When a beloved movie ends, it can be hard not to desire a little more time with the film’s world and characters. As television became more and more common in the mid-20th century, making ongoing TV adaptations of popular and cult classic cinema became a viable, potentially lucrative opportunity to provide the public with just that—whether they told the same story as their respective movies, served as sequels, or even animated reimaginings.
Although many of these series featured entirely different casts and struggled to survive past their first seasons on respective TV networks, there are many notable exceptions. “Friday Night Lights” and “Dukes of Hazzard” managed to capture the success that made their source material work, leading to acclaim and high ratings. Some television adaptations, such as The WB’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Stargate SG-1,” ran for several seasons and arguably became even more acclaimed and influential than their predecessors.
In the current era of streaming, platforms like HBO and Hulu are also trying their hand at film-to-TV adaptations with high-profile series such as “Westworld” and “High Fidelity.” With much of the population still largely confined to its homes, now is a great time to dive into some series that were based on favorite films. But when it comes to movies that became shows, which examples should be on viewers’ radar?
Stacker dug into the history of film and TV and chose 100 films that were turned into TV series, representing a swath of different genres and expressions within the media. IMDb and Metacritic data are included for context in regard to critical and popular reception.
From 1933 to 2011, here are 100 movies that later became television shows.
