A-List: TV Shows That Should Become Movies
May 27, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
This week’s A-List talks about five TV shows, all dearly departed whether for a week, a year, or a decade, that should become movies. For the most part, it’s true: TV shows that become movies, whether they’re on the air or not, don’t do very well, when it comes to quality. I’m also not talking about the habit in Hollywood that seems to have been dead for a while, in which old TV shows are revived as movies with different actors playing the characters. So, we’re not talking about Bewitched, The Brady Bunch, or anything like that. These shows-turned-movies would need the same actors, the same characters, and the same kind of storylines. There’s no guarantee that any of these would work, though one of the TV shows actually has a good chance (or, the best of those listed) of becoming a film. Let’s get to the list and find out which one.
Arrested Development
Of all the TV shows on this list, I think we’ve all heard about the potential for an Arrested Development movie. On the one hand, the demand is there; people love the show (as they should, because it remains one of the best TV comedies ever). On the other hand, even if it wasn’t the most popular show on television, Arrested Development did send some of its cast into the stratosphere of Hollywood stardom. Yes, Jason Bateman is not a big star, but he is in a lot more movies thanks to his role as straight man Michael Bluth. Michael Cera’s career began with George Michael Bluth and now he’s Scott Pilgrim. Will Arnett’s also gotten plenty of supporting roles in other TV shows and movies thanks to the show. In short, because of how much demand there is, making a movie is, in itself, difficult.
What would happen in the movie? Well, the series ended with Michael and his son riding off to a secluded island, to be free of the crazy family. One can only imagine what could transpire back in the O.C. (don’t call it that) for the Bluth boys to come back. There seems to be no question, even if the movie doesn’t happen for a year or two (and from all of the false starts that we’ve heard about, who knows if there even will be an Arrested Development movie?), that people want a movie to come to fruition. The plot may not make that much sense in the end, but did anyone ever watch Arrested Development specifically for the plot? Yes, some of the storylines were extremely well-crafted (remember how Buster losing his hand was foreshadowed months earlier?), but the jokes are what’s important. As long as everyone can come back, I’m willing to wait.
Freaks and Geeks
Before there was a 40-year old virgin, there was Sam Weir. Before he got someone knocked up, Seth Rogen was a low-voiced stoner whose girlfriend was a hermaphrodite. Before he was doing performance art on a nationally televised soap opera, James Franco was playing a cool loner, trying to fit in without looking like he wanted to. And before he was the king of all Hollywood comedies, Judd Apatow was just a writer and producer trying to get a TV show off the ground. Anyone who loved Freaks and Geeks, the show that brought all of these people and more together, knows that Apatow would have to wait for Steve Carell to get his chest waxed before he became a force to be reckoned with. As much as most of the actors on this show have gotten bigger, the 18-episode comedy-drama that aired in 2000 on NBC is where it all began, one of the titans of the brilliant but cancelled TV world.
The show was about how two groups of kids, the geekiest ones and the ones who hung around outside of school and smoked pot, tried to get through the angst of high school in 1980. NBC, of course, didn’t know what it had and dumped the show after less than a full season. Now, of course, the actors have moved on, but something as cheesy as a high school reunion could begin to answer some of the questions that the series left open. What happened to Lindsay Weir when she left for the concert at the end of the series? There doesn’t need to be a concrete answer, of course, but her future was wide open; what did she do with it? What of Sam? Would he find a girl who was more than just ideally pretty? Did Nick ever figure out how to become a better drummer, or back away from the militaristic influence of his father? We can craft the endings in our minds, but the actors and Apatow’s touch would likely turn something this potentially cheesy into gold.
Lost
I promise. I promise to the bottom of my heart that this is, for a very long time, my way of not talking about Lost again for a long time. For those of you who have not yet seen the finale (or just don’t want to know if you ever watch the show in the future), this will discuss a few plot spoilers, so be warned. For those who have watched the finale, you may want to know what the hell I’m thinking of. Wasn’t Lost’s finale…you know, final? We saw what the sideways universe meant (roughly, though you may see it a bit differently than I would), we saw what happened to our characters on the Island. Isn’t that it? Well, yes and no. For example, we know that, once Jack passed on the duties of protecting the Island to Hurley, Hurley and Ben worked as a powerhouse duo for untold years. What did they do on the Island after we left the story?
