TV Show Spinoffs

When a movie is relatively successful, people will do anything to squeeze that extra buck out of it. We have seen sequels, equally unwanted trilogies, creepy dolls and possibly even a book series with the movie poster thrown on the cover. However, one that is hard to ignore is unsuccessful television series based on popular films. Most recently, Matt Damon and Emily Blunts forbidden romance from The Adjustment Bureau is being made into a TV series for Syfy while it's barely been put onto the shelves. Usually when I turn onto Syfy, I either see Battlestar Galactica reruns or original movies where badly animated alligators eat models tanning on the beach. For such a popular movie, I am surprised that they are taking the remake this route and not going for a network station.

This brings up other bad TV spinoffs, usually not even making it past the first season before it gets cancelled. My favorite that I found was one I hadn't heard of before, a spinoff of Ferris Buellers Day off that ran for one season in 1990. They completely break the fourth wall when they introduce Charlie Schlatter as an annoyed Ferris Bueller complaining about the movie based on his life. He even goes so far as to take a chainsaw to a cardboard cutout of Matthew Broderick (below).

Other notably short lived series would be Fast Times based on the famous Fast Times at Ridgemont High (although it did stem Patrick Dempseys career) and the 1976 Delta House based on the cult classic, Animal House. Without the raunchy humor, drug references and foul language that made the movie so popular, the small screen version that was fit for TV audiences did not last long (it also didn't help that they rewrote Belushi's character and introduced his younger brother, Blotto). It is usually the recasting that dooms these series to their single season, as well as the fact that movies are made to follow that one story line and are resolved for the audience's sake at the end of the movie, the series tend to drag them out. I have talked about how the content varies from British to American screens, but the same goes for movies and television. Without the safety of a rating to back up more adult themes, television shows are handicapped by their time slots and broadcast channels. Reasons that shows fail is because they can't show what they want at 8 PM on a saturday when the kids might still be up.

American Remakes

I don't mean to keep up a streak of posts about British television but since I'm a little behind on the times, I recently heard about another popular British show getting an American makeover. I had to watch The Inbetweeners for my British Youth Culture class in London and was immediately hooked. The show features vulgar comedy as it follows four teenagers who are "inbetween" social groups, and puts an original spin on the obvious story lines of alcohol, sex and school. It has also just been made into a movie of the same name that came out inthe UK and will be out here very soon. Two years ago ABC tried and failed to give the show a pilot but now MTV is giving it a shot. However, MTV recently cancelled their last attempt at a remake after the small disaster that was Skins.

I understand that the stations are in a position to make more money if they remake these shows instead of just buying the rights to the British versions and airing them on their channels. But because the UK is much less censored when it comes to television, the shows lose a lot of their original comedy and it really simplifies the characters when they come to an American screen. British television is much more candid about sex and openly shows nudity and drug use to a somewhat young audience. But in America, I believe that parents are more involved in what their children watch on TV and seem to be more comfortable in protesting against shows that they fear are a bad influence on their children's actions. An MTV spokesman, David Janollari, is very optimistic stating, "The Inbetweeners is unique and simply hilarious. It will resonate immensely with out viewers". However, he later says that the show has a very authentic voice and in successfully adapting it to a US audience, they are making it into a "quintessentially American suburban experience" and therefore changing the show's premise.

While there have been successful remakes, such as The Office, I feel like shows that air on channels such as E4 and Channel 4 in Britain will not have a good survival rate in their American counterparts. I think it will be difficult for MTV to get around the main focus on sex and the language that is much more comfortably used in British television. I also think that the rate they are churning out remakes will hurt them more then help them. The cancellation of Skins in still fresh in everyones mind and The Inbetweeners should be out early 2012 followed by a remake of Misfits.

Sources: The Sun article

Deadline

Sherlock

In the BBC miniseries Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes is presented as a modern day consulting detective, utilizing cell phones and the internet to solve his crimes. The first season is edited into three 90 minute episodes, ending with the introduction of Jim Moriarty, played by Andrew Scott.

In their own version of Doyle's The Final Problem, Holmes and Moriarty finally come face to face in the third and final episode of the first season. However, Moriarty has commonly been portrayed as a posh old man, the shows creator took some liberties and made Moriarty into a flamboyant man boy with some psychotic tendencies. Often in remakes, fans will be disappointed by how their favorite heroes and villains have been portrayed. They had an image in their minds, which don't usually line up with the direction that the movie or show takes. Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, the producers, took a different route then how Moriarty will be shown in the upcoming Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, where he is played by Jared Harris. When you think of a villain, someone more along the lines of Alan Rickman or James Earl Jones comes to mind. There is an image of a a large, intimidating man with a deep voice standing over us. Which is why I find this portrayal of Moriarty so interesting. Here we have a small Irish man with a high-pitch voice threatening the death of the beloved hero, almost completely reversing the well known role of the Professor.

Game of Shadows comes out later this year and Sherlock is hopefully returning in early 2012. It is amazing how one series of books can manifest itself into two separate remakes coming out at the same time almost a century later. They are even following the same individual plot line of the case against Professor Moriarty. But it's the simple act of changing the location that strings these two stories into completely different re-imaginations.