Wandering Through The Shelves picked a doozy this week because there are many TV shows on air now or recently that came from a film but I don't have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Kootcy, Bootsy, Bugaboo blah blah blah. It will be fun to see which 3 TV shows people will choose this week. Here are my 3....
1. THE PINK PANTHER-1964(SHORTS FOR FILM)-1969-1978 PLUS MORE
The film, The Pink Panther, is from 1963 and starred Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau in a hilarious romp mainly in the Swiss Alps. The opening and ending to this very funny film has the iconic music from Henry Mancini with a pink panther always getting away from the Inspector Clouseau who just can't help himself. The music and the cartoon characters were so popular that Fritz Freleng, of Bugs Bunny fame, created some shorts with one winning an Oscar(or maybe an Emmy...Brain fart). Anyway, I enjoyed watching this cool pink cat evading capture by the Inspector. Sometimes The Pink Panther did get into a pickle but he always gets the better of Clouseau in the end. Later the studio introduced other cartoons to run with the Pink Panther and my favourite was The Aardvark and the Ant. It is a fun show.
2. PLANET OF THE APES-1974 (FILM WAS IN 1968)
This show did not last long, just 14 episodes, but I watched all of them showing the 2 astronauts and a chimp on the run from the ape militia who want to capture them...those darn astronauts never mind those darn, dirty apes! I was 10 when this came out and I had a real crush on James Naughton who played one of the astronauts. The first 2 episodes were actually written by Rod Serling which is pretty cool but it just never caught on and went the way of the Dodo.
3. STARMAN-1986-1987 (FILM WAS IN 1984
14 years after Starman left earth leaving his only earth friend on her own, he comes back after realising he has a son and the son and mother have been separated. He locates the son, who has some of dad's powers, and they go on a search for Jenny-mom and Starman's great love. Of course you have a bad ass man on Starman's butt all the way through who would love to capture him and dissect him..ewwww. This was another show I really enjoyed that didn't make it through even when millions wrote in to save the series.
Which 3 would you choose?
I remember all of those. There was even a cartoon Planet of the Apes show.
ReplyDeleteM*A*S*H will always be my favorite.
OMG! Why didn’t I think of MASH which is a show I adore!!
DeleteHi, Birgit!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't as enamored with the Pink Panther films as were its many fans, and I didn't watch the PP cartoon series. Truthfully I also didn't care for Hank Mancini's whimsical theme music. Whimsy tends to irritate me. I never heard of The Aardvark and the Ant, but I like unusual critters and I will have to look for that series. I also wasn't very fond of the Planet of the Apes film series and therefore did not watch the TV show. Good heavens! Boy faced Robert Hays just turned age 72 a week ago! I didn't watch Starman but loved him as Ted Striker in Airplane! "Pull up, Striker... you're coming in too hot!"
I can recommend four TV series that fit in this category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, Scream, Fargo and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids starring one of my favorites Barbara Alyn Woods as "Honey."
Have a great day, dear friend BB!
Wow I picked 2 you dislike. I didn’t know you don’t care for Henry Mancini..I like him quite a bit. Robert Hays is 72? I have to look him up and see if he looks the same...hahahaa. Yes, Airplane is his definitive film. He had quite the drinking problem plus he was quite the bore...poor old lady.
DeleteI like "Peter Gunn," "Moon River," "Romeo & Juliet." "Touch of Evil" and other Mancini themes and soundtracks. It is only the whimsical music that I don't like.
DeleteI remember watching those old Pink Panther shorts on TV. I didn't realize Planet of the Apes even had a TV show to go along with it.
ReplyDeleteYes, it was short lived and I seem to recall they just ran a lot but I always love Roddy McDowall.
DeleteI can never think of these. But I do like your choices this week. Maybe I would take one of the Star Trek Next Generation films. That's all my brain is thinking of. Have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Star Trek franchise is a great pick and one I thought of at the last minute but I wanted to go somewhere different..Not as popular
DeleteActually, I don't think Star Trek counts. The TV show came first.