We also saw that Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Richard, Miles, and Frank got off the Island via Ajira flight 316. Presumably, Claire would go back to being a mother to Aaron, and Sawyer and Kate may well have attempted, at some point, some kind of relationship (though what with Sawyer still mourning Juliet, and Kate professing her love for Jack, it’s doubtful that anything would’ve worked). But what of Richard Alpert? We know now, or are given hints, that he’s become mortal by the end of the series. Still, it’s not like he has any solid idea of how to live off the Island. Yes, he may have had the hook-up when he was aligned with Jacob, but what about when he’s his own man? The main problem with any Lost movie would be a strong, interweaving narrative. How to bring all of these characters together in some fashion? Maybe Hurley and Ben have to travel off Island to help their friends, providing action and adventure in the real world. Either way, I’ve turned the corner from loving the show so much I never want it to continue, to wanting it to never end, so let’s figure something out.
Deadwood
Any fan of the late, lamented HBO series Deadwood knows that the ending wasn’t really supposed to be the ending. And, any true fan knows that me putting this show on the list is the very definition of a pipe dream. The three-season revisionist Western was supposed to air for one more season. The show’s creator, David Milch, had explicitly seen the series as running for four 12-episode seasons, but there were business problems between HBO and Paramount, the production company, so three seasons were all we got. There had been rumors directly after this troubling news that the series would be capped off with two two-hour movies in the near future, but with every passing day, it became clear that this was extremely unlikely. What a tragedy indeed; HBO gets to keep showing Entourage, but we’re stuck with no more Deadwood.
I highly doubt that a feature film of two hours would do well enough to turn a solid profit or be enough time for Milch and the great cast of the show to wrap everything up in a tidy bow. I’d be fine with a series of two-hour movies on HBO or any other network willing to air them. This is a case where the movie is almost necessary, helping further the stories of these characters that we all so dearly loved. What happened next to Al Swearengen after George Hearst left the camp of Deadwood? What would happen to Seth Bullock? What of Sol Star, Trixie, and on and on and on? The mark of a show that deserves a follow-up isn’t just the story, it’s the characters. Great stories are only made so by the characters, and this is a case where it’s the characters I want closure on. Maybe one day, the necessary executives will get their heads out of their collective asses, but don’t count on it.
Veronica Mars
Here’s another show that manages to feel like it got a bum rap even if it got a lot luckier than some other shows. Veronica Mars is one of those network television programs that should have never aired on network TV; the catch-22 is that the show could have only been picked up by a network, because of the setting and characters. It seems unlikely that a teen drama of any kind would survive on HBO, if only because the cable channel prides itself on airing that which would not be on normal TV (see upcoming shows like Boardwalk Empire and A Game of Thrones). Veronica Mars was too adult for the young girls that UPN and the CW wanted to cater to, so even though the show made it to the CW for a season, it was a death knell for the show. Veronica Mars concluded with the title character walking away into an uncertain future, but it was ripe for following up on.
Since the program was ostensibly a detective show, creator Rob Thomas (not the guy from Matchbox Twenty, mind you) could easily craft a cinematic noir, while providing Veronica (the luminous and ever-more-popular Kristen Bell) a great story. Of course, this show had some brilliant characters, from Veronica’s dad, Keith, to her on-again, off-again, love/hate interest Logan, to the cheerfully amoral private detective Vinnie Van Lowe. All of them could return, or none of them, but it wouldn’t be a great movie without Bell’s narrative style (yes, Gossip Girl fans, her voice was used to a better, richer extent on this CW program), her spunky attitude, and some truly intricate, suspenseful mysteries. Veronica Mars is another show that likely wouldn’t bring in huge box office, but it has a motivated fanbase, and we’re all willing to throw down a few bucks for a movie, right? Right?