Shrinking the Big Picture : Six TV Series Seek Hit Status of Their Feature Sources; It’s a Proven Gamble

“Casablanca” crashed. “Born Free” died.

“A League of Their Own” struck out. “Starman” faded, “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” was down and out almost instantly, and “Working Girl” didn’t. “Ferris Bueller” flunked and “Dirty Dancing” was buried.

True, these titles were all smash hits when they played in movie houses. But when they and numerous other films went from the big screen to the small screen after being turned into television series, they bombed.

The graveyard of television’s past is crowded with the remains of failed television series that were spun off from successful motion pictures. Fans of many of the films were disappointed by the smaller-scale versions, especially when the original stars didn’t reprise their roles or the premise was watered down for television.

Still, television executives continue to attempt to break the theater-to-tube jinx. Six TV series based on films are premiering this fall, and others are in development.

“There is something appealing to executives and producers about taking a feature concept that has proven hit potential and turning it into a series that they feel has the same potential,” said Dana Walden, vice president of drama for Twentieth Television, the TV production division of 20th Century Fox.

ABC is trying it twice. The television version of “Dangerous Minds,” developed from the fact-based film about Louanne Johnson, a former Marine who teaches troubled high school students, will be unveiled on Monday, with Annie Potts in the role originated by Michelle Pfeiffer. And the small-screen adaptation of “Clueless,” the hit 1995 comedy about a high school girl in Beverly Hills that made a movie star out of music video vixen Alicia Silverstone, premiered last Friday. Rachel Blanchard took over the role of Cher while supporting cast members from the film returned for the series.

Fox has a movie transfer in “Party Girl,” about an energetic party-goer/library clerk. The third episode aired Monday night. Christine Taylor, who played Marcia in “The Brady Bunch” films, has taken on the character of Mary, who was played in the film by Parker Posey.

Meanwhile, cable’s USA Network last month premiered “The Big Easy,” based on the 1987 film about a New Orleans homicide detective. And in syndication, “FX: The Series,” a spinoff of the 1986 film about a special-effects expert, premiered last Friday on KCOP-TV Channel 13, while “All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series” began Saturday on KTLA-TV Channel 5.

Twentieth Television is preparing an update of 1992’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” for the Warner Bros. Network for midseason, with Joss Whedon, the film’s writer, involved. The Walt Disney Co. is looking at four or five of its films for possible development into series. And NBC is developing a series for next season based on last year’s black comedy “Fargo.”

The biggest reason that producers keep trying, despite the spotty track record in previous attempts, is that a successful movie may deliver a pre-sold audience to the series. A show may have more of a chance to get sampled if it is identified with a successful film.

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But the transitions have not always worked because producers often take for granted that the basic premise for a film will automatically make a viable series, or that the audience will accept a new actor in the role played by one of their favorite movie stars.

Ted Harbert, chairman of ABC Entertainment, said, “It’s a given that making any television show is difficult, but making a show out of a movie has added difficulty. When an audience has fond memories of a theatrical film, they would come to a series with greater expectations, as opposed to coming to it fresh like a brand-new idea. If they are disappointed, then they won’t watch.”

David A. Neuman, president of Walt Disney Television, said that audiences are often attracted to a film by its story. But in a weekly TV series, the story often takes a back seat to the characters.

“The individual story is much less important,” he said. “What matters is how much we like the characters. How interested are we in them that we would want to see them week after week?”

He added that there were obvious exceptions: “Hannibal Lecter in ‘Silence of the Lambs’ was fascinating to watch once, and maybe again. But I don’t think there would be a huge turnout for a weekly series about Hannibal Lecter and cannibalism.”

To be sure, some movie spinoffs have become long-running television series. “MASH” is better remembered as a critical hit that lasted 11 years than as a 1970 film. “The Odd Couple,” “In the Heat of the Night” and “Alice,” a sitcom version of “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” also scored with viewers.

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But for every successful transition, there are numerous flops. Among the failures, many of which lasted only a few weeks: “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,” “RoboCop: The Series,” “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventures,” “Parenthood” and “Shaft.”

Harbert said the producers of “Dangerous Minds” and “Clueless” are trying to avoid the obstacles of translating films into series by developing complex and complete story lines.

“Any show based on a movie just has to stand on its own,” he said. “It has to be like there wasn’t any movie at all.”

Added Diane Frolov, one of the executive producers of “Dangerous Minds”: “Nobody is going to be watching us in the fifth week based on whether they liked the movie or not.”

Unlike several film-to-TV spinoffs in the past, the creative forces behind many of this season’s shows are staying closely involved with their TV offspring. Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the “Dangerous Minds” film, also is overseeing the series. “Clueless” writer and director Amy Heckerling is executive producer of the series and is also writing and directing many of the episodes.

Bruckheimer, who produced with his late partner Don Simpson such box-office hits as “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Top Gun” and “Bad Boys,” has never been involved with television. But, he said, “Dangerous Minds” is “a natural. We’ll get a chance to tell so many stories we didn’t have time to tell in the movie.”

In addition to dramatics in the classroom, the “Dangerous Minds” series will also deal with teacher Johnson’s personal and romantic life and will go much further into the lives of the students.

“We’ll see the students not just as a reflection of Louanne but with lives independent from her,” said another “Dangerous Minds” executive producer, Andrew Schneider.

Heckerling said she first conceived “Clueless” as a series for Fox, but the network passed. Her agents suggested she develop her premise into a film.

She acknowledged that the success of the movie is closely identified with Silverstone, but she said the series would have “the same feel, spirit and atmosphere of the film. It’s a happy teenage show for the ‘90s.”

Added co-executive producer Pamela Pettler: “We’ll be moving much more into the lives of the kids, looking at the things they have to deal with, but in a hip, funny way.” One show will feature Cher starring in the school production of “Hamlet” while falling for the lead actor. Another has her rallying her classmates to clean up a city park.

Efrem Seegar, who created the “Party Girl” series with the creators of the film, Daisy von Scherler Mayer and Harry Birchmayer, said he was inspired by the character’s spirit, not her freewheeling lifestyle, which in the movie included some drug use in the middle of an outrageous underground club scene. Unlike the Mary character in the film, who decides at the end that she really wants to be a librarian, the television “Party Girl” will try a variety of jobs.

Seegar added that he was not particularly concerned about alienating fans of the movie with its cleaned-up TV counterpart: “I’m one of only a small group of people who saw it.”