(bad) movie spin-offs of tv series...

zombie no.one · September 12, 2020, 01:42:16 PM

I recently watched THE RETURN OF THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (1983)

I bought the dvd mistakenly thinking it was a whole series but it was just a feature length spin-off of the 60s tv series, except 15 years later (a fact they try to drill into your head about 84000 times during the course of the film). It was pretty lame, especially the half hearted attempts at humour (e.g. a pointless George Lazenby cameo in which he is driving a car with the reg 'BOND 1' or something similar..... I see what they did there....). overall very lame fluff. 3/10

this got me thinking about other feature length spin-offs of tv series. ---- spefically ones that actually feature actors from the tv show in question. I am not talking about more recent movies like S.W.A.T (2003), which has no real connection to the 70s tv show it's alledgedly 'based' on.

One more that springs to mind is THE RETURN OF THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN AND THE BIONIC WOMAN (1987). this one is extremely lightweight and goofy in comparison to the respective tv series, which could actually get quite melodramatic and intense at times. a wasted opportunity imo. it was followed by 2 more movies which were equally tame, if memory serves

Alex · September 12, 2020, 01:43:28 PM

The old Incredible Hulk tv series had a few spin-off movies as I recall. They were at least enjoyably bad though.

zombie no.one · September 12, 2020, 01:45:09 PM

with Lou Ferrigno (sp?) as Hulk? didn't know about those...

Alex · September 12, 2020, 01:48:51 PM

This is the only one I can recall, but I am fairly sure there were others. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098512/

zombie no.one · September 12, 2020, 01:54:32 PM

interesting, that's fairly long after the series...

also KNIGHT RIDER 2000 (1991). not seen this, but it's probably cheese-tastic!

btw for the sake of argument I am also not talking about cartoons that got their own movie, cause that seems to be fairly standard

Alex · September 12, 2020, 01:55:59 PM

I think Bill Bixby died not long after that one if I recall correctly.

zombie no.one · September 12, 2020, 02:07:39 PM

you're right, 1993 apparently. born in 1934, older than I thought... that means he was 43 or 44 in the first hulk episode. I would've guessed 30s!

VenomX73 · September 12, 2020, 07:13:24 PM

Quote from: Alex on September 12, 2020, 01:48:51 PM
This is the only one I can recall, but I am fairly sure there were others. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098512/

Yep, I remember that one.

Stan Lee in background lol

RCMerchant · September 12, 2020, 10:08:06 PM

I seen a Hulk movie were he fought Thor!

the INCREDIBLE HULK RETURNS (1988) I seen it on a TV mounted above the bar at Big T!

RCMerchant · September 13, 2020, 12:09:01 AM

Rescue from Gilligan's Island (1978)
- Mary Anne!
Ginger is not the original Ginger! Tina Louise was doing exploitation movies like NIGHTMARE IN BADHAM COUNTY (1976) I have it on VHS! Once I saw Tina Louise- I bought it!

http://youtu.be/WtuEDs5gwKM

zombie no.one · September 13, 2020, 01:41:48 AM

any fellow brits on here ever see GILLIGAN'S ISLAND on tv? this show seems to be a big deal in the states but I have never seen an episode and don't ever remember it being on tv here...

Alex · September 13, 2020, 01:52:50 AM

I've seen a crossover episode they did with The Loveboat (my wife is a huge fan of that show), but I've never seen an episode of it proper.

zelmo73 · September 13, 2020, 02:37:16 AM

Deadwood The Movie (2019) was pretty lame, in my opinion. I enjoyed the HBO TV series right up until the rather abrupt end of the 3rd and final season. This movie was supposed to provide closure for the TV series, and it was cool that they brought most of the cast back. They did some movie magic to where you barely noticed that 13 years had passed since the end of Season 3 and everyone had gotten older in real life, but the filmmakers tried to tie up too many loose ends in the 2 hours given to them, and formerly complex villains were reduced to black-and-white caricatures that were too obviously evil which ended up ruining the movie for me. This movie was even worse than the cheesy Serenity (2005) movie finale of the old Firefly (2002) TV series. Some things are just better off left alone, I guess.

zombie no.one · September 13, 2020, 04:59:16 PM

Quote from: Alex on September 13, 2020, 01:52:50 AM
I've seen a crossover episode they did with The Loveboat (my wife is a huge fan of that show), but I've never seen an episode of it proper.

strange how it's probably never been shown here even once, yet another random US show like MURDER, SHE WROTE seems to have been showing repeats continuously for the last 35 years

I don't think there was ever a MURDER, SHE WROTE movie btw... and it seems like the kind of show that would have one

VenomX73 · September 13, 2020, 05:46:02 PM

Quote from: zombie no.one on September 13, 2020, 01:41:48 AM
any fellow brits on here ever see GILLIGAN'S ISLAND on tv? this show seems to be a big deal in the states but I have never seen an episode and don't ever remember it being on tv here...

Well if you ever want to know any thing about Gilligan's Island all 3 seasons...
I can definitely help with info!