The golden age of television is upon the world. At least, that’s what the people of the
internet seem to be saying on a regular basis.
There is so much television programming out there that the quality has
greatly improved on what it was thirty, twenty, even ten years ago. The shows being produced now wouldn’t even
have been thought of three decades ago. Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Westworld,
and Justified couldn’t exist in the
same time as Cheers, Taxi, and the original run of Hawaii Five-O. Television was a different world back then,
and it wasn’t taken nearly as seriously or artistically as it is now.
In the current day, television is almost on par with film
when it comes to the quality of the product.
A show like The Handmaid’s Tale
looks as cinematic as most movies that come across the screen. That wasn’t the case a couple decades
ago. There was a vast difference between
the quality of television and the quality of film. Of course, people would work wherever they
could to get the money they needed to survive.
If that meant going to television, that meant going to television. But the goal was to break out of the
television box and onto the silver screen.
That’s why Tom Hanks went from Bosom
Buddies to Philadelphia. That’s why Denzel Washington went from St. Elsewhere to Training Day. The movies
were where a person wanted to be.
Television shows were also working their way into the film
world. Since the inception of
television, there have been movies based on or continuing television shows. This week’s film was one of the many movies
based on a television show. 1999’s Wild Wild West was based on the 1960s
television show The Wild Wild West. The film told the story of James West (Will
Smith), a U.S. Army Captain who was teamed up with U.S. Marshall Artemus Gordon
(Kevin Kline) to try and catch Confederate General “Bloodbath” McGrath (Ted
Levine). They would end up instead
trying to save President Ulysses S. Grant (Kevin Kline) from Arliss Loveless
(Kenneth Branagh).
There are three main types of film adaptations when it comes
to television shows. The first, and the
most common, is to simply reboot the show in a big screen form. The second is when the film is a sequel to
the television show. This usually
happens when the show is off the air, though that might not always be the
case. Then there are the movies that
merge the two. The movie ends up
essentially being a reboot, while also connecting to the original television
show. Three different kinds of
adaptations, each with their own successes and failures.
Digging into the first type of adaptation, there are many
movies that have been based on television shows without being connected to them
in any way. Most of these adaptations
come from shows before 2000. The quality
of television shows has been on the rise since then and it feels like less of
an event to have a modern television show get a film reboot. Why watch a Mad Men movie when there are seven seasons of quality Mad Men television show? There would be a new cast to get acquainted
to, the story could have been told over the course of two or three episodes on
the television show, and there probably wouldn’t be a huge difference in the
production quality. It would feel kind
of pointless.
Older television shows getting adapted to the modern big
screen allows an update to happen.
There’s still the issue where the audience has to get used to a new
cast. But, in many cases, the older
shows weren’t serialized. The bigger
stories would only play out during special event episodes, or else they
wouldn’t happen at all. There were no
TiVo or PVR types of equipment for people to record and catch up on television
shows, so the writing had to be very episodic and allow few changes in a short
amount of time. Therefore, there was a
status quo each episode and the stories couldn’t continue to play out in a long
form. Making a movie based on the show
allows for the longer story to play out in a way it couldn’t before.
Modern adaptations also allow for updates in the technology
used. The old story can be brought to
newer audiences by having an updated style.
Whether that ends up being behind the camera or in front of it, that
update can be reason enough for rebooting a television show in movie form. Most of the time, there’s a cosmetic update
being done. The look of the television
shows from the 50s, 60s, 70s, or 80s weren’t the greatest, so when they get
brought to the big screen, they look much better. Wild
Wild West, regardless of what people think of its quality as entertainment,
looked better than the televisual style of The
Wild Wild West. The only thing that
hurts the look of Wild Wild West is
the turn of the century computer effects.
Other than that, the visuals are better than in the television show.
There were definite problems with Wild Wild West, though.
Controversy came up surrounding the changes that happened to the
characters. Every reboot changes
characters in certain ways. James West
was changed from a white man to a black man, which completely changes a
character’s life in the Wild West. A
rivalry was added between James West and Artemus Gordon that wasn’t present in
the series. The humour was also
heightened. The gadgets that Gordon made
in the film were more joke based than they had been on television. The villain was also changed. In The
Wild Wild West, he was a dwarf. In Wild Wild West, he was a man without
legs. These changes might have only
affected die-hard fans of the show. What
affected film audiences were the dumb jokes and the giant mechanical spider in
the third act.
Other television shows have also tried this type of film
reboot, with one of the most successful being the Mission: Impossible franchise.
The sixth installment came out on Friday. Based on the spy series of the 1960s and
1970s, the films see Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt going on various impossible
missions that he makes possible. They
manage to capture the spirit of the show while blowing it out into a big
budget, modern action movie. The movies
play out like an episodic television show, with different directors, different
supporting characters, but a core group of main characters who continue to
reappear. It’s a fantastic update of a
television series into a modern movie world.
Sometimes producers like to keep their ties to the original
television franchise, though. This means
that they will create big budget sequels to television series in order to
continue the stories of the characters that people know and love. Many times, the actors will reprise their
roles from the television show in order to keep a consistency. Other times, some of them might be recast due
to creative differences or contract disputes.
Whatever the case, a continuation of the story that audiences had been
following seems like a sure-fire way to get butts in seats.
