The Player TV show... ? And other shows that never made it past the pilot stage.
April 5, 2009 3:40 PM Subscribe
So I just watched the (terrible) pilot for the 2003 tv show L.A. Confidential. I've also heard Michael Tolkin talk about the tv show for The Player, which I've never been able to find. My questions are: where can I find The Player tv show and what other films have had failed tv shows not make it past the pilot stage?
I wish I were kidding, but the 2002 remake of Carrie for TV was a pilot for a TV series in which Carrie White would move to Florida and help other telekinetic kids.
posted by nicwolff at 5:04 PM on April 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by nicwolff at 5:04 PM on April 5, 2009 [1 favorite]
There was a planned TV series of Cruel Intentions that never made it to air. With a little additional shooting, the first two episodes were adapted into a straight to video sequel/prequel.
posted by yellowbinder at 5:16 PM on April 5, 2009
posted by yellowbinder at 5:16 PM on April 5, 2009
Oh, and in 1987 a TV movie called Bates Motel was the pilot for a series that mercifully didn't get picked up, in which Norman Bates leaves his mother's motel to a fellow inmate, Alex, who on release decides to re-open it with the help of a spunky runaway. Hijinx of a Scooby-Doo nature ensue, when [UPSIDE-DOWN SPOILER] ʇı dolǝʌǝp puɐ dɐǝɥɔ ʇı ʎnq uɐɔ ǝɥ os ǝɔɐld ǝɥʇ ɟɟo ɯıɥ ǝɹɐɔs oʇ sǝpıɔǝp ʎǝuoɯ ǝɥʇ xǝlɐ pǝuɐol oɥʍ ɹǝʞuɐq ǝɥʇ.
posted by nicwolff at 5:20 PM on April 5, 2009
posted by nicwolff at 5:20 PM on April 5, 2009
I saw the pilot for the Cruel Intentions tv series way back when. It was even trashier than the movie, if possible. It was awesome. It's a shame the series was canned.
posted by raf at 6:18 PM on April 5, 2009
posted by raf at 6:18 PM on April 5, 2009
(I stumbled on this question when browsing back through the tv tag -- hope you don't mind a very late, very long-winded edition to the conversation!)
I have sort of a fascination with unsold pilots, and there are plenty of them that fall into the "based on the hit motion picture" category. Note that a lot of these, despite being unsold, were actually aired on TV at one point or another: Some were aired as TV movies (either retooled a little, or built that way from the beginning as a back-door pilot); some were burned off by the networks during the summer months/off season; some aired on Trio to accompany the documentary "Brilliant But Cancelled: Pilot Season."
There are some other pilots that, like LA Confidential, have been included as extras on DVD releases of the movies: Black Bart is included with Blazing Saddles. Revenge of the Nerds has a pilot by the same name on the DVD, as do State Fair and Meet Me in St. Louis. The "Ultimate Flint Collection" includes Our Man Flint: Dead on Target. And The Jerk, Too, conceived as a pilot but aired as a tv movie, is sold in the UK as a double feature with The Jerk.
LA Confidential was one of the pilots aired as part of the above-mentioned "Brilliant But Cancelled" group. A couple others: Fargo (starring Edie Falco) and Diner (starring Paul Reiser but none of the rest of the original cast).
A few movies have gotten multiple treatments: This season's Eastwick managed to last 13 episodes, but that's actually the 3rd time a TV show based on The Witches of Eastwick has been attempted -- the other two, from 1992 and 2002, didn't make it past the pilot stage. (Okay, technically they're based on a book, but the movie adaptation surely served as inspiration for all three.) There were two separate pilots based on Cat Ballou that were developed in 1971 -- and they aired both of them on the same network, one day after the other. This one's a little bit of a stretch, but the film The French Connection not only led to the unsold pilot Popeye Doyle, but also served as a fair bit of the inspiration for pilots Egan (wherein they reverted to using the real name of the cop on whom Popeye Doyle was based) and NY-70 (wherein character Mike Ryan is based on Popeye Doyle, who is based on Eddie Egan -- confused yet?). The African Queen was remade in the '60s as an episode of The Dick Powell Show that was intended to launch a new series; it was also made into a separate pilot in the '70s. Clerks had a short-lived animated series, but there was also a separate, live-action pilot produced.
A couple that worked in reverse (failed pilot, then made into a feature film): Michael Mann's LA Takedown became Heat, and David Lynch's pilot of Mulholland Dr became the movie of the same name. (The former pair featured entirely different casts; the latter really just involved a re-tooling of current footage plus the addition of new scenes, etc.)
