It’s pretty common to turn a movie into a television series (or vice versa). The obvious and most successful example of this is probably Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but there have been others . . . and now I have a question for you.
EDIT: Specifying a new, live-action television show. Forgot to mention that in the question.
As always, voting will be up for one week. I’ll post the results on September 19th.
My Geek Blasphemy 
They already made Back to the Future into a TV show. It was animated. Good times.
Yeah, I read about that, but I never saw it. Editing post now to specify live action : )
I can’t decide. Some things just should not be messed with and the rest are crap I’d like to be able to un-see.
They also already had a Robocop TV series. Live action and all.
Well, damn them 🙂
Fine. A better one, I guess. All new and shiny, starring whoever you like.
Yeah but it was a Canadian TV series, so it doesn’t count. 😛
Now I’m just mourning the fact that they cancelled The Good Guys again.
I watched a few episodes of that. I liked it—it was funny, and it had an interesting structure—but every episode also kind of seemed like the same. I missed a few episodes, and it was like . . . well, I bet nothing’s really happened anyway. But I was going to try and get back into it, for Bradley Whitford if nothing else . . . and then it was gone before I got the chance.
My big cancellation woe of the year was Terriers. I LOVED that show. I was so depressed when FX cut it.
Let’s run down the list here:
The Breakfast Club could potentially work as the sort of drama you find on The CW. I mean, *I* wouldn’t watch it, ever, but as a premise it fits the network.
Back to the Future could be really cool if done right. They would have to not lose sight of the light comedic elements and introducing long arcs would be a mistake. It would work much better as almost a sort of Quantum Leap “Situation Of The Week” show. If the tongue ever pulls too far away from the cheek, though, it would fall apart. Stick it on the USA Network following “Psych” and you’ve got an instant cable hit as long as the casting is good.
Red Dawn has entirely too much potential to get “so serious it’s melodrama and thus unintentionally hilarious”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about Dystopian futures and whatnot, but Red Dawn was a product of it’s time, and would be difficult to update well.
Aliens just doesn’t have enough of a premise to go on. At it’s heart, it’s a monster movie, and that’s only going to get you so far.
Lethal Weapon could work as a cop drama formula show with a sort of Castle bent to it.
RoboCop has been done, but poorly. The problem here is that RoboCop himself simply isn’t an interesting enough character to base a series around.
Blade Runner gives us more dystopia than we can shake a stick at, and I think it offers more than Red Dawn would. It wouldn’t be cheap to produce, though.
Return to Oz is an intriguing thought, but you run into a problem right off the bat with your protagonist. Dorothy can’t stay 8 for an entire series.
In the end, give me some Back to the Future!
I think in Return to Oz, Dorothy would have to get stuck in Oz for years . . . like Crichton in outer space in Farscape. That way, she could just age normally. Hard job for a kid actress, though.
Back to the Future seems like it could be a lot of fun, and I was thinking a Quantum Leap, situation-of-the-week style too. But I’m a little concerned about what the hell Marty’s doing every week on his travels. Sam Beckett had a purpose in all of his leaps. Marty would just be . . . jumping around and trying not to fuck things up too much as he chit-chatted with guest stars? I’m worried the show couldn’t sustain itself.
If Blade Runner had an HBO budget . . . oh, the possibilities.
The Breakfast Club, if done correctly, could be sort of a resurrection of My So-Called Life instead of another glossy teen soap opera. That would be nice. Even teenagers deserve TV shows that don’t talk down to them. 😉
Teenagers have brains too? I do not understand these strange things you say 🙂
I would love to see a cop drama style show about a unit if Blade Runners. It would rock.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.