Which Came First: The Movie or The TV Show? Quiz

Answer: Movies That Became TV Shows

The film "M*A*S*H," based on the 1968 novel "MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors," came out in 1970. It was a huge hit and was even nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. After the film's success, the TV show began in 1972 and lasted until its final episode in 1983--at the time, the most popular series finale, or even TV series episode, ever.

The TV show was also a critical hit--it was nominated for over 100 Emmy Awards and won 14.

Answer: Movies That Became TV Shows

The film "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," starring Kristy Swanson, came out in 1992 It received mixed reviews and made only a slight profit. However, the same producer thought it would work on TV and it premiered in 1997, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. It lasted until 2003. It was extremely popular and landed at #2 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the "50 Best Teen Shows of All time."

Answer: Movies That Weren't Also TV Shows

"Annie Hall," the Best Picture winner in 1977, was never made into a TV show. Directed by, written by, and starring Woody Allen, it also starred Diane Keaton, who won the Oscar for Best Actress. It never even had a sequel. According to Allen, "Sequelism has become an annoying thing." So it's very unlikely a TV follow-up was ever considered.

Answer: Movies That Became TV Shows

The film "Westworld," written and directed by Michael Crichton, came out in 1973. The movie did just OK at the box office, but the franchise continued over the next several years, including a sequel called "Futureworld" (released in 1976), a TV show called "Beyond Westworld" that only last five episodes in 1980, and a video game called "Westworld 2000." However, the franchise took a major turn when "Westworld" was released by HBO as a high-budget, high-concept series that lasted four seasons (2016, 2018, 2020, and 2020).

Answer: TV Shows That Became Movies

This franchise started as a TV show in 1966 and lasted until 1973. A variety of actors appeared in the show, including Peter Graves, Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Leonard Nimoy, Greg Morris, and Sam Elliot. It was popular, but not nearly as popular as the series of Tom Cruise films that began in 1996.

As of 2024, there have been seven "Mission: Impossible" films with a total budget of $1.1 billion dollars. The box office for those seven films: $4.1 billion!

Answer: TV Shows That Became Movies

The TV show came first, lasting four seasons from 1963 to 1967. Starring David Janssen as Dr. Richard Kimble (always looking for the one-armed man), its two part-finale is still the third highest audience share for a TV series. Then in 1993, Harrison Ford played Kimble in a very successful film version.

It was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar and Tommy Lee Jones won for Best Supporting Actor. It was even followed by a 1998 sequel called "U.S. Marshals."

Answer: TV Shows That Became Movies

TV show first--it all began in 1976 with Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Jacklyn Smith as detectives in a private agency (run by an unseen "Charlie"). It was a huge hit in its first season and lasted five seasons total. Then, in 2000, a film with the same name and same concept was released, starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu.

It was followed by a sequel ("Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle") in 2003 and a reboot (also called "Charlie's Angels") in 2019.

Answer: TV Shows That Became Movies

A TV show called "Police Squad!" came first in 1982. It only lasted six episodes. But, luckily, Hollywood execs guessed that it would work as a film, and "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" was released in 1988. It was extremely popular and was followed by "The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear," and "Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final insult." Both the TV show and the films starred Leslie Nielson as Detective Frank Drebin.

His co-stars in the three films, George Kennedy and O.J. Simpson, didn't appear in the TV series.

Answer: Movies That Became TV Shows

The film Casablanca, released in 1943, won the Best Picture Oscar and is still considered one of the greatest films of all-time. Humphrey Bogart, of course, played the lead character, Rick Blaine. And, yes, it did become a TV show--twice! Both were short-lived.

The first version lasted for ten episodes during the 1955-56 TV season and starred Charles McGraw as Rick. The second version lasted only five episodes in 1983, and starred David Soul (of "Starsky and Hutch" fame) as Rick. Big lesson learned here: it's VERY hard to replace Humphrey Bogart.

Answer: Movies That Weren't Also TV Shows

"Driving Miss Daisy," released in 1989, won the Oscar for Best Picture. It was neither based on a TV show nor become one afterwards. It's in fact based on a 1987 play by Alfred Uhry. It starred Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy (who won Best Actress).

Answer: Movies That Weren't Also TV Shows

There have been a lot of cop shows on TV, but no one turned this highly successful 1997 cops and crime film into one. Starring Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce, very early in their careers, it was nominated for Best Picture eight other Oscars--losing in ALL nine categories to a little film called "Titanic."

Answer: Movies That Weren't Also TV Shows

"Little Miss Sunshine," released in 2006, came out of nowhere to be nominated for Best Picture of the year. It didn't win, but it did win Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Alan Arkin). It was never turned into a TV series; however, it was made into a stage musical in 2009. It appeared for only a month on Broadway in 2013.

Answer: TV Shows That Were Never Movies

It's a pretty good guess that someone liked the idea of "Happy Days, which premiered in 1974, because of the success of "American Graffiti," which came out in 1973. However, there is no overlap between the characters and the folks who made the movie and the TV show.

The only common elements--both took place in the 50s and both had Ron Howard in a lead role. It was very successful and spawned several spin-off shows, e.g., "Laverne & Shirley," "Mork & Mindy," but there was never a movie follow-up with the characters from the TV show.

Answer: TV Shows That Were Never Movies

The very successful TV show, which ran from 1985 to 1992, was an original idea, i.e., it wasn't based on a movie. And though some old episodes were repackaged for a theater release to celebrate the show's 36th anniversary, a film version with those characters those characters was never produced. That said, it did leave a legacy, including several spinoffs ("The Golden Palace," "Empty Nest," "Nurses"), an unsuccessful attempt to turn the show into a stage show with an all-male cast in drag, and an animated version set in the future ("Golden Girls 3033").

Answer: TV Shows That Were Never Movies

"Friends," which was a huge hit on TV from 1994 to 2004, was original and not based on a movie. And though there was one spin-off show, "Joey" (starring Matt LeBlanc), there has never been a "Friends" movie. Any chance of that have been significantly reduced after Matthew Perry's death in 2023.