Small Screen Stories: Films Made Into Television Shows
Big screen hits that were reinvented for TV.
1 / 10
She's Gotta Have It - Nearly 30 years after Spike Lee's 1986 feature film debut, it was announced that She's Gotta Have It will be reincarnated for the small screen. Lee will direct and write the TV series — currently in development — that will look at his classic characters like Nola Darling and Mars Blackmon in a contemporary and gentrifiied Brooklyn setting. Here, we take a look at other films that successfully made it to the small screen.(Photo: Island Pictures)
2 / 10
Fame - Fans couldn't get enough of Coco, Leroy, Doris, Bruno and Ms. Lydia Grant (Debbie Allen) from 1980 song-and-dance classic teenage drama Fame. The film was revised as a TV show in 1982 that lasted six seasons. We got to revisit those familiar talented high school friends and meet some new ones — including Janet Jackson, who played Cleo. (Photo: MGM)
Photo: United Artists
3 / 10
Barbershop - Barbershop, the hit 2002 feature film comedy, starred Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer and Michael Ealy and put the spotlight on the day in the life of a South Side Chicago barbershop filled with unforgettable characters. One year after the successful sequel, the franchise got the spin-off small screen treatment in 2005 starring Omar Gooding, Cuba Gooding Jr.'s younger brother. (Photo: MGM)
4 / 10
Soul Food - The 1997 movie Soul Food had all the ingredients of classic comedy. An all-star cast (Vivica A. Fox, Vanessa Williams, Mekhi Phifer) and a solid story about tradition and family. Its 2000 TV incarnation lasted five seasons and continued telling those riveting tales of close-knit relationships on the small screen. (Photo: Fox 2000 Pictures)
5 / 10
In the Heat of the Night - When Oscar legend Sidney Poitier slapped a white police chief in the 1967 film classic In the Heat of the Night, many thought it to be a groundbreaking, ballsy (unscripted) move. Producers in Hollywood found it to be a springboard for a 80s buddy cop series. The 1988 drama ran for eight seasons and starred Harold Rollins as Virgil Tibbs, the iconic role made famous by Poitier. (Photo: Mirisch Corporation)
6 / 10
The Planet of the Apes - In 1968, the film Planet of the Apes introduced moviegoing audiences to the futuristic planet where dominant talking apes ruled the world and humans were the enslaved. The franchise got one season as a TV series in 1974 and three film sequels. (Photo: Twentieth Century Fox)
7 / 10
Blade - Wesley Snipes starred in the 1998 action fantasy horror film chronicling the adventures of the half-vampire, half-mortal man who slays evil vampires. After two movie sequels, Onyx's Sticky Fingaz picked up the fangs as the lead character in the 2006 TV reboot. It lasted one season. (Photo: New Line Cinema)
Photo: New Line Cinema
8 / 10
Shaft - Richard Roundtree blazed a groundbreaking path of Black power and Blaxplotation when he starred in the 1971 title film role about a cool private eye. After starring in two movie sequels, Roundtree reprised his role for one season of Shaft the TV series in 1973. (Photo: MGM)
9 / 10
Black Dynamite - Michael Jai White starred in this 2009 action comedic sendup of Blaxploitation by playing the faux biggest action star of the 1970s. White also returned to the role as a voice actor when the movie was resurrected as an animated series in 2011. (Photo: Destination Films)
10 / 10
Friday Night Lights - Based on the book of the same name, the multiple stories of a Texas town and its high school football team was too plentiful for its 2004 film. So in 2006, it moved to the small screen and played out all of the dramatic, character driven stories for over five successful seasons. The show also made viewers and Hollywood take notice of a rising star named Michael B. Jordan, who starred in the final two seasons of the show. (Photo: Universal Pictures)