DeleteThe Pink Panther cartoons were my Dad's favorite and even with my disdain for animation I thought they were very cleverly done.
ReplyDeleteI watched Planet of the Apes when it was on and right now one of the nostalgia stations is rerunning it on early Sunday mornings so thanks to my DVR I'm revisiting it one episode a week. I'm almost through.
I liked the Starman series too. The movie was terrific and the show had real promise but was so short-lived unfortunately.
Bunches of choices this time out, I picked three old favorites that I still watch on occasion.
M*A*S*H* (1972-1983)-During the Korean conflict surgeon Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce (Alan Alda) and head nurse Margaret “Hot Lips” Holihan (Loretta Swit) diligently work to save lives and their sanity with grit and humor as colleagues both friend-surgeons “Trapper John” McIntire (Wayne Rogers) & BJ Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell) and foe-Frank Burns (Larry Linville) & Charles Winchester (David Ogden Stiers)- and many others pass through. Based on the 1970 Altman film this serio-comic series ran for 12 exemplary years.
The Odd Couple (1970-1975)-Separated from their wives neat freak Felix Unger (Tony Randall) and slovenly Oscar Madison (Jack Klugman) share a New York apartment. Though the habits of each drive the other to distraction their deep abiding friendship makes them stick together. Randall & Klugman share the kind of chemistry you just can’t manufacture. Based on the Neil Simon film of the same name that starred Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.
Alice (1976-1985)-Recently widowed Alice Hyatt (Linda Lavin) heads off with her young son Tommy for a fresh start as an aspiring singer. She gets as far as Phoenix where she finds a job at Mel’s, a roadside diner. With a boisterous group of co-workers including blunt and sassy waitress Flo (Polly Holliday) she tries to pursue her dream while dealing with everyday misadventures. Based on Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”.
Wow, I picked one cartoon you like and you are lucky to re-watch the Planet of the Apes show. Starman was good but didn’t get a chance to grow.. my head must have been up my ass because I would have chose 2 of your 3 if I had my brain working. We still watch MASH every chance we get and it is so interesting how the show changed over the years. I have to say I prefer the funnier early shows before Alan Alda got all moral. That being said there are some brilliant later episodes like the dream one and the one where Klinger is sick and see the dead soldier. I do love Charles. The Odd Couple is great and one I would love to watch again. Both men were wonderful and became good friends off screen. I remember the commercials they made about chips. Tony Randall got the job for his friend Jack Klugman after Jack had throat cancer surgery and he could not find a job. Alice is one show I used to watch but am not sure I would get into it. The saying “Kiss My Grits” became widely popular
ReplyDeleteI love those early MASH shows too especially the introduction of Colonel Flagg played by the peerless Edward Winter but I've always preferred David Ogden Stier's Winchester to Larry Linville's Frank Burns. It's not the actor's fault, Linville played him perfectly but where Frank was a puffed up dolt Charles, though an egomaniac was a solid physician and a much more rounded person. I also liked Col. Potter more than Henry Blake not to say I disliked him either.
DeleteThe production team was one of the best at replacing existing characters with new ones who might have changed the rhythm of the show but never broke the feeling of it. As it changed it always felt very organic and made sense that over the long period the show covered that there would be staff movement.
That dream episode is one of the most powerful. I have a big soft spot for the episode in the last season when they finally turned the spotlight of Nurse Kellye.
I've seen the movies that your picks were based on, but I can't recall ever having seen any of the TV shows you mentioned. Even MASH is a show that I watched very few episodes of.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of stumped with this topic. Even the shows mentioned in the comments so far didn't initially occur to me. I think maybe it's partly because I didn't watch much in the way of TV series from the 70's until now so nothing much registers for me. And actually, unless I've specifically heard of a source material, I don't know the origins of a lot of movies or TV shows.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
Pink Panther...a definite classic.
