7 Classic Comedies That Were Turned Into Terrible Sitcoms
Hollywood’s obsession with established characters and stories didn’t start with endless iterations of Marvel superheroes. From the earliest days of sitcoms, producers tried to cash in on the popularity of hit comedy movies by translating them into weekly television shows. But except for rare occasions — namely, M*A*S*H and What We Do in the Shadows — the imitations rarely live up to the originals.
Here are seven terrible sitcoms that wasted the goodwill of the movies they were based on…
Fast Times
Hey, everybody, look who’s back! It’s… Mr. Hand? Ray Walston was a champ as a fed-up teacher in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but a reboot without Sean Penn or Phoebe Cates couldn’t help but disappoint. Critics complained that the network TV version took the movie’s realistically horny characters and “sanitized them into blandness.”
Uncle Buck
Based on this list, John Hughes must have made a small fortune licensing his ‘80s comedies for sitcom versions. (Weird Science also got a terrible TV adaptation.) Never mind that not a single one lasted beyond a single failed season. Kevin Meaney has his charms but let’s face it — he’s no John Candy. Another version in 2015 with Mike Epps was blasted for being “painfully predictable.”
Ferris Bueller
Hey, at least this sitcom had balls — it opened its first episode with TV Ferris taking a chainsaw to a cardboard cutout of Matthew Broderick’s Bueller. Even unknown Jennifer Aniston as Ferris’ long-suffering sister, however, couldn’t save this one from mid-season cancellation. Bueller ripoff Parker Lewis Can’t Lose turned into the bigger hit.
Clueless
Here’s the weird case of director Amy Heckerling developing a sitcom that was such a Baldwin that the studio greenlit a feature film instead. Once Alicia Silverstone’s version became a smash, going back to the original concept was a no-brainer. Even though many of the movie’s cast members signed up for a TV adaptation, Silverstone did not — as if! — a key reason that audiences treated the sitcom Clueless way harsh.
Anger Management
Substituting angry Charlie Sheen for angry Adam Sandler sounds like a losing bet. But somehow, the first episode of FX’s forgotten Anger Management became the highest-rated sitcom premiere in basic cable history. Even more improbably, the under-the-radar show lasted 100 episodes. Just because some people watched didn’t make it good — here’s Rotten Tomatoes’ summation of the critical response: “Anger Management is aggressively so-so, with thin characters and a few groan-worthy gags for every good one.”
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures
There was a hit cartoon with this same title so Fox tried to go live-action in 1992. “Taking two-dimensional teen time travelers and making a movie was a good idea,” wrote Variety. “Taking one-dimensional teen time travelers and making a weekly series is not a good idea.”
Delta House
A surprising number of actors from National Lampoon’s Animal House made the transition to Delta House, a sitcom adaptation of the raunchy comedy. Two problems. First, the actors were already long in the tooth to be playing college students. Bruce McGill, returning as D-Day, was pushing 30 and looked older. Second, subtracting the nudity, profanity and excessive intoxication from Animal House is kinda missing the point, isn’t it?
ABC skipped double-secret probation and expelled the show after half a season.
