Remake Poll 1: TV to Film

I didn't hate Dukes of Hazard -- I never saw it. This meant that I just had no clue what people were talking about. I wasn't popular anyway, so it didn't matter.

As for the favorite childhood show I'd like to see made into a movie, clearly, hands down, Star Trek.

Oh, wait.

Well, at least they did a good job the second time around.

The truth is, I didn't watch a whole lot of TV when I was a kid-- up to some age, I was allowed only an hour of TV a day, so Star Trek pretty much used it up.

The truth is, the premises that make good movies and the premises that make good TV shows don't have a whole lot of overlap. I suppose it's just a matter of time before they have a Keifer Sutherland movie entitled "One and Three Quarters," but it's not a good idea. Even Star Trek has missed opportunities that would have made sense in a movie. "Everybody in one ship going places" is a good premise for an episodic show, but they should have broadened the canvas (and focused the story) for the movies. Must Picard remain captain? He can be admiral. Riker and Data can each be captains. We don't have to follow around the one ship any more. They did a wee bit of this in Undiscovered Country, with at least one of the main cast captain of another starship.

All of which was me procrastinating hoping that my subconscious would pop out an answer to the question, and it hasn't. So I guess I'm just going to have to say that I"m waiting for Monday Night Football: The Movie.

-Rob

My choice would be for Dr Who - the new guy is fine, but I want someone like Tom Baker...

Blake's Seven - William Macy as Blake, Jeffrey Donovan as Avon.
Orac as himself, of course.

Except they'll cast something like Bruce Willis or Diesel as Blake and Matthew Perry as Avon, with Adam Sandler as the Voice of Orac...

I'd also like to see the Water Margin made into a movie, maybe with Jim Carey as Monkey.

Two answers.

First, in case there's any Swedish readers, my hands-down favorite would be "Vilse i Pannkakan" ("lost in the pancake" more or less; an absurd, almost dadaistic childrens tv-series about strange figures living in an uneaten pancake). I would prefer nobody to star in it - it should be a feature-length puppet animation - but I would love having Terry Gilliam as director.

For a more mainstream series, Space1999 would make a good sci-fi flick with a slightly different flavor than the Star-Trek franchise.

A Bill Nye or Beakman movie. Staring the original "actors."

You can see where my childhood went.

Transformers, but only as long as they have Peter Cullen still doing Optimus' voice. Oh, wait.

I want to say they can't do an A-Team movie without George Peppard. But imagine with me if Hannibal's 21-yo son in LA (played by Josh Hartnett or some such), a son by one of those random girls that hung out with the team (let's say, Tia Carrere), was suddenly in unjust and unfair trouble? Maybe the military is using him as a scapegoat for some botched operation in the Middle East, and won't rescue him from wherever he is. Who will his mother call in her time of need, if she's lucky, if she can find them?

We then have a sequence where Tia finds Reverend B.A. preaching to his congregation, without the gold chains of course, cause those don't fly today. Tia pleads her case to the man who has given up violence for the Lord. But despite his oath to his wife to no longer fight in such a manner, his loyalty to his old commander and his son is paramount.

Face we find living the good life either as a Hugh Heffner type CEO of Templeton Negotiations, a multi-national consultant firm. He is reluctant to leave the soft life he's developed, and will say no until his introspective change of heart. Murdock has been a surfing guru living out of the van along the shores of Southern California for the past 20 years; convincing him to pick up the sword again will be easy as he you see his mind's insanity awake and relive the awful glory of combat.

There is some deadline to save the boy which is far enough away for a montage sequence of the Arthritis-Team getting back in shape and learning the new tricks of technology (digital v. analog). B.A finally catches onto the drugs-in-milk trick before they get on the airplane, but sagely Murdock put a slower acting sleeping drug in the B.A.'s food earlier. Fly to Mexico or Afghanistan or whatever where infiltration is easy, bullets don't cause bleeding, but unexpectedly and inconceivably they get stuck before the final escape. Somebody paraphrases, "I loved it when plans came together."

