10 TV Shows That Deserve Feature Films
Some shows are just too big for TV.
Star Trek did it. The X-Files followed suit. The Simpsons did it, but for once, South Park did it first. Veronica Mars, Sex in the City, even Firefly - all made the jump to the big screen.
It's always an event when a small screen show graduates to the world of movie theatres. It is a sign that the show really does have a fanbase big enough, dedicated enough, to make the next big step. Series television is perfect for building drawn out story arcs, but cinema remains the place where the biggest budgets - and therefore the biggest productions - play.
A lot of shows deserve that sort of treatment, but not all get it. Not all even want it, of course - there are plenty of popular shows that have no need of a feature film outing - but there are plenty that would have lots to gain from a longer run time and big screen budget. Plenty of shows that could come back for one last hurrah, and others, like The X-Files did with its first feature film, that could handle producing a movie right in the middle of their run.
Let's take a look at the shows that really have earned a shot at the silver screen.
10. Deadwood
The Premise: A historical drama centered on the town of Deadwood, South Dakota as it grows from a camp to a full blown town in the 1870s, featuring a cast of infamous historical characters (including Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, and Calamity Jane) and fictitious elements mixed with recorded history. Creator/lead writer David Milch used actual 1870s Deadwood newspapers and diaries of residents as points of reference during the show's three season run.
Why It Deserves The Feature Film Treatment: Deadwood is a show that just didn't get the ending it deserved. Running for three seasons on HBO, the show was critically acclaimed, both for Milch's tight writing and Ian McShane's performance as Gem Saloon owner (and real-life pimp) Al Swearengen. During its run it picked up eight Emmy awards, however in May 2006, HBO announced it would not pick up the actor's options for a fourth season. That made writing a proper ending impossible. After Milch turned down a shortened fourth season offer, he and HBO agreed to a pair of telefilms, but even those failed to get off the ground.
In 2016, however, HBO gave Milch the go-ahead to start working on a new, feature length script, so there's hope yet. A return to HBO would be great; a move to the silver screen even better.