10 Genuinely Horrible TV Shows Based On Popular Movies
8. Fast Times
Fast Times at Ridgemont High was a wonderful little film, one that was able to access so many of our emotions from high school. Really, there's no good reason why it wouldn't succeed as a television show. If done right, it could be sort of like a Freaks and Geeks style show, one beloved by audiences for years to come. Unfortunately, it wasn't done well, and that made all the difference. From the beginning, one of the biggest struggles was reconciling the raunchy humor that made the film work so well with what was acceptable for television in the mid-1980s. The comedic characters like Jeff Spicoli are just fine without being R-Rated, but if you take the famous pool scene away from the characters that Judge Reinhold and Phoebe Cates played, they're just these generic high school characters. If you cut out the sex and drugs that gave them a little bit of life, they descend into bland nothingness. The show ran only seven episodes, from March to April 1986.
Audrey Fox is an ex-film student, which means that she prefers to spend her days in the dark, watching movies and pondering the director's use of diegetic sound. She currently works as an entertainment writer, joyfully rambling about all things film and television related. Add her on Twitter at @audonamission and check out her film blog at 1001moviesandbeyond.com.