22 Beloved Franchises (That Totally Lost It)

All too often, ideas are sucked dry and left to die in a soggy gutter.
22 Beloved Franchises (That Totally Lost It)

Franchising is a funny a thing. Sometimes, you strike gold and still remain faithful to the product -- even improving upon it. But mostly people are too eager to suck every single dime they can from an idea, until it's withered and unrecognizable in a wet gutter.

To help us illustrate this, we tapped on our favorite image wizard AuntieMeme to help us show you the worst offenders in pop culture history.

MAXIMUS, FROM THE MOVIE GLADIATOR, ALMOST FORREST-GUMPED HIS WAY THROUGH HISTORY. Since Maximus is dead and buried at the end of Gladiator, the script
SUPERMAN COMPLETELY THROWS OUT HIS MORAL CODE IN SHPERIAN AT EARTH'S END. He grows a crazy hobo beard, kills the hell out of the bad guys with a giant
Family Matters went utterly insane from the fourth season on. It started out as a show about a cop's middle-class family and their wacky neighbor. Mid
In 2006 Disney explored the relationship between single deer parents and their kids, with PTTURES PRESENTS Bambi ambi Il When the original Bambi was i
The writer of ET. immediately wrote a horrifying sequel. It was called Nocturnal Fears, and featured a race of white extraterrestrials who kidnap and
One of the 101 Dalmatians becomes the British Prime Minister, in the sequel to the book. The Starlight Barking is the story of Cadpig, one of Pongo's
In Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures. Pac-Ma and the Ms. live in a house and have kids. So instead of running through mazes and 72 fighting ghosts, you ge
THE ORIGINAL KING KONG WAS A GIANT GORILLA WHO WAS SO INTO BLOND HWMAN WOMEN THAT HE CARRIED ONE TO THE TOP OF A SKYSCRAPER. IN 7986's KING KONG LIVES
IN 1994, MEGA MAN TOOK A BREAK FROM FIGHTING ROBOTS TO PLAY SOCCER Mega Man Soccer for the SNES pitted Mega Man against his enemies in a fight to the
Mrs. Robinson her uses cougar powers to help The Graduate's kids in Home School. That's right, the woman THE LONG-AWAITED SEQUEL TO THE GRADUATE who s
Beaver Cleaver returned in 1983 with Still the Beaver. Leave It to Beaver was a '60s sitcom about a precocious kid nicknamed Beaver and his family-War
Ghe Phantom of the Opera runs a Coney Island sideshow in Love never Dies. The sequel is another musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The title seems to be
IN 1990, LINDd BLaIr REPRISED Her MOST Famous ROLE WITH a COMEDY caLleD REPOssessed. LINDA BLAIR NED BEATTY LESLIE NIELSEN REPOSSESSED Blair plays a L
DONKEY KONG JR. MATH WAS JUST AS WRETCHED AS IT SOUNDS. EXERCTS1E + 0 00 O 00I + 00 0O 00 oxo SELECT 01o + 00to CD OD 8 X O The 1985 NES game featured
Clarissa in Clarissa Enxplains it AI Was cynical, colorful, and snarky. Clarissa in Clarissa Now was perky, drab, and naive. Oddly, the spinoff series
IN 1982, tHe PrOFeSSor WHO COULdN't patcH a boat buiLt a Space SHiP out OF Wood aNd FLEW tHe castaways to GiliGaNs PLanet. The show was cancelled afte
Casablanca nearly had a terrible sequel. In the movie, called Brazzaville, we learn that Rick and Louie were actually spies all along, and the roguish
Bewitched, the movie, was insanely meta. Rather than remaking and updating the '60s TV show, Bewitched! is about a remake of the '60s TV show. Still w
In the final season of The Flintstones, Fred and Barney met an alien. His name was Gazoo, and he could teleport, time travel, and make objects appear
RIPLEY THE ALIEN HUNTER GETS CUDDLY WITH THE XENOMORPHS IN ALIEN RESURRECTION. Since Aliens 3 killed Ripley off, this film brings Ripley back as a clo
THe UPCOMING BeeTLejuice secuel IS aCTuaLLY THe SECOND oNe IN tHe WORKS. In 1990, the studio nearly made Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. It was a retread o
A BOY NAMED SUE WAS ACTUALLY ABOUT INCEST. In the song, made famous by Johnny Cash, the title character learns that his father named him Sue to make

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