Hollywood’s love of repetition will never end and using popular television shows from the past as window-dressing for feature films is trendier than ever. Some of these films veer closer to the source material, others use the nostalgia of a past tv series to prop up a newer film built on borrowed elements. And some of these movies do surprise and entertain by either creatively expanding on the source material or by simply delivering a quality stand-alone film. Today, we’re talking about 5 movies that sadly failed to deliver. I’ll also be focusing on adaptations of TV shows from the 70s through the 90s. So, films like The Honeymooners, and The Beverly Hillbillies, won’t be in consideration. So, with that said, let’s get into it.
Coming up first at #5 is the newest film on the list. The Fall Guy would run from 1981-86 spanning 113 episodes over 5 seasons. The show was led by Lee Majors who played a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a bounty hunter and his role in the 2024 adaptation would be taken over by Ryan Gosling with Emily Blunt taking over the role played by Heather Thomas.
I recently watched this film, and I was admittedly a bit excited. The film overall has its moments, much of the action works and is visually appealing. Brief spots of humor are chuckle worthy but much of the comedy in this movie is aimed for Zoomers when the film is targeted to Gen X’ers. The Fall Guy isn’t a bad movie, it’s just a movie that tries to do too much. It’s really too much of a straight forward comedy and when so many of the jokes don’t land and the characters feel a little too goofy the bloated runtime does become an issue. Gosling and Blunt have their charm, they sell many moments with a decent chemistry, but this movie needed to be about 25 minutes shorter and with such a loose inspiration to the show this film should’ve just been its own thing revolving around Hollywood and stunk work and added a more meta-approach.
We’re hitting the beach for my #4 pick. Baywatch was a staple of 90s TV. It would run from 1989-99 over 11 seasons and a staggering 241 episodes. This was in its original format. There would be a spinoff Baywatch Nights from 95-97, and Baywatch: Hawaii from 99-01. David Hasselhoff was a legend in the role of Mitch Buchannon and for the 2017 adaptation his character would be taken over by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. With Zac Efron taking the role of Brody played by 90s hunk David Charvet and Kelly Rohrbach playing Pamela Anderson’s iconic character CJ Parker.
Now I love dumb comedy as much as the next person and I can find humor in crude and raunchy material. So, I actually do enjoy sections of Baywatch. Outside of Efron and Johnson there is a collection of comical characters and at times this movie feels like Caddyshack at the beach. But as a Baywatch movie it’s a miss. The constant focus on innuendo and jokes keeps the tone from ever feeling like the delightfully melodramatic show many of us loved back in the day. Johnson’s being Johnson. Efron’s being Efron. There’s plenty of sun-soaked skin in this film. Its mindless plot carries much of the runtime, but this movie feels much more like a comedy set around lifeguards that simply used the Baywatch name to get more buts in seats because this one felt closer to Babewatch than it did Hasselhoff’s classic show.
My #3 pick is set in the world of the California highway patrol. CHiPs would run from 1977-83 lasting 6 seasons and 139 episodes exploring the adventures of Jon and Ponch played by Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada. I watched the reruns of CHiPs constantly as a little kid. And for the 2017 film this crime cop duo would be replaced by the comedic antics of Michael Pena and Dax Shepard who would also direct and help write this adaptation.
Much like Baywatch there are spots of humor in this adaptation. Some of the lazy jokes land for me and a few of the comical situations deliver mild laughs as well. But too many of the jokes don’t land and it’s a barrage of mindless high school humor that rarely feels like the show that supposedly inspired it. Shepard and Pena show stints of amusement but overall, their chemistry doesn’t really land, and the lazy plot does nothing to boost the entertainment value. CHiPs feels like it’s trying too hard to be like 21 Jump Street with the comedic direction but sadly the sense of humor is lacking, the plot is uninspired, and the comedy feels like sketch material slapped together into an assembly line storyline. When really, this movie should’ve gone more serious, ramped up the action, dialed the laughs back, and aimed for a Lethal Weapon approach.
Coming in at #2 is another show I remember watching the reruns for every summer when I was out of school. The Dukes of Hazzard ran from 1979-85 spanning 7 seasons and 147 action packed episodes. This show followed the endless adventures of cousins Bo and Luke Duke played by Tom Wopat and John Schneider and for the big screen adaptation in 2005 these iconic 80s characters would be portrayed by Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott.
This is yet another adaptation that was completely undercut by its juvenile sense of humor. The casting isn’t bad in my opinion. Scott, Knoxville, Reynolds, Nelson, and even Simpson have potential to be funny but in this movie that feels like the Hazzard cast time traveled into the future, no one really leaves a comical imprint due to the prepubescent jokes. The forced raunchy tone feels lazy. I’ll admit there are a handful of great chase sequences, as you’d hope. The stunt work during these set pieces can admittedly pull you up in your seat and have you smiling. But the following scene delivering a cheap setup for laughs will pull you right back down. The plot’s unimpressive and really, this movie should’ve cut the dumb, elementary school humor all together, kept the plot in the time-period of the show, and actually taken itself seriously in being a worthy Dukes of Hazzard adaptation and not something closer to a Dukes of Hazzard porn parody, without the happy ending.
And coming in at #1 for the worst, and subsequently the most unneeded retro TV adaptation will ironically take us to paradise. Fantasy Island would deliver a pair of TV movies and run from 1977-84 releasing 152 episodes over 7 seasons. The mysterious Mr. Roarke and his assistant Tattoo played by Ricardo Montalban and Herve Villechaize were iconic 80s TV characters and for the 2020 horror prequel these roles would be taken on by Michael Pena, and Jimmy O. Yang.
I’m not really sure which Fantasy Island the creators of this adaptation watched but it couldn’t have been the one everyone else did. Because this movie’s nothing more than a patchwork of many other generic horror films quilted into an assembly line Blumhouse teen horror romp that feels twice as long as it really is. Pena and his cheesy accent headlines this cast of instantly forgettable characters that we all know will meet their demise in some brutally recycled fashion. And when you sit back and try to actually follow this film the plot makes no sense, and it doesn’t take more than a few scenes to realize it’s nothing more than a plug-and-play horror fest with no scares that clearly tried to gain momentum from the nostalgia factor of The Fantasy Island name. When something quirky, well cast, and cleverly written to follow closer to the mystery vibe of the original show could’ve been a charming ensemble piece instead of being an instantly forgettable cash grab.
These are 5 film adaptations of popular retro TV shows that had their moments but ultimately failed to deliver winners and ultimately didn’t really ever need to be made. Or in some cases should’ve maybe left the reliance on name recognition to the side, made some tweaks and been a stand-alone film on their own.
Anthony J. Digioia II © 2024 SilverScreen Analysis & Movies Never Say Die!