Why TV spin off films don't work.

[CaptainWaggett]

The Muppet movies are spin-offs from a British programme

[Windyridge]

Dr Who Invasion Earth and Dr Who and the Daleks plus the Quatermass films.

yes quite, but I'm trying to qualify my post in response to our feisty newbie and naming 80s,90s and 2000s spin offs.

[CaptainWaggett]

yes quite, but I'm trying to qualify my post in response to our feisty newbie and naming 80s,90s and 2000s spin offs.

Has anyone mentioned Wallace and Gromit :the Curse of the Were-Rabbit? Also The Avengers.

[Gerald Lovell]

Has anyone mentioned Wallace and Gromit :the Curse of the Were-Rabbit? Also The Avengers.

Nooooo, don't mention The Avengers . . .

[Mr Sloane]

Nooooo, don't mention The Avengers . . .

Don't forget The Sweeney.

[CaptainWaggett]

Nooooo, don't mention The Avengers . . .

I liked it

[Windyridge]

I liked it

Ow. What really upset me about it, is that if it had been halfway decent, we could have had a couple more. As it is, I guess no one will touch the idea with a bargepole now.

[Steve Crook]

Some films made from TV series work, and work well, others don't. Whether they work well or not is mainly a matter of personal opinion but they often do reasonably well at the box-office which is how the film-makers tend to measure these things

Here are some more, some of which have already been mentioned.

Thunderbirds (2004)
The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
Quatermass II: Enemy from Space (1957)
Quatermass and the Pit (1958)
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
Are You Being Served? (1977)
The Best of Benny Hill (1974)
Bless This House (1972)
Man About the House (1974)
George and Mildred (1980)
Callan (1974)
Doctor Who: World's End (1964)
Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)
Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966)
Dad's Army (1971)
Father, Dear Father (1973)
For the Love of Ada (1972)
The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse (2005)
Life in Emergency Ward 10 (1959)
Love Thy Neighbour (1973)
Man at the Top (1973)
The Rebel (1961)
Steptoe and Son (1973)
Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973)
Till Death Us Do Part (1969)

The earliest ones seem to be the Quatermass films in the late 1950s. The 1970s was the major period where they seemed to turn almost every TV series into a feature film. But they're still doing it in this century

Steve

[cassidy]

There's also "The Trollenberg Terror" serial from TV in 1956, which was made into a film scripted by Jimmy Sangster in 1958.

[Laura Jesson]

OK, OK that's enough already! I did say yesterday:- "Sorry, yes, I should have qualified that by saying comedy spin-offs."

[Rowdon]

I've got to take Laura Jesson's side here, because you're all getting distracted and naming any film with a TV connection, and you KNOW that's not what was meant. Yes, you do.
I think Laura Jesson was referring to the 'automatic' step in the 1970s of making a big screen version of every situation comedy on TV, which fizzled out and didn't carry on through the 80s and 90s: it didn't continue to be 'automatic'.

Obviously some are better than others, and obviously we on this forum like quite a lot of them (I quite like Please Sir and The Likely Lads), but then we also buy box sets of the original series... That doesn't mean that we can't recognise that even the best of the films wasn't as good as the original series (imho) because, as has often been stated, the good British sitcoms are often based on the minutiae of claustrophobic shared spaces and trying to muddle along against the odds ... when you take the characters away to the seaside or up a mountain or something, it doesn't work so well; the damp magic has gone.

It's a 1970s thing, I think, and all of these films (well, with one or two exceptions perhaps) are worth a bit of time, but they aren't what I would show a newcomer if I wanted to convince them of how good the original programme was.

Till Death Us Do Part (1969)
Dad's Army (1971)
Up Pompeii (1971)
On the Buses (1971)
Please Sir (1971)
Bless This House (1972)
Nearest and Dearest (1972)
For the Love of Ada (1972)
Steptoe and Son (1973)
Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973)
Man About the House (1974)
Love Thy Neighbour (1973)
Father, Dear Father (1973)
The Best of Benny Hill (1974)
The Likely Lads (1976)
Are You Being Served? (1977)
Porridge (1979)
George and Mildred (1980)

[Laura Jesson]

Thank you Rowdon! Phew!! And you made it succinct with "original series (imho) because, as has often been stated, the good British sitcoms are often based on the minutiae of claustrophobic shared spaces and trying to muddle along against the odds"

And "when you take the characters away to the seaside or up a mountain or something, it doesn't work so well; the damp magic has gone.

[Windyridge]

I've got to take Laura Jesson's side here, because you're all getting distracted and naming any film with a TV connection, and you KNOW that's not what was meant. Yes, you do.
I think Laura Jesson was referring to the 'automatic' step in the 1970s of making a big screen version of every situation comedy on TV, which fizzled out and didn't carry on through the 80s and 90s: it didn't continue to be 'automatic'.

The title of the thread isn't "Why Comedy TV Spin Offs Don't Work" is it? Laura Jesson said in her first post "thank heavens the trend seems to have been ditched" and I have listed TV spin offs since the seventies in my subsequent postings to show that it hasn't. With the exception of Postman Pat and Star Trek, every one was also a comedy.

[CaptainWaggett]

Thank you Rowdon! Phew!! And you made it succinct with "original series (imho) because, as has often been stated, the good British sitcoms are often based on the minutiae of claustrophobic shared spaces and trying to muddle along against the odds"

And "when you take the characters away to the seaside or up a mountain or something, it doesn't work so well; the damp magic has gone.

Which explains why Bless this House is the finest of all 1970s tv sitcom spin-offs

[Rowdon]

With the exception of Postman Pat and Star Trek, every one was also a comedy.

Both of those make me laugh.

[batman]

The recent update of The A-Team wasn't too bad ... a bit CGI heavy at times, but very entertaining.

[faginsgirl]

Till Death Us Do Part wasn't bad imo!

I think that was the best one, even more than my beloved Dad`s Army!

The 1940s authenticity of TDDUP was superb!

[Freddy]

Morecambe and Wise with The Magnificent Two, and Canon and Ball's Boys in Blue never cut the mustard, both not transferring to the big screen very well.

[Folkal Point]

I thought the big screen version of Rising Damp was pretty good but I seem to be in the minority on this one. It is often slated because they simply used a few of the actual stories from the TV episodes, and because Richard Beckinsdale wasn't in it.

[TimR]

.. That doesn't mean that we can't recognise that even the best of the films wasn't as good as the original series (imho) because, as has often been stated, the good British sitcoms are often based on the minutiae of claustrophobic shared spaces and trying to muddle along against the odds ... when you take the characters away to the seaside or up a mountain or something, it doesn't work so well; the damp magic has gone. ...

Interesting comments. That explains why the film version of Are Your Being Served was so bad.