These days, it feels like every time a movie finds any sort of success at the box office or on streaming, we’re likely to see a spinoff or two on television within a couple of years. Peacock’s miniseries The Continental is a John Wick prequel/spinoff, Amazon’s A League of Their Own was a spinoff/remake of the beloved classic movie, and Disney+ has been churning out Marvel and Star Wars TV shows since it launched. We’re tempted to say it hasn’t always been this way, with television drawing inspiration from cinema, but it kind of has. Tons of your favorite shows, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Cobra Kai, started off as movies before anyone saw the potential to expand their storylines.
But it’s not always easy to translate the charms and excitement of a feature film into longform storytelling, and TV spinoffs don’t always work out. In fact, many of them don’t last longer than a season (or an episode) or two, their home networks quickly realizing that maybe their storylines fit better on the big screen. We’ve gathered a list of ten of the oddest TV shows based on beloved cinematic classics, from the forgotten to the unloved to the completely incomprehensible. We can’t necessarily recommend that you immediately go watch all of these, but there are a few hidden gems whose mere existence makes them worth checking out.
The 10 Weirdest TV Shows Based on Beloved Movies
A RoboCop animated kids’ show? A TV sequel to The Crow? These oddball TV spinoffs based on famous movies prove anything is franchise-able.
READ MORE: TV Spinoffs That Are Better Than the Show They Were Based On
Forgotten Movie Remakes
These movie remakes replaced the films they were inspired by in the minds of absolutely no one.