This weekend, the biggest movie in America…is actually a TV show! Or at least it was at one time. ”Sex and the City” was the #1 movie edging past “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”

“Sex” went off the air five years ago. And since then star Sarah Jessica Parker has been working to get a film version made, picking up where the series ended. 

I’m not surprised it did well (reports from LA say 80% of the audience hitting the screenings were women.) In my little cul-de-sac of a world, I overheard at least three different female neighbors ask my wife if she were going to see it. Even women that never really followed the show were interested in seeing this movie.

Why is Hollywood interested in TV shows in the multiplex?

It comes down to simple marketing. Most of the women that wanted to see “Sex and the City” already knew what “Sex and the City” is. The movie had several years of episodes to pre-sell the concept to movie audiences.

If you are going to spend millions (or hundreds of millions) to make a movie, any advantage that might help it make money is worth it. So the pervasive nature of TV makes it a natural to inspire (?) the men and women who greenlight the movies we see in theatres.

“Sex” certainly isn’t the first show to jump from the TV screen to the silver screen. Here’s some of the television shows I thought of that moved to the movies…

Back in the sixties, several TV shows would shoot a movie in between filming on their regular series. The goofy TV version of “Batman” starring Adam West and Burt Ward did a theatrical movie. (I know…as a kid, I had to go see it!)

“The Munsters,” the TV show featuring Fred Gwynne as the Frankenstein monster-lite, Herman Munster, made a movie called “Munster Go Home”…the really scary part? It was in made in freakishly weird color (whereas the TV show was shot in black and white.)

Don Adams brought supersecret agent Maxwell Smart to the big screen with a big bomb called “The Nude Bomb.” (You don’t want to know about it…it blew alright.)

Even cartoons get into the act. “The Flintstones” made a movie following their primetime network run on ABC. 

Other TV shows with movie versions? “Star Trek” made the leap…twice. The original cast with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock started it with SIX different movies and sequels. Then “Star Trek: The Next Generation” with Patrick Stewart took over in the 90’s spawing four sequels. (A total re-boot with a brand new cast showcasing a younger Kirk and Spock will hit theatres next May directed by LOST’s J.J. Abrams.)

The X-Files with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson made a movie during the show’s TV run…and will be back this July with another movie called “X-Files: I Want to Believe.”

David Lynch decided to extend the short-lived “Twin Peaks” into a really, really bad theatrical mess called “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.”

“The Simpsons Movie” finally debuted last summer. The TV show has been on the air…(gasp) for almost 20 years!

Of course, most of these movies were made using the original TV casts. But I got to thinking about all the movies that were remakes of TV shows. A few were sucessful. “Mission Impossible” with Tom Cruise; “The Fugitive” with Harrison Ford; “The Untouchables” with Kevin Costner.

But so many movies remade from TV shows were so painfully bad and simply uninspired. How many of these do you remember?

“The Beverly Hillbillies” (Jim Varney…and none of the original cast…and dare I say it, charm, of the TV version)

“Starsky and Hutch” (what was Ben Stiller thinking?)

“Bewitched” (what was Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell thinking??)

“McHale’s Navy” (I remember they made it…I think it had Tom Arnold in it. What were they thinking?)

“Charlie’s Angels” (I know they made two of these, and they were semi-successful, but still what the hell were Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore…and BILL MURRAY thinking??? I know…Murray finally did some thinking and jumped after the first one.)

“The Dukes of Hazzard” (I know Jessica Simpson doesn’t think)

I know I’ve missed some. Help me out if you think of any other movie remakes of TV shows.

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The TV remakes are going to keep coming…check out what’s coming to a theatre near you in the next couple of years.

“Fraggle Rock,” the Jim Henson series featured on HBO in the 1980s, will be made into a live-action film musical by Weinstein Co., Daily Variety reports. “Hoodwinked!” director Cory Edwards will do the same for the film while Ahmet Zappa will be an executive producer, the newspaper says

“Superbad” star Jonah Hill is in talks to develop a film version of “21 Jump Street,” the late-80’s television series starring Johnny Depp, Daily Variety reports. Hill would help create the screenplay and may star in the film, the newspaper says.
“Land of the Lost” with Will Ferrell is coming! It is a comedic take on the Saturday morning cheesy sci-fi adventure series from the 70’s. Do you remember this one? I do…it features bug-eyed aliens called “Sleastak.” (I’m not making this up.)

“Get Smart” starring Steve Carrell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Alan Arkin opens in a couple of weeks. I’ll see this just to see Alan Arkin, one of the best comedic actors around. Besides, this one shows some promise…

Finally, do we really need a movie version of “Magnum P.I.?” Can anyone but Tom Selleck be Magnum? Somebody thinks Matthew McConaughey can fill the bill. Guess we’ll see…

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Finally, speaking of TV remakes, how about Melissa Gilbert appearing in a musical version of “Little House on the Prairie?” It debuts in Minneapolis this summer, Daily Variety reports. Ms. Gilbert will play the mother of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the character she played on the television show, the newspaper says.

Saw “Indiana Jones” on Friday (see my thumbs up review in the previous post) I enjoyed a rain free “Indy 500″ in High Def on Sunday night. Then spent Monday evening watching a “Jon and Kate Plus 8″ marathon on TLC with my kids.

If you’ve never seen “Jon and Kate Plus 8,” it’s a documentary/reality show following Jon and Kate Gosselin and their eight kids. 

They had twin girls (now aged six.) Then had sextuplets! Eight kids total!

Each 30 minute show is brilliantly simple.

Just show what day to day life is like for parents trying to care for eight very young children. Potting training, mealtimes, traveling, sleeping…anything you do with so many kids is filled with drama (and lots of laughs, too.)

As a parent, my wife and I have shared stories with our friends. Jon and Kate are basically sharing their stories…times eight. 

The most interesting thing to me…to see how absolutely fascinated my kids were watching this show. They really related to it.

*****

I love “Lost.” 

And I can’t wait until Thursday night. 

ABC has scheduled a special all night “Lost” event, repeating last week’s episode at 8pm followed by the two hour season finale beginning at 9PM.

This is the best show on television. Period. 

Since the producers and ABC announced that the show would end in 2010, this show has gotten even better. Before it sometimes seemed like the show was making it up as it went along. Not anymore. It’s now obvious that the producers have the show’s storyline all mapped out. And man is it good. But for all the story pyrotechnics and logistic sleight of hand the production team has concocted, the show works because of the characters they have crafted over the past three seasons.

It’s like a really good novel. And I can’t wait till the next chapter.

*****

Sad news from Hollywood…Late word on Monday night that the director/sometime actor Sydney Pollack has passed away from cancer at the age of 73.

Pollack, born in Lafayette, Indiana, was one of the best. He directed “Tootsie,” “Out of Africa,”"The Way We Were” and dozens of other outstanding movies. He also acted in “Tootsie” (playing Dustin Hoffman’s agent) and most recently appeared opposite George Clooney in “Michael Clayton.”

I had the good fortune to see him at a Heartland Film Festival seminar a few years ago talking about his movies and the creative process. He truly was an outstanding filmmaker and storyteller. He’ll be missed.