10 Terrible TV Adaptations Of Classic Films (That Everybody Forgot About)
2. 10 Things I Hate About You
Adaptation Of – 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
The works of William Shakespeare don’t seem like the most obvious inspirations for teen drama. Indeed the vast majority of teenagers hold a pathological hatred of the ‘bard’ as a result of his plays and poems having entire English literature curriculums based around them.
Shakespeare’s writings have been adapted in a number of interesting ways over the years, however, with 1999’s 10 Things I Hate About You based on the Taming Of The Shrew.
Swapping Petruchio for Patrick (the late Heath Ledger) and Katherina for Kat (the frequently underrated Julia Stiles) and switching the focus from marriage to high school, the film worked tremendously. It stood out from the swathes of other teen movies with its intelligent plotting, witty dialogue, great performances and lack of focus on sheer crudeness.
ABC Family’s 2009 television adaptation did away with all of these things, despite showrunner Carter Covington wanting the show to feel ‘like a John Hughes movie every week’. It was praised by some as being amongst the best things the channel has ever produced, but that bar isn’t exactly high.
It lasted for just one season, canned for ratings averaging about a million viewers per episode.