Comments on: Five Times Multiple TV Shows Debuted the Same Year Based on the Same Movie

By: John B Trumbull

John B Trumbull — Sat, 21 Oct 2023 00:17:30 +0000

It’s so odd when the imitation series (Airwolf, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose) outlasts the direct adaptation (Blue Thunder, Ferris Bueller).

I watched most of the Delta House TV series a few years ago for the SNL Nerds podcast (All of the episodes except one are up on YouTube). It’s not great, but it does feature a young Michelle Pfeiffer in a recurring role as “Bombshell.” It also boggles my mind that they didn’t just title the series Animal House. YOU WERE THE ONES WITH THE RIGHTS TO THE TITLE, PEOPLE. It’d be like calling the TV version of The Odd Couple “The Mismatched Roommates.”

By: Alex Widen

Alex Widen — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 13:52:33 +0000

For the record for those interested, “LASSIE” ran for 19 seasons from 1954-1973, for a whopping 591 episodes. 17 seasons were on CBS and the last two were on standard broadcast syndication (i.e. any local station that ponied up the dough).
As the last season of the live action show was airing, Filmation aired an animated adaptation, “LASSIE’S RESCUE RANGERS.” The trainer of the live action dog publicly aired his disgust, and the cartoon only ran one season of 16 episodes before ending, also, in 1973.
A sequel series, “THE NEW LASSIE,” aired in broadcast syndication for 2 seasons from 1989-1992. Several of the surviving actors from the 1954 series made guest appearances, establishing it as a proper sequel series.
A relaunch, simply titled, “LASSIE,” ran for 3 seasons from 1997-1999 on Animal Planet (yes, a rare scripted fictional show on a channel that usually airs documentaries, edu-tainment, and “reality” style nature shows) and Canada’s YTV.
So it only FELT like 58 seasons. It is insane what kind of longevity that Border Collie had, having a TV presence every decade from the 1950s into the 1990s. I imagine Flipper was always envious.

By: Duggy

Duggy — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 04:28:14 +0000

The Upper Hand (UK’s Who’s the Boss)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098939/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_29_act
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNqZr6KtTL4

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 01:14:02 +0000

In reply to Brian Smith. The Cosby Show was just an adaptation of Cosby's most recent hit comedy album, Himself. Growing Pains very much made the show about how weird it was that the father was doing the domestic stuff early on, but obviously, it was eventually just a given by Season 2-3, and was dropped as a plot point for the most part. Similarly, Who's The Boss? rarely talked about how weird it was for Tony to be a live-in housekeeper by Season 3.

By: Brian Smith

Brian Smith — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 00:07:22 +0000

I’ve never heard “Growing Pains” described as inspired by “Mr. Mom.” I’d always thought of it as being one of the more obvious knockoffs of 1984’s “The Cosby Show” (the father is a doctor whose office is inside his home; the mother has a professional job that keeps her out of the house).

So my question is: Do you think “The Cosby Show” was also part of that trend? Or to put it another way, did “Mr. Mom” help pave the way for Bill Cosby to launch that kind of sitcom?

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Sun, 15 Oct 2023 21:37:14 +0000

How long did it last, Mark?

By: Mark Gardiner

Mark Gardiner — Sun, 15 Oct 2023 14:44:30 +0000

Who’s The Boss? got a UK remake that was superior (a rare example of such a transatlantic hit – most hit UK comedies get butchered when US writers take everything that made the original great and homogenise / ‘make it safe’, neutering it and making it unfunny in the process) with one of the McGann brothers in the lead role and Pussy Galore herself, Honor Blackman, as the matriarch in the ITV remake.

By: Tim Pendergast

Tim Pendergast — Sat, 14 Oct 2023 23:37:25 +0000

“Imitation is the sincerest form of television.” Fred Allen