From Small Screen To Big

It’s shaping up as the summer of big-screen TV shows, with The Incredible Hulk, Get Smart, Sex and the City and X-Files: I Want to Believe all available at the ‘plex before Labor Day.

Even steadfast Indiana Jones took a roundabout route — from movie to TV series (Young Indiana Jones) and now back to the big screen searching for the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

What follows is a list of movies that reflects the checkered history of TV-to-movies fare both past and present. And in the meantime, we can all keep waiting for Dallas: The Movie.
 
Get Smart. Negative buzz surrounds this caper, which seemed like a bad idea from the get-go. The TV series arrived in 1965 at the height of the James Bond craze. Bond is still with us, but not the pop-culture phenomenon he once was. It’s guaranteed a potent opening, but this may be the film that pops Steve Carell’s box-office bubble.
 
Sex and the City . Those highfalutin women are back, but more mellow and less sex-driven than they were on the small screen. SATC loyalists haven’t complained loudly, but some must feel a mite disappointed.
 
The Incredible Hulk . The creators were smart enough to include visual homages to Lou Ferrigno and Bill Bixby, still revered by Hulk fanatics even after three decades. It’s a cool touch in a lukewarm movie. But give the movie points for its colossal nerve, considering the fate of the 2003 version.
 
The X-Files: I Want to Believe . The plot’s been kept under wraps, and fans don’t mind the suspense. But you gotta wonder about the time factor. The series began its remarkable run in 1993, and the first X-Files movie hit the big screen in 1998 while the TV show was still going strong. But Gillian Armstrong, David Duchovny and auteur Chris Carter are all reunited for the new movie. A good sign.
 
Here Come the Nelsons (1952). Ozzie and Harriet, David and Ricky ruled the television world, but their movie bombed.  The flop hinted that not all big-screen transfers would be graceful.
 
Miami Vice (2006). The mid-’80s series was a cultural phenomenon, with Don Johnson and, to a lesser degree, Philip Michael Thomas, becoming household names. Johnson’s ultra-cool footwear threatened to make socks obsolete. The movie had little impact. It was Colin Farrell’s most obvious bid for mainstream stardom, but it did more for Jamie Foxx.
 
I Spy (2002). The TV show bowed in 1965 and was even more popular in syndication. The rapport between Robert Culp and Bill Cosby was a key ingredient. The public stayed away from the movie. Eddie Murphy’s not one to share the spotlight, and the camaraderie between Murphy and Owen Wilson seemed forced and false.
 
Starsky & Hutch (2004). Yet another retread of a buddy cop movie, this one was moderately successful. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, great buds in real life, took on the roles originated by Paul-Michael Glaser and David Soul. Never as memorable as the mid-’70s series, it was popular but quickly forgotten.
 
Charlie’s Angels (2000). Not all law enforcers were guys, y’know. The 1976 series was a sensation, turning Farrah, Kate and Jaclyn into celebrities of first-names-only stature. Drew Barrymore, an Angels fan since childhood, launched the movie. With Drew, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu, the opus won audiences despite sneers from critics. Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003) won neither audiences nor reviewers, despite Demi Moore’s hotly hyped “comeback.” 
 
The Fugitive (1993). Harrison Ford’s biggest non-franchise movie captured the suspense and underlying melancholy of the David Janssen series, without making a similar cross-country trek. It was even Oscar-nominated for Best Picture, with Tommy Lee Jones copping the best-supporting-actor prize.
 
Maverick (1994). Mel Gibson’s overly insistent charm may have worked against the movie, despite the prestige casting of Jodie Foster and the “stunt casting” of James Garner, veteran of the late-’50s series. A
modest success, at best.
 
Sgt. Bilko (1996). It has been Steve Martin’s bad luck to attempt characters closely linked to other actors. The Bilko name is permanently linked with Phil Silvers, just as The Pink Panther belongs to Peter Sellers. He’ll allegedly create another Topper in 2010. Sgt. Bilko ’s flop should have taught him better.
 
The Brady Bunch Movie (1995). The 1969 Yours, Mine and Ours-type series barely squeaked by as a movie. Its best moment came when Florence Henderson, television’s Mom Brady, made a sharp appearance as Grandma Brady, offering pointed advice to put-upon Jan.

The Flintstones (1994). Apt casting of John Goodman, Halle Berry and Rosie O’Donnell helped make this live-action caveman comedy a box-office hit. But if it’s remembered at all today, it’s for Elizabeth Taylor’s screeching performance as poor Fred Flintstone’s nagging mother-in-law.

The Addams Family (1991). Once again, good casting rescued a mildly funny screenplay, with Angelica Huston, Raul Julia and Christina Ricci in ghoulishly wry spirits. Addams Family Values, released two years later, was a better comedy but a box-office fizzle. After the first movie, most audiences just wanted to remember Carolyn Jones and John Astin from the small screen.

Star Trek (1979). We’ll close on a positive note. The TV series was a solid but hardly sensational success in its 1966 debut. The Star Trek sensation started when the show went into syndication. It spawned several more TV series as well as a profitable movie franchise. Arguably, the best movie was Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan back in 1982. Even now, a new Star Trek flick featuring an enterprising young cast is planned for May ‘09 release.