After Ryan Gosling’s The Fall Guy, 11 Classic TV Shows That Should Be Adapted Into Movies
We have a question for the many people who are excited to see Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt’s new action movie, The Fall Guy: did you know that the film — coming to theaters on May 3 — is based on a TV show? For five seasons in the early 1980s, the original series from creator Glen A. Larson starred Lee Majors as a Hollywood stuntman who leads a double life as a bounty hunter.
With a concept like that, it is actually quite surprising that this new cinematic adaptation (helmed by director David Leitch) did not come sooner. That being said, The Fall Guy is far from the only classic TV show that we believe might be due for a big screen reboot. In fact, we have several in mind.
The Six Million Dollar Man (1973-1978)
The Fall Guy star Lee Majors previously led another classic action TV show that seems especially primed for a remake in this day and age called The Six Million Dollar Man, which follows an injured test pilot made “better, faster, and stronger” with mechanical limbs. For a movie version — which almost happened with Mark Wahlberg — we would recommend making the Bionic Woman the co-lead and reinterpreting it as a darker, romantic vigilante story that comments on the concept of humans melding with technology in the vein of Black Mirror.
Knight Rider (1982-1986)
The Fall Guy creator Glen A. Larson was also the mastermind behind another classic sci-fi action series called Knight Rider, which starred David Hasselhoff as a man assigned to uphold the law with help from a specially made automobile equipped with a cutting edge artificial intelligence (voiced by William Daniels).
A part of us wants to see the cult favorite — which has been rebooted before and been considered for many subsequent updates — reinvented as a darker noir about a hardened detective whose partner happens to be a talking car, but we also feel it might work better as a light, fun buddy movie like the original series was at times.
The Greatest American Hero (1981-1983)
Light and fun was also the tone of The Greatest American Hero — a superhero TV show not based on an original comic book in which a school teacher (William Kate) becomes a bumbling crimefighter after he is given a special suit by extra-terrestrial visitors. We believe that, if put in the right hands (maybe Edgar Wright or Jordan Peele or Greta Gerwig), a cinematic adaptation of this uplifting action-comedy series could have have the potential to cure superhero fatigue.
Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001)
Maybe instead of another superhero story, what Hollywood is missing is another mesmerizing fantasy adventure like Xena: Warrior Princess — a spin-off as good (if not better) than the Kevin Sorbo-led Hercules: The Legendary Journeys that saw the title hero take on mystical evil in Ancient Greece. It would be hard to fill Lucy Lawless’ shoes with a new actor to play Xena, but to see the character in action on the big screen would be a dream come true, especially if original series EP Sam Raimi is at the helm.
The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr. (1993-1994)
An actor who appeared in a notable recurring role on Xena is Bruce Campbell, who, earlier, starred as the title hero of The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. — creators Carlton Cuse and Jeffrey Boam’s cult favorite Western fused with comedic undertones and bizarre sci-fi elements. As we see it, a good feature-length update could either work one of two ways: a full-on on remake of the short-lived ’90s series or a continuation that sees the horror movie icon reprise the role alongside his son, Brisco County III.
The Streets Of San Francisco (1972-1977)
Before he hit it big as a movie star, one of Academy Award winner Michael Douglas’ earliest gigs was playing Inspector Steve Keller — the younger partner to Karl Malden’s 20-year veteran, Lt. Mike Stone, in creator Edward Hume’s The Streets of San Francisco. Stone and Keller maintained a friendly demeanor during Douglas’ run on the hit cop drama, but a cinematic update might be an opportunity for a crime thriller with an interesting, modern commentary on generational culture clash.
Cagney & Lacey (1981-1988)
An even more iconic TV cop duo was Christine Cagney (Sharon Gless) and Mary Beth Lacey (Tyne Daly) from Barbara Avedon and Barbara Corday’s long-running, Emmy-winning crime drama. The appeal of Cagney & Lacey was mostly the close personal and professional bond between the titular detectives, but we think bringing them to the big screen could make for a badass action movie.
Quincy M.E. (1976-1983)
Following the releases of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out and Glass Onion, whodunnits have made quite comeback in recent years. We think a fun addition to the trend might be a movie based on Quincy M.E. — a crime procedural about a medical examiner with a sharp knack for sniffing out murder.
Forever Knight (1992-1996)
Those who would be interested in something a little more unique than your run-of-the-mill crime drama might want to sink their teeth into a feature-length adaptation of Forever Knight. Barney Cohen and James D. Parriott’s original series (itself spun-off from a TV movie led by Rick Springfield) starred Geraint Wyn Davies as an 800-year-old vampire working the night shift as a detective in modern-day Toronto.
American Gothic (1995-1998)
On the subject of things that go bump in the night, there are actually quite a few recent and upcoming horror TV shows that take inspiration from classic scary movies, but not as many movies these days taking inspiration from classic scary TV shows. A good candidate to start with could be the short-lived, but much-admired, CBS drama, American Gothic, which starred Gary Cole as an evil sheriff holding dominion over a quaint town with his demonic abilities and Lucas Black as his biological son.
Sliders (1995-2000)
Sliders is the criminally underrated story of a brilliant, young genius (Jerry O’Connell) who accidentally creates a device that sends him and three others on a seemingly endless journey traveling from one alternate reality to another. What better time is there to revisit this dimension-hopping adventure series than now, when Multiverse movies are all the rage?
If The Fall Guy rises in popularity at the box office, perhaps it could be the first of plenty more TV favorites that we see revived on the silver screen.
