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This weekend marks yet another painful day for most men in the country. Yes, fellas, this is the weekend where you (and this time, I do mean just you, because my wife learned her lesson with the first one) have to sit through Sex and the City 2, just to make your girlfriends, wives, or significant others happy - and willing to sit through something you want to see later this year. The first film in the franchise (and I have my fingers crossed that there are only two, but we’ll see) made quite a lot of money, despite being an overlong, offensive, and embarrassing jape, in this writer’s opinion. Though it’s no surprise that there’s a sequel (and from the early reviews, it’s just as bad and just as long), why are we wasting our time at the multiplex with a second Sex and the City movie when there are plenty of great TV shows that deserve the big-screen treatment?

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.

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