The Star Trek
movies might be the biggest franchise to do the sequel thing, since the effects
were directly felt until Star Trek:
Nemesis in 2002. The first bunch of
movies brought back the cast from Star
Trek: The Original Series, including William Shatner and Leonard
Nimoy. The movies varied in quality and
critical reception, but some of them, such as The Wrath of Khan, have had a lasting impact. The movies later brought in the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. There was one movie, Star Trek: Generations, which brought together the casts of the two
series for the first time. Each of the
stories that were being told were bigger than what had been done on
television. Star Trek used the bigger budget and bigger screen to bring a
bigger spectacle to the storytelling.
Star Trek brings
about the third type of adaptation of a television show as well, with the newer
films from J.J. Abrams. Those movies
work as both a sequel to what was seen before, while they also rebooted in a
way that would bring a different cast, a different tone, and much more modern action. These kinds of adaptations are a hybrid of
the other two ways to bring television to the movie format. They take the idea of a fresh reboot, and
that’s the primary way they go about things.
There are new actors playing the characters that people have come to
recognize. This gets a new audience
invested without having to watch anything else to get the background of what is
going on. Then there is a minor tie-in
to the previous material so that it continues the stories that have already
been told. In the case of Star Trek, that connection is
Spock. Leonard Nimoy reprised his role
as Spock, who went through some sort of space rift and ended up in an alternate
timeline with the new cast, including Zachary Quinto as the new Spock. It was an interesting way to tie everything
together while being something new.
21 Jump Street
also fell into this category of hybrid adaptation of a television show. There were new characters and a modern update
of the twenty-somethings going undercover in a high school storyline. It was more comedic, and pointed out the
absurdity of the concept. It all seemed
to be a fairly straight forward comedic reboot in film form, until a moment
later in the movie where two bad guys were revealed to be undercover cops who
had appeared in the original 1980s television show. That placed the movies in the same universe
as the television show. They weren’t
direct sequels, as they didn’t follow the characters from the show, but they
were sequels in the sense of the same thing happening again years later. It was a twist that nobody expected. Cameos, sure, but not the same
characters. The sequel brought back
another character, cementing the connection.
Those are the three primary ways with which television shows
are brought to movie theaters. They can
be complete reboots like Wild Wild West. They could be sequels to the television show,
such as the Star Trek movies. Or they could follow the way of the 21 Jump Street films and be a hybrid of
the reboot and sequel. Whatever method
is used, television shows from decades past continue to find ways to make
movies. The continued success of the Mission: Impossible movies only serves
to fuel the fire of studios and producers finding old properties to breathe new
life into.
Newer television shows haven’t found the need to do this as
often, since the actors feel so tied into the characters, and the stories feel
so self-contained. The serialized nature
of many modern television shows makes it tough to necessitate a film
version. In fact, properties are going
the other way to more success than they used to. Lethal
Weapon, Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, Minority Report, Twelve
Monkeys, and Rush Hour have each
seen television adaptations through the past few years. The tide is shifting to the point where
television is now the second home to properties that want to find new
life. That’s how things have changed in
twenty years. Which way will the balance
shift next?
Here are some notes to finish things off here:
- Wild Wild West was suggested for the Sunday “Bad” Movies by @_hiLAURIous, a first time suggestion submitter.
- This was the second Barry Sonnenfeld movie to be featured, behind Nine Lives (week 228).
- Ian Abercrombie has now made four appearances in the Sunday “Bad” Movies. Wild Wild West is the fourth, but he was also in The Ice Pirates (week 128), Sextette (week 141), and Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman (week 159).
- Musetta Vander made her second Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance this week, having shown up previously in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (week 140).
- Two people from the film 54 (week 266) returned to the Sunday “Bad” Movies with Wild Wild West. They were Salma Hayek and Frederique Van Der Wal.
- Wild Wild West was the second Sunday “Bad” Movie to feature Gary Carlos Cervantes. He was in 30 Nights of Paranormal Activity with the Devil Inside the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (week 10).
- James Lashly showed up in Wild Wild West. He also showed up in a little movie called Howard the Duck (week 75).
- Wild Wild West had an actor named William Victor Skrabanek. Another movie with that actor was Batman & Robin (week 138).
- Gigli (week 225) actor Scott Haslip popped up in Wild Wild West.
- One of the more memorable people in Wild Wild West was Bai Ling. She was in Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance (week 241).
- Christian Aubert had a part in Wild Wild West, after having been in Godzilla (week 282).
- Finally, Wild Wild West starred Will Smith. He had a small, yet important, role in Winter’s Tale (week 89).
- Have you seen Wild Wild West? What did you think? What do you think of other film adaptations of television shows? Use the comments to discuss anything related to this post.
- Let me know about any suggestions you might have for future featured films on Twitter or in the comments section. I'm always scanning for movies I might not have known about that could make for some interesting posts.
- Sometimes, I will watch bad movies and share clips of them on Snapchat. If that seems like your thing, add me (jurassicgriffin).
- Now to look forward at what’s coming up. There’s a sequel on the horizon. It’s a sequel to a movie that has been covered before. In fact, it’s a sequel to two movies that have been covered. Those movies were featured back in the first year and were called Dorm Daze and Dorm Daze 2: College @ Sea (week 40). Next week, the movie will be Transylmania, the third movie in that franchise. Come back in a week and you’ll see what I have written for it.
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