12 Movies You Didn’t Realise Were Originally TV Shows

9. Mr. Magoo

Towards the end of his career as a leading man, Leslie Neilson was struggling to find starring roles that worked. Past the point in his life where he could really connect with a younger audience, the Airplane star wound up in fare like Dracula: Dead and Loving It, 2001: A Space Travesty, Spy Hard, and, yes, Mr. Magoo in 1997. Though he would continue to act for years to come in smaller roles (like a fine guest starring spot on the television series Due South), this era really marked the end of his status as a leading man in big-screen comedies, something that had become his trademark after starting out in dramatic roles. The worst of the bunch is easily Mr. Magoo. Produced by Disney and aimed firmly at the kiddie market, Magoo was simply a bad live action adaptation of a series most had forgotten all about. Although a highly regarded cartoon in the 1950s and '60s, unlike Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and most of the Disney characters, the near-sighted actor always bumbling his way in and out of trouble had long since been forgotten, with children in 1997 having absolutely no idea who he was. The film was dismissed universally by critics and worse, faced so much criticism from blind and near-sighted support groups that Disney was forced to pull it from theatres after just two weeks, leaving it both a flop, and a forgotten property.