ReplyDeleteHope today is a pain-free, fun-filled productive day.
Stay safe. Be healthy.
I missed all three series! They must've come on during those rare times I wasn't watching any TV. Other than MASH, no other series based on a movie come to mind. Watch, later on today, I'll remember something.
ReplyDeleteI dressed up as the Pink Panther for Halloween one year. My mother made the costume. There is a picture somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI watched the Starman series. I think.
Okay, without looking at the other comments, let me see if I can think up three. 12 Monkeys comes to mind. It was on SyFy channel. It was weird, but it stuck the ending, so that made it all worthwhile. Ah, then there's Frequency. Loved the movie. They gender flipped the lead in the show. Only lasted a season, but I loved it. (I even did one of my Wednesday TV show posts about it.) For a third... I'm drawing a blank, so I'll go with one of the cartoons, like Aladdin. That was more a continuation of the movie.
Highlander!!! I knew I'd think of a third.
DeleteOh my! I forgot Stargate SG1. Really, Liz? Really?
DeleteI see MASH is all over the comments - can’t think of a better series ever!
ReplyDeleteI have NEVER seen any of these, but I enjoyed your lively descriptions of them. I HAVE seen a couple that others thought up: Stargate SG1 and MASH. How about Buffy the Vampire Slayer based on the movie by the same name or Michael Anthony Hall in Dead Zone based on Stephen King's film by the same name?
ReplyDeleteHi sis... I recall nothing of Starman but I do remember the short-lived Planet of the Apes TV series. I recall the few episodes I watched as being underwhelming. And I've always loved the Pink Panther cartoons. Whimsical and smart alecky!
ReplyDeleteMASH and The Odd Couple are both obvious favourites.
Things were much simpler back in the day when there were only three major U.S. TV networks. Now, with all the choices, things are more convoluted and difficult to follow. I believe there is at least one if not more series based on the Star Wars franchise. And for some reason, I'm thinking there is a Jay and Silent Bob cartoon series based on two of my favourite characters first introduced in the movie "Clerks." That's all I've got!
Because everyone else has already mentioned the good ones...
ReplyDeleteMuppet Babies
True the original Muppets were on television but the Muppet Babies concept came from a sequence in The Muppets Take Manhattan. And in truth, the original animated show wasn't terrible.
BIRGIT ~
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned the M*A*S*H episode where Klinger was sick and was able to see the dead soldier. I did a voiceover in that episode. Toward the end, when Klinger is hearing various disembodied voices talking, I was the person who said something like, "I don't love her now. It's all over between us." Believe it or not, I'm still receiving occasional paychecks for that (and for a few other minuscule speaking roles I had on M*A*S*H).
Although M*A*S*H was very good to me, it was never a favorite show of mine. However, I did (and do) love 'ALIAS SMITH AND JONES' (1971-1973), starring Pete Duel and Ben Murphy. It was loosely based on the movie 'BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID', and although it didn't last long (Duel committed suicide), it had some brilliant scripts and I consider it the best Western TV series ever. (I own the entire series on DVD.)
'ALIAS SMITH AND JONES' is easily my favorite TV series based on a movie.
~ D-FensDogG
STMcC Presents BATTLE OF THE BANDS
The Pink Panther brings back fond memories. My family went to see the Pink Panther Movie (there was probably more than one, and we probably saw the first one) at a Drive Inn. Oh and there was Pink Panther cereal, right, Birgit? I think I liked it, even though it didn't have chocolate in it.
ReplyDeleteLove ya, and I hope you're well.
I loved the Pink Panther when I was a kid, but I've never revisited it as an adult to see if it's withstood the test of time.
ReplyDeleteI find it a lot easier to go the other way...movies based on TV shows. As for TV shows based on movies, Buffy the Vampire Slayer would be a big one.
I think the only one I've seen is The Pink Panther cartoons.
ReplyDelete