Hollywood never shies away from reinventing fan-favorite TV series into a big house production movie. It’s a challenging process to recast and reimagine a TV series for a whole new audience. What’s even more difficult is to conclude an entire TV series in a 2-3 hour movie. So, what are the best movie adaptations based on live-action TV shows? Here is the list ranked by their accuracy & adaptation.

1.Addams Family (1991)

Release Date: November 22, 1991

Directed By: Barry Sonnenfeld

Film Adaptation: Addams Family revolves around an impostor Uncle Fester trying to deceive the family out of their fortune.

2.The Fugitive

Release Date: August 6, 1993

Directed By: Andrew Davis

Film Adaptation: With seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, the movie was a big hit. The most significant changes from the TV show involved a pharmaceutical company that was the cause of Dr. Richard Kimble’s wife’s demise. Consequently, Fredrick Sykesthe was known as the One-Armed Man.

3.Maverick

Release Date: May 20, 1994

Directed By: Richard Donner

Film Adaptation: Maverick, a gambler, joins a woman to enter a Winner Take All poker game.

4.Mission: Impossible

Release Date: May 22, 1996

Directed By: Brian De Palma

Film Adaptation: Unlike the original series, the series hero Jim Phelps became the infamous villain. Consequently, Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise, was the new hero in the action-packed movie franchise.

5.Twilight Zone: The Movie

Release Date: June 24, 1983

Directed By: John Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, George Miller

Film Adaptation: The movie featured multiple stories, unlike the TV series’ single-story format. The movie has four segments. Consequently, featuring Albert Brooks and Dan Aykroyd with two bookend segments.

6.The A-Team

Release Date: June 11, 2010

Directed By: Joe Carnahan

Film Adaptation: From being Vietnam veterans to Iraq veterans Hannibal, Face, B.A., and Murdoch blended in the contemporary setting in the movie. Four American soldiers get a chance to clear their names after a special mission in Iraq.

7.Get Smart

Release Date: June 20, 2008

Directed By: Peter Segal

Film Adaptation: Get Smart has a modern-day setting. Consequently, the movie turned Maxwell Smart into a nerdy analyst dragged into a twisted plot involving spies.

8.Miami Vice

Release Date: July 28, 2006

Directed By: Michael Mann

Film Adaptation: The dull tone of the film consequently was a box-office flop. The cult classic revolves around two detectives, Ricardo Tubbs and Sonny Crockett, who go undercover to bring down a major drug trafficking racket.

9.Dragnet

Release Date: June 26, 1987

Directed By: Tom Mankiewicz

Film Adaptation: Unlike the no-nonsense series, the movie turns the plot into a broad parody of the tough guy cliches from the TV series. Consequently, introducing a young Tom Hanks as Joe Friday’s sidekick.

10.Power Rangers

Release Date: March 24, 2017

Directed By: Dean Israelite

Film Adaptation: It was the first Power Rangers film to separate from the TV show’s continuity with a different premise. Consequently, the Power Rangers were portrayed as moody teens with their problems in personal life.

11.The Brady Bunch Movie

Release Date: February 17, 1995

Directed By: Betty Thomas

Film Adaptation: The film follows the Brady family hopelessly trapped in the 1970s and incapable of existing in the then-present the mid-1990s.

12.Baywatch

Release Date: May 25, 2017

Directed By: Seth Gordon

Film Adaptation: The film was a remake as well as a sequel to the original TV series. Dwayne Johnson plays Mitch Buchannon, and Pamela Anderson portrays a character that seems to be her series character, C.J. Parker.

13.Lost in Space

Release Date: April 3, 1998

Directed By: Stephen Hopkins

Film Adaptation: The plot of Lost in Space, following a family of scientists, sent on a deep space colonization mission remains intact. Instead of a vague international space race, the Robinson family leaves a dying planet ravaged by climate change. Consequently, their mission becomes to colonize the planet Alpha Prime.

14.The Dukes of Hazzard

Release Date: August 5, 2005

Directed By: Jay Chandrasekhar

Film Adaptation: What didn’t change in the film was depicting the Confederate flag on the Dukes’ car roof. The story is about Cousins Luke and Bo Duke who are evicted along their family, from their ancestral farm by a corrupt commissioner.

15.Bewitched

Release Date: June 24, 2005

Directed By: Nora Ephron

Film Adaptation: Nora Ephron’s version of the classic romantic fantasy sitcom depicts a witch who falls in love with a mortal. Consequently, the events take a drastic turn. The tangled plotline made the movie too confusing. Evidently, Bewitched was a box-office flop.

16.Charlie’sAngels

Release Date: November 3, 2000

Directed By: McG

Film Adaptation: Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, and Cameron Diaz are new characters unlike the angels seen in the TV series. Also, Bill Murray plays a new Bosley.

17.The Honeymooners

Release Date: June 10, 2005

Directed By: John Schultz

Film Adaptation: The original Honeymooners was a plot about working-class American struggles. Consequently, the movie focuses on Ralph Kramden, a New York City bus driver who desires to become rich with his crazy ideas. However, things take a different turn when he ends up losing all his savings.

18.Starsky & Hutch

Release Date: March 5, 2004

Directed By: Todd Phillips

Film Adaptation: The film retained the ’70s setting of the original but added a shade of comedy into the story by flipping the personalities of the lead characters.

19.Wild Wild West

Release Date: June 30, 1999

Directed By: Barry Sonnenfeld

Film Adaptation: In the series, West was white in contrary to Will Smith playing the character of Jim West. Also, Dr. Loveless was changed from a little person to a Civil War veteran in a high-tech wheelchair.

20.Fantasy Island

Release Date: February 14, 2020

Directed By: Jeff Wadlow

Film Adaptation: Unlike the romantic tone of the TV show the movie is a daunting horror about guests’ fantasies turning into living nightmares.

21.Car 54, Where are you?

Release Date: January 28, 1994

Directed By: Bill Fishman

Film Adaptation: The 1950s police sitcom TV show planned to be a musical. But the plot followed two cops in New Work city who are tasked with guarding Herbert Hortz, a witness who’s due to testify in an organized crime case.

Sources : Ranker , Flipboard 

 

 

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