Luckily, they are bunkered down in a old warehouse. Montage sequence of teaching Hannibal Jr. how to use old tech, broken by character development sequence where boy hears about his father from his brothers in arms. The promise is made that they will stay in touch, once they get out of this mess. Climactic scene in a ridiculous vehicle MacGyvered together, maybe is mortally wounded for a final goodbye scene. Fin.

There, I am just as good as any average Hollywood screenwriter today.

I was pretty young---too young to have any coherent memory of the characters, plot, or quality---when there was a miniseries and TV series called "V". But it was about lizard-like aliens taking over the world while disguised as humans. .

-Ben

I fear it when they do that - it almost never works. The Addams Family did, and Maverick (oddly enough) - mostly though, it's cringe-worthy. So my vote is ... nothing I liked.

I think some of the spy and cat burglar shows of the sixties would make good movies. We are once again living in a time of paranoia and ambiguity. The Avengers, I Spy, and The Saint have already been done, with limited success.

A big screen version of The Prisoner has been talked about for years; I both anticipate and dread such a movie. It would be hind of like Lord of the Rings. The original was so striking that it would be almost impossible to live up to everyone's expectations.

It might be possible to do something fun with the Man From U.N.C.L.E. Since both Robert Vaughn and David McCallum are still alive and working, I'd cast them as their original characters. Napoleon Solo took over the role of Auntie, the director of U.N.C.L.E., and now leads a whole slew of stylish new agents (of both sexes). llya Kuryakin was the victim of some past tragedy and is now retired. As the plot develops, the young agents must visit Kuryakin to draw on his expertise. Later we find the damning evidence that Kuryakin is actually the leader of the bad guys. Solo must reenter the field to deal with his old partner. When they finally confront each other, Kuryakin reveals to Solo that he is a dupe and that it is U.N.C.L.E. that is plotting against freedom and niceness. A secret clique of unscrupulous corrupt politicians, corporate plunderers, and rogue military commanders has been planning a coup and has been using U.N.C.L.E. to silence their critics. Solo, Kuryakin, ans a few highly trusted and very attractive agents must defeat the coup and neutralize U.N.C.L.E. without hurting anyone (since they are just misguided, not bad). They lure all of the traitorous bad guys into a meeting and try to arrest them, but it turns out that one of the stylish young agents was working for the bad guys all along and it is our heroes who have been led into a trap. But wait, Solo and Kuryakin figured this out long ago and made sure the bad guys were all carrying guns loaded with blanks. The tables are turned again and justice triumphs. One of them says something ironic and we leave them laughing and fade to black.

I was going to suggest Get Smart, but it turns out that there's a version in the making right now starring Steve Carell. Who knew?

Well, I'd say Have Gun Will Travel, but they'd have to invent a time machine to go back and get Richard Boone to do it, and....

MKK

Remake Rockford Files. That show is very culturally rooted, and so you'd get something very interesting if you set it in a 2000s demimonde. Have Jim Rockford Google his client, but he has to do it from the library because Comcast cut off his cable. I could see a lot of guys doing this role right, but I'll pick John Cusack as my choice. If you want continuity, make him the semi-legitimate son of Jim Rockford, and bring in James Garner; the detective's dad was even a part of the original series so that fits well.

I'm shocked there hasn't been a movie version of MacGyver. If it's up to me, I'll put Don Cheadle in the title role there.

Because the Heinlein centennial was just 2 days ago...

I want to see a Feature Film adaptation of "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" -- but going all the way back to what Heinlein intended, which was impossible then in budget and FX.

I see Brad Pitt as Tom "Tex" Corbett. A cameo by William Shatner would be extra cool.

Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, CBS (Oct 1950-Dec 1950) then ABC
(Jan 1951-Sep 1952) and finally NBC (July 1951-Sep 1951),
2 Oct 1950-26 Sep 1952
Based on the great Robert Anson Heinlein's young adult novel "Space Cadet" (New York: Scribner's, 1950, with cover art by Clifford N. Geary), this was CBS's attempt to steal the thunder of the Dumont Network's "Captain Video" -- and with a higher budget and greater technical authenticity.
"Dean of American Science Fiction Authors" Robert Heinlein had achieved a record-setting level of "hard SF" realism in co-authoring the screenplay for (and acting as Technical Director for) George Pal's film "Destination: Moon", which was loosely based on Heinlein's young adult novel "Rocketship Galileo" (New York: Scribner's, 1947), his first, which is the earliest science fiction novel that I can remember reading.
Heinlein and his second wife Virginia have minimized access to documents about how actively involved Heinlein was in "Tom Corbett", but some episodes show his handiwork, such as the reference to weightlessness being more properly called "Free Fall" -- a term invented by Heinlein and now widely accepted.
In the national Bestseller "Grumbles from the Grave", by Robert Heinlein, edited by Virginia Heinlein (New York: Ballentine, 1990) we read (p.50) "I have written [Scribner's editor] Miss [Alice] Dalgliesh about the TV scripts [Tom Corbett, Space Cadet]. Did you read them? If so, you know how bad they are; I don't want an air credit on that show (much as I appreciate the royalty checks!) and I am reasonably sure that a staid, dignified house like Scribner's will feel the same way. It has the high moral standards of soap opera."
By the way, Robert Heinlein's novel "Rocket Ship Galileo" was supposed to have been followed by at least five sequels, including: "The Young Atomic Engineers on Mars, or Secret of the Moon Corridors", "The Young Atomic Engineers in the Asteroids, or The Mystery of the Broken Planet",
"The Young Atomic Engineers in Business, or The Solar System Mining Corporation", and I cannot help but speculate that if he had written these juveniles, their plots would have found their way into Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, and the series would have been even more popular. But I digress. To return to the actual plot of Tom Corbett:
Somewhen in the 24th Century, young Tom Corbett ("Tex" in the novel) entered the Space Academy (of the Interplanetary Patrol, in Colorado, in the novel) along with verbally-aggressive pal Roger Manning (Matt in the novel) and cerebral Astro from Venus, with all hoping to graduate to the Solar Guards.
Aboard the good spaceship "Polaris" they adventured throughout the solar system, and plot complications were based on the dangers of meteors or radiation rather than mad scientists or evil aliens (a fatal flaw in "Captain Video"). We do know that Program Advisor Willy Ley, a noted ex-German space expert and science writer, brought "hard science fiction" concepts such as asteroid belts, artificial gravity, and anti-matter to the series. I discussed this with Willy Ley when I met him in New York in 1959. We made a $5 bet, which I promptly lost, but that's another story.
The series only lasted three months at CBS -- probably due to budgetary concerns or disappointing sales of the now-collectable merchandise -- and moved to a couple of years at ABC. NBC merely aired kinescopes of episodes as a summer replacement for Victor Borge. The show was televised live, like "Captain Video" and "Buck Rogers", but unlike these competitors, the special effects were also live.
Although technically a childrens' show, this was a high-water mark in television science fiction, and a significant precursor to Star Trek.
Tom Corbett -- Frankie Thomas
Captain Steve Strong (1950) -- Michael Harvey
Captain Steve Strong (1951-52) -- Edward Bryce
Astro the Venusian -- Al Markim
Roger Manning -- Jan Merlin
Dr. Joan Dale -- Margaret Garland
Producer -- Leonard Carlton
Technical Advisor -- Willy Ley (famous German rocket expert)
Writers -- Albert Aley originally, and then: Frankie Thomas, Stu Brynes, Ray Morse

Um... Scarecrow & Mrs. King?

And just for the terrible supernova of badness that would result: a live-action Smurfs.

How about M*A*S*H?

... beat ...

As far casting The Prisoner - Sean Bean in the lead (I consider Nathan Fillion, but I don't think he can carry the part), with someone appropriately sinister opposite him: Judi Dench, Forrest Whitaker, Jeffrey Wright.... The hard part would be finding someone to write the thing. I wonder if David Gerrold would be interested.

I would have said The Prisoner. You could do proper FX now, but on the other hand that might take away from the surrealism of the original.

I would have said The Prisoner. You could do proper FX now, but on the other hand that might take away from the surrealism of the original.

I really do think there's a lot of opportunity/possibility in the making of an Airwolf movie. It definitely seems to be one that, at least as far as I can see, is being overlooked....