Hitching a ride on TV’s hits

It didn’t work for “Rocky & Bullwinkle,” “Leave It to Beaver,” “McHale’s Navy” and “The Mod Squad.” But it did for “The Fugitive,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Maverick” and the granddaddy of TV franchise flicks, “Star Trek.”

The most recent wave of movies built on the creative backs of old TV shows hits Friday with “I Spy.” The new Eddie Murphy-Owen Wilson film based on the groundbreaking ‘60s series, which co-starred Bill Cosby and Robert Culp, leads a pack of TV conversions that includes “Starsky & Hutch,” “S.W.A.T.” and the sequel “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.”

If it seems that studios are scraping the bottom of the boob-tube barrel with “Scooby-Doo,” “Josie and the Pussycats” and even “The Crocodile Hunter,” it’s worth remembering the allure of popular small-screen subjects for studios executives in the high-risk movie game -- the TV series are proven commodities.

Consider this: In 50 years of prime time and about 5,000 prime-time series, only 200 to 225 shows lasted more than five years. Choose a story from the top 200 and it seems like money in the bank: If viewers watched it hundreds of times at home, they’ll love it on the big screen. Right?

That’s hard to predict, even for Earle Marsh and Tim Brooks, coauthors of “The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows.” “It’s a double-edged sword,” Marsh said. “Yes, people are familiar with the story, but the flip side is they have preconceived expectations and if the movie doesn’t deliver ... it’s not going to work.”

As remakes go, both said “I Spy” shows promise. It’s got plenty of action potential, and TV heads will remember it as a cutting-edge show.

“It was the first time an African American had a lead in a dramatic series,” Marsh said. “Bill Cosby opened up a door that let Diahann Carroll in with ‘Julia’ and that eventually led to the Norman Lear shows in the ‘70s: ‘Sanford and Son,’ ‘The Jeffersons’ and ‘Good Times.’ ”

“I Spy” the film bears little resemblance to the TV series except that it has a strong buddy factor and one character’s cover is that of a professional athlete. Cosby was a tennis pro but Murphy is a boxer. Still, the original show was well regarded -- it won three lead actor Emmys for Cosby -- and audiences will remember that he added an extra zing, Marsh said.

“There was something appealing about Cosby, and that was what made ‘I Spy’ unique. He came up doing comedy albums and I can’t think, prior to that, of a comic -- black or white -- having a lead in a dramatic TV series.”

When translating TV scripts to movies, there are no real rules, only hunches. “The things that tend to play better on the big screen are the things with more action and things that can be done tongue-in-cheek and get laughs. That helped ‘The Brady Bunch,’ ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ and ‘The Flintstones,’ ” Marsh said.

Brooks said some of the best TV-based films marry a hit television series’ stories and characters with big-screen action and special effects, hence the success of the “Star Trek” movies.

Casting, too, is critical, but when filmmakers are trying to translate a well-known TV show, the process is more complicated. “When you have a TV show that was dependent on the likability of a specific character and translate it to the big screen and don’t have someone very likable too, you have a problem,” Marsh said.

Patrick Macnee was just too tough an act for Ralph Fiennes to follow in “The Avengers.” “Macnee had a certain quality that lasted 12 years,” Marsh said. “It started in the late ‘50s in England, and then he did the new ‘Avengers’ that showed up on late night in this country. He’d have different female leads, helpers or associates, but he was the linchpin of the series.”

Mel Gibson in “Maverick” fared better, Marsh said. “He had the same likability in the ‘90s that James Garner had in the ‘50s and ‘60s. He was the perfect fit.”

So was Tom Cruise, a “we’ll see him in anything” kind of star, who added sparkle to “Mission: Impossible.”

“In the TV series, it was all about the complex way in which they set it up; you could do a caper movie with anybody, and Tom Cruise didn’t hurt,” Marsh said.

Does the upcoming “Starsky & Hutch” movie have a chance with its strong buddy factor and likable cast (Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson)? Sure, said Marsh, especially if it capitalizes on the action, as the TV series did. “Nothing in the ‘70s was as fast as ‘Starsky and Hutch.’ ” So, which TV shows could be slam-dunk hit movies? “Gomer Pyle,” starring Adam Sandler and Robert De Niro? Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith in “I Love Lucy?” How about “Combat” starring Nick Nolte, Tom Sizemore and two or three of the Baldwin brothers?

Brooks would like to see “Quark.” “That was Richard Benjamin in an intergalactic garbage scow,” he said.

Marsh won’t say. “It’s a crapshoot. If I really knew, I’d be making millions.”