SciFiWire has a list of 10 Saturday morning TV series that inspired movies and the list seems to be, to say the least, a bit skewed. To begin, the title is misleading. Most of the examples they use rose to fame as something else before they were even shown on television. And once shown, they weren't necessarily on Saturday mornings.Popeye started as a comic strip and then cartoon shorts shown at theaters. The Addams Family started as a comic strip in The New Yorker then a somewhat unique sitcom.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles started as a independent comic book which was then toned down in style for the cartoon (which did, in turn, inspire the movie). I recall the animated show was shown mostly on weekday afternoons, as was The Transformers.
Finally, I have to disagree with the articles assessment as to whether certain shows worked or not. Turtles certainly worked (it made New Line Cinema a mainstream studio) while The Transformers and The Flintstones most certainly did not, no matter what the box office may say.
So what do you think? Agree? Disagree?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-06-2009 @ 6:21PM
Usama said...
I concur with you.
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6-06-2009 @ 7:46PM
Age-K said...
Yeah, I definitely agree with you too. Plus, I'm pretty sure the picture they used for the cartoon version of The Addams Family comes from the cartoon that came out AFTER the movie came out.
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6-06-2009 @ 10:05PM
Gordy said...
I liked Transformers...but...what happened to Alvin & the Chipmunks, my Saturday morning fave of yore.
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6-07-2009 @ 2:24AM
YouFaceTheTick said...
That title is so misleading. The author of this blog is right on - it's way off base.
Reply
6-08-2009 @ 10:02AM
RobynM said...
Yeah, I'd have to say the list and the scholarship behind it was pretty lacking.
Out of that whole list, only Scooby-Doo and Underdog qualify as being originally created for Sat AM.
Popeye, Addams Family, TMNT, Garfield, and Speed Racer had pre-existing print origins.
Transformers was based on a Japanese toy line.
The Flintstones did start life as a cartoon, but in prime time, not Sat AM.
Fat Albert's origins were stories Bill Cosby told in his stage shows.
The author particularly messed up with Addams Family.
First, as Age-K mentions, they used a still from the 90's animated series as opposed to the '73 version which would have been more appropriate in context.
Second, they get the synopsis almost completely wrong, referring to the lawyer as the doctor and calling Christopher Lloyd's character "his son".
With errors like that, I have trouble taking the rest of his article seriously.
As far as the movies go - I like Popeye and the Addams Family movies enough to own them, I prefer the comic to the TMNT movies, and Fat Albert was better than it had a right to be.
I may check out Transformers and Speed Racer if I come across them on premium channels.
The rest I doubt I'd watch even if someone paid me to do it. Even John Goodman and Rick Moranis, who I'm particularly fond of, weren't enough to get me to watch the Flintstones movie. And don't get me started on the abomination that is Underdog - I could use a whole 'nother post on why that should've never gotten greenlit.
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