Tv Transfers

Movie Hybrids Return To The Small Screen Via Videotape

March 10, 1992|By Jim Sulski.

With the success of ``The Addams Family,`` Hollywood has realized the potential of reviving old and sometimes new television shows as big-screen films.

For example, now playing in movie theaters is ``Wayne`s World,``

featuring the two TV characters created by Mike Meyers and Dana Carvey on

``Saturday Night Live.`` And yet to come are big-screen productions of

``Twin Peaks,`` ``The Flintstones`` and ``The Fugitive.``

In a previous exploration of this phenomenon, we had profiled such TV-to- movie hybrids as ``The Naked Gun`` (from ``Police Squad``), ``Star Trek,``

``Dragnet,`` ``The Untouchables`` and the Adam West version of ``Batman.``

What follows are a few of the other popular and lesser-known TV shows that have traveled to the big screen and have been recently made available on videotape (so you can enjoy them on the small screen once again):

``Tales From the Darkside: The Movie`` (1991): A grislier version of the syndicated television series features three short horror tales strung together by a loose narrative featuring Deborah Harry as a modern-day cannibal. While the last story sparkles, the first two sort of fizzle. An eclectic cast includes Christian Slater, Robert Klein, Rae Dawn Chong and singer David Johansen.

``House of Dark Shadows`` (1970): A glorified and gorier version of the popular daytime Gothic soap opera. The storyline, the stars and even the music were basically lifted and condensed from the TV show, and tells the tale of vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) and his reign of terror on the small Maine coastal town of Collinsville. Episodes of the original daytime soap are also available on videotape.

``Night of Dark Shadows`` (1971): A flat follow-up to the first film that has little to do with the TV series or the first film, for that matter. This time, Barnabas is nowhere to be seen and the story instead focuses in on ghosts and witches.

``The Nude Bomb`` (1980): Would you believe Don Adams reprised his Maxwell Smart character from the 1960s ``Get Smart`` series for this disappointing big-screen adventure? Unfortunately, the film lacks any of the often-sharp satire conveyed in the series by developers-writers Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. Also, surprisingly missing from the film are Barbara Feldon (who played Adams` partner and wife Agent 99) and many of the other second bananas from the show (Bernie Kopell, Dick Gautier, Stacy Keach). Also known as ``The Return of Maxwell Smart.``

``Koroshi`` (1967): A quickie film that was basically culled from two episodes of the classy British TV series ``Secret Agent.`` Agent John Drake

(Patrick McGoohan) travels to Asia to combat a Japanese death ring. Episodes of the ``Secret Agent`` series and its predecessor, ``Danger Man,``

are also available on video.

``Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier`` (1955) and ``Davy Crockett and the River Pirates`` (1956): These films were created by splicing together episodes that appeared as part of the ``Walt Disney`` television series.

The Davy Crockett segments were the most popular offering on the show and became the ``Ninja Turtles`` of their time. Both films star Fess Parker (as Crockett) and Buddy Ebsen (as his sidekick George Russel).

Several television cartoon series have also made it to the big screen. In 1990, both the ``Jetsons: The Movie`` and ``Duck Tales: The Movie-Treasure of the Lost Lamp`` were released as films. Older examples include ``Hey There, It`s Yogi Bear`` (1964) and ``A Man Called Flintstone`` (1966).

Television has also produced a rash of characters who have skyrocketed to the big screen, a la Wayne and Garth.

In 1980, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd translated two of their characters from humble beginnings on ``Saturday Night Live`` to a overblown, big-budget, big-screen comedy-musical-epic simply titled ``The Blues Brothers.``

A few years later, Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis did the same thing with their Bob and Doug McKenzie characters from ``SCTV.`` In 1983, the two beer-guzzling Canadian dimwits left their ``Great White North`` television set to star in ``Strange Brew,`` a sophomoric but funny film that often pokes fun at Hollywood.