I don't have any interesting hooks for these, but here are some more movie -> unsold pilot conversions:
About a Boy
Adventures in Babysitting
Bates Motel (based on Psycho)
Beyond Witch Mountain
Car Wash
Coming to America
Darkman
Driving Miss Daisy
Holly Golightly (based on Breakfast at Tiffany's)
Legally Blonde
Married to the Mob
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (based on the 2005 movie about married assassins, not to be confused with the 1996 series about spies who pretend to be married, or the 1941 Hitchcock film about a married couple who find out they're not actually married at all)
National Lampoon's American Adventure (based on the Vacation series)
Norma Rae
Save the Last Dance
Steel Magnolias
Sudbury (based on Practical Magic)
Three Coins in the Fountain
Zero Effect
And, looking ahead, all of these are currently in development for the 2010-2011 season -- I'm guessing not all of them will see the light of day:
Nikita (yes, again; ordered to pilot)
Teen Wolf (ordered to pilot)
Heathers (currently script only)
Sunshine Cleaning (currently script only)
The Freshman (the Matthew Broderick film, not the Harold Lloyd one; currently script only)
St Elmo's Fire (currently script w/penalty only)
(And this didn't even touch on series-based-on-movies that made it to air but were quickly killed, or pilots based on comic books, or pilots that were spin-offs/remakes of other TV shows...)
Oh, and if you really really want to see the pilot for The Player... it could be yours for only $12 plus shipping.
posted by alyxstarr at 9:11 AM on March 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
I have sort of a fascination with unsold pilots, and there are plenty of them that fall into the "based on the hit motion picture" category. Note that a lot of these, despite being unsold, were actually aired on TV at one point or another: Some were aired as TV movies (either retooled a little, or built that way from the beginning as a back-door pilot); some were burned off by the networks during the summer months/off season; some aired on Trio to accompany the documentary "Brilliant But Cancelled: Pilot Season."
There are some other pilots that, like LA Confidential, have been included as extras on DVD releases of the movies: Black Bart is included with Blazing Saddles. Revenge of the Nerds has a pilot by the same name on the DVD, as do State Fair and Meet Me in St. Louis. The "Ultimate Flint Collection" includes Our Man Flint: Dead on Target. And The Jerk, Too, conceived as a pilot but aired as a tv movie, is sold in the UK as a double feature with The Jerk.
LA Confidential was one of the pilots aired as part of the above-mentioned "Brilliant But Cancelled" group. A couple others: Fargo (starring Edie Falco) and Diner (starring Paul Reiser but none of the rest of the original cast).
A few movies have gotten multiple treatments: This season's Eastwick managed to last 13 episodes, but that's actually the 3rd time a TV show based on The Witches of Eastwick has been attempted -- the other two, from 1992 and 2002, didn't make it past the pilot stage. (Okay, technically they're based on a book, but the movie adaptation surely served as inspiration for all three.) There were two separate pilots based on Cat Ballou that were developed in 1971 -- and they aired both of them on the same network, one day after the other. This one's a little bit of a stretch, but the film The French Connection not only led to the unsold pilot Popeye Doyle, but also served as a fair bit of the inspiration for pilots Egan (wherein they reverted to using the real name of the cop on whom Popeye Doyle was based) and NY-70 (wherein character Mike Ryan is based on Popeye Doyle, who is based on Eddie Egan -- confused yet?). The African Queen was remade in the '60s as an episode of The Dick Powell Show that was intended to launch a new series; it was also made into a separate pilot in the '70s. Clerks had a short-lived animated series, but there was also a separate, live-action pilot produced.
A couple that worked in reverse (failed pilot, then made into a feature film): Michael Mann's LA Takedown became Heat, and David Lynch's pilot of Mulholland Dr became the movie of the same name. (The former pair featured entirely different casts; the latter really just involved a re-tooling of current footage plus the addition of new scenes, etc.)
I don't have any interesting hooks for these, but here are some more movie -> unsold pilot conversions:
About a Boy
Adventures in Babysitting
Bates Motel (based on Psycho)
Beyond Witch Mountain
Car Wash
Coming to America
Darkman
Driving Miss Daisy
Holly Golightly (based on Breakfast at Tiffany's)
Legally Blonde
Married to the Mob
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (based on the 2005 movie about married assassins, not to be confused with the 1996 series about spies who pretend to be married, or the 1941 Hitchcock film about a married couple who find out they're not actually married at all)
National Lampoon's American Adventure (based on the Vacation series)
Norma Rae
Save the Last Dance
Steel Magnolias
Sudbury (based on Practical Magic)
Three Coins in the Fountain
Zero Effect
And, looking ahead, all of these are currently in development for the 2010-2011 season -- I'm guessing not all of them will see the light of day:
Nikita (yes, again; ordered to pilot)
Teen Wolf (ordered to pilot)
Heathers (currently script only)
Sunshine Cleaning (currently script only)
The Freshman (the Matthew Broderick film, not the Harold Lloyd one; currently script only)
St Elmo's Fire (currently script w/penalty only)
(And this didn't even touch on series-based-on-movies that made it to air but were quickly killed, or pilots based on comic books, or pilots that were spin-offs/remakes of other TV shows...)
Oh, and if you really really want to see the pilot for The Player... it could be yours for only $12 plus shipping.
posted by alyxstarr at 9:11 AM on March 1, 2010 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by davidamann at 5:02 PM on April 5, 2009