10 Genuinely Horrible TV Shows Based On Popular Movies
6. Robocop: The Series
Despite the fact that Robocop was a very dark film, full of graphic violence that got it an R-Rating, CTV decided to make a television version of the futuristic thriller that would cater more to the child/young teenager market. Hard to see where they went wrong on that one. The show was released in early 1994, only a few months after Robocop 3 hit theaters, a film that saw Robocop played by a different actor and was by all metrics a critical and box office failure. Just like that film, the show was unable to get Peter Wellers to play Robocop, and it suffered accordingly. Adding to its woes was a certain sense of sanitized violence which flew in the face of the original film, and the addition of a nine-year-old leading character named Gadget, which lowered the age of the target audience even further. The show ran for several months in 1994, with 21 episodes and a 2-hour pilot, which was put together from a discarded script originally meant for the film version.
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.