Mr. Movie: TV shows to films

I picture a meeting at MGM or Paramount (or your choice) and someone says:”I saw the best show on TV. It would make a great movie.” Would it? Maybe.

Lots of successful TV shows have been made into movies. One of the latest to hit the silver screen is Downton Abbey (2019). All the principals are there: Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery, etc. The film centers around a visit to the Abbey by the royal family. Yikes! Well, the movie is pretty good. Good as the TV series? Afraid not — the series allows enough time to develop the characters and grow to love (or hate) them. If you’d never seen the TV series, would you like the movie? Hmmm...

The Fugitive (1993) is maybe even better than the TV series. Lots of people just got tired of the chase after the suspect and didn’t like the ending in the TV series. The movie stars Tommy Lee Jones who is just terrific as Marshall Sam Gerard (and won the Oscar for Best Actor). It also features Harrison Ford as the heavily pursued Dr. Kimble who searches for the real killer, the one-armed man. The movie has the best train wreck ever and is just really good.

Mission Impossible was a hugely popular TV show in the late ’60s and early ’70s. With Peter Graves, Barbara Bain, Greg Morris and Peter Lupus as a clandestine arm of the US government. “Your mission, should you choose to accept it” is the tag line we loved as much as the theme music and the disintegrating tape. Tom Cruise reinvented the show as (so far) seven movies starring him (with part 2 of No. 7 coming out in 2025). Cruise says he does his own stunts and they are spectacular. To me it’s apples and oranges. I like both series.

The Naked Gun is a totally silly TV series that was popular in the ’80s when it was aired as Police Squad. Leslie Nielsen is the glue that holds this thing together and does it again in the movie versions. Unfortunately, the movie series seems endless but the first few are funny as can be. Could Nielsen possibly be the guy Debbie Reynolds adored in Tammy? Yep, and he’s also the star of the hilarious Airplane! (1980). His ability to utter inane comments is just right.

Deadwood was a big western hit in the 2000s, with Timothy Oliphant the star. Deadwood is a lawless town not a part of any state (yet) and therefore open to all sorts of bad, but interesting, drama. The movie, released in 2019, is actually made for TV but pretty good. Oliphant is back as the hero and the story revolves around South Dakota reaching statehood and spoiling lots of the bad stuff in town.

Only Downton is OK for kids, though I doubt they would like it. The rest are for adults. Next time we flip the story: Movies to TV shows.