison to Fox’s teen comedy Parker Lewis Can’t Lose. It got the axe after just 13 episodes — but it did provide an early role to Jennifer Aniston as Ferris’ sister Jeannie.
Dirty Dancing
Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey heated up the dance floor in the 1987 film, so it’s no surprise that CBS tried to turn it into a weekly series the following year. Melora Hardin, aka Jan from The Office, stepped in to play Grey’s role, but all the heat dissipated once the movie’s story was stretched out to several weeks. CBS yanked it off the air after 11 episodes, but the franchise was resurrected in 2017 with an ABC TV movie starring Abigail Breslin.
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Working Girl
NBC originally developed this 1990 remake of the Melanie Griffith film as a vehicle for Facts of Life star Nancy McKeon, but when that didn’t work out, they turned to a virtual unknown named Sandra Bullock. The series picked up after the movie, with Tess McGill graduating from lowly secretary to junior executive, but even Bullock’s innate appeal couldn’t save this one from getting the pink slip after just eight episodes.
Uncle Buck (twice!)
Yes, the John Candy comedy about a sloppy bachelor who ends up taking care of his brother’s kids somehow inspired two TV series. In 1990, stand-up comic Kevin Meany took over the Candy role for CBS, but the show tanked in the ratings when put up against Full House. Then in 2016, ABC took another stab at it with Mike Epps in the title role. But that flopped, too, and was cancelled after a low-rated summer run.
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Napoleon Dynamite
Nuh-uh! The oddball comedy starring Jon Heder as a teen outcast became an unlikely hit in 2004, and in a rare occurrence for this list, the full cast reunited for an animated version for Fox in 2012. But the indie buzz had faded away in the eight years since, and Fox ninja-kicked it to the curb after just six airings.
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Minority Report
Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg scored a hit with their 2002 sci-fi thriller about cops who solve crimes before they happen with the help of “precogs” who can see the future. Meagan Good starred in a 2015 adaptation for Fox, along with Nick Zano and Wilmer Valderrama, but low ratings led to a slashed episode order and then finally to cancellation. Hmmm, if only Fox could’ve foreseen this somehow…
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Rush Hour
Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan made an unlikely pair in the 1998 action comedy that spawned two sequels along with a 2016 CBS version starring Justin Hires and Jon Foo as the mismatched cops. The comedic chemistry between Tucker and Chan proved tough to replicate, though, and middling ratings and poor reviews condemned CBS’ take to one-season-and-done status.
True Lies
Arnold Schwarzenegger scored one of his biggest hits in 1994 playing an unassuming husband who leads a double life as an international spy, and it took nearly 30 years for CBS to bring it to TV, with Steve Howey stepping in for Arnold and Ginger Gonzaga replacing Jamie Lee Curtis. But the movie succeeded thanks to its gee-whiz special effects — and having director James Cameron at the helm — and the CBS version just couldn’t compete on a TV budget. It was terminated after one season… but hey, at least Tom Arnold showed up to reprise his movie role.
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My Big Fat Greek Life
OK, we will actually defend this one, because a CBS sitcom based on the surprise 2002 comedy smash My Big Fat Greek Wedding seemed like a sure-fire hit. The story of a woman introducing her husband to her wacky Greek family is tailor-made for TV comedy, and star Nia Vardalos returned along with most of the supporting cast. But despite pulling in big ratings with its series premiere in 2003, Greek Life flamed out after a measly seven episodes.
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The Crow: Stairway to Heaven
The cult 1994 hit The Crow, which was marred by the tragic on-set death of star Brandon Lee, led to a number of inferior sequels as well as this Canadian-produced TV offshoot that began airing in the U.S. on Syfy in 1999. Mark Dacascos, aka the Chairman on Iron Chef America, didn’t quite measure up to Lee as undead vigilante Eric Drayven — and in a horrible coincidence, a stuntman was killed by an explosion during filming of the first and only season.
A League of Their Own
A year after the Geena Davis-led movie about women baseball players hit theaters in 1992, CBS turned it into a TV show, with future Law & Order star Carey Lowell replacing Davis and Sam McMurray replacing Tom Hanks as the girls’ grumpy manager. (A few original cast members did return, though, like Megan Cavanagh as the hard-hitting Marla Hooch.) Sadly, the CBS version struck out after filming only six episodes. Amazon did its own well-received A League of Their Own series in 2022, but that also got the hook after one season.
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The Net
Hey, remember when we called it “the Net”? Sandra Bullock’s 1995 cyber thriller sure does, and it earned enough at the box office to inspire a 1998 USA Network remake, with Melrose Place alum Brooke Langton taking over as computer whiz Angela Bennett. It even had the great Tim Curry as the voice of a mysterious online ally known as “Sorcerer,” but that wasn’t enough to stop the network from pulling the plug after a single season.
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Fast Times
CBS’ attempt to bring the seminal teen comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High to TV in 1986 had a few things going for it: Film director Amy Heckerling was on board as a producer, and it had a cast of future stars like Patrick Dempsey and Courtney Thorne-Smith. They even got Ray Walston to return as the teacher Mr. Hand! But it wasn’t easy to smooth out the raunchy comedy’s racier elements for network TV — and Fast Times flunked out after seven episodes.
Blade: The Series
Screenwriter David S. Goyer, who penned all three Blade movies, brought the Marvel vampire hunter to Spike TV in 2006 with help from comic book staple Geoff Johns, and critics actually praised the show’s high-octane fight scenes. But rapper Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones couldn’t really carry Wesley Snipes’ cape in the lead role, and the series got a fatal stake to the heart after one season.
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Police Academy: The Series
When the Police Academy franchise finally ran out of steam on the big screen after six (!) sequels, it turned to TV for this syndicated spinoff that debuted in 1998. Sound effects whiz Michael Winslow reprised his role as Sergeant Larvell Jones, and a number of movie alums returned for guest spots as well. The series didn’t fare much better than Mission to Moscow, though, and was yanked off the air after a single season.
Dangerous Minds
Michelle Pfeiffer scored a surprise box office success in 1995 playing a teacher who uses unconventional methods to reach her inner-city students. (It helped that Coolio’s mega-hit “Gangsta’s Paradise” was on the soundtrack.) ABC thought the formula might work on TV, with Annie Potts taking over for Pfeiffer, but the adaptation stumbled out of the gate in the fall of 1996 and never drew enough of a crowd to earn a second season.
RoboCop: The Series
Paul Verhoeven’s futuristic tale of a cop killed in the line of duty and brought back to life as a law-enforcing cyborg became a box office smash in 1987, leading to a pair of sequels. It also inspired a 1994 syndicated TV version, with Richard Eden starring as the cyborg cop. The series wasn’t nearly as dark or as violent as the original film, though, and its expensive budget meant that it had to be pulled off-duty after a single season.
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Delta House
The raucous college comedy Animal House was such a huge blockbuster in 1978 that ABC jumped at the chance to turn it into a weekly series. The TV version, Delta House, premiered just six months after Animal House hit theaters, and it even brought back cast members like the original Flounder, D-Day and Dean Wormer. They couldn’t bring back John Belushi, though, and with prudish network standards overly sanitizing the wild frat boy antics, Delta House didn’t return to campus for its sophomore year.
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