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13 Forgotten TV Shows Based On Your Favorite Movies

Hollywood's philosophy is that one good turn deserves another, especially when we're talking about movies that gross millions of dollars.

That explains why so many hit movies are recycled into TV shows, but as this list shows, the results don't always measure up to the original.

1. Ferris Bueller

Starcasm

Lasted for: one season

Of course the hit movie made a lot of fans, but not many were willing to tune in to this series about Ferris and his everyday adventures. The show gave Jennifer Aniston her start in show business as Ferris's sister Jeannie.

Despite the fact that John Hughes refused to attach his name to the project, the show was bold enough to start with a scene of the new Ferris, Charlie Schlatter, cutting apart a cut-out of Matthew Broderick with a chainsaw.

2. 10 Things I Hate About You

IMDB

Lasted for: one season

It takes guts to base a TV series on a 10-year-old teen comedy, especially when you don't have Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles to carry the project.

The series was famously cancelled suddenly due to low ratings, leaving the show's few fans with a lot of unresolved cliffhangers from the season finale.

3. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

Lasted for: three seasons

The premise for this show was a hit, since Indiana Jones was still a hot commodity in the '90s and fans liked the "Young Indy" sequence with River Phoenix in the adventurer's third movie.

90s Percentile

But the young actors cast as Jones could never really fill Harrison Ford's shoes, and the series proved to be way too expensive to carry on. Instead, it was wrapped up with a series of made-for-TV movies.

4. Clueless

Lasted for: 3 seasons

While the movie's biggest stars - Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd - didn't return for the TV series, members of the supporting cast like Stacey Dash did. The series began as part of ABC's TGIF lineup, but eventually moved to UPN where bad ratings finished it off.

5. The Crow: Stairway to Heaven

Most Films

Lasted for: one season

Goth kids everywhere had reason to celebrate when the supernatural action flick starring the late Brandon Lee was rebooted as a TV series.

The show was basically a rehash of the movie, with Mark Dacascos as Eric Draven, a murdered rock musician who returns from the dead on a quest for redemption. Like the original movie, there was also a bizarre on-set accident which killed a stuntman.

6. Honey I Shrunk the Kids: the TV Show

Wikimedia

Lasted for: three seasons

Sadly, Rick Moranis didn't return as Wayne Szalinski in the TV continuation of the Disney movie. Each episode followed the Szalinski family's mishaps and hijinks, usually caused by Wayne's lates invention.

7. Dirty Dancing

CBS

Lasted for: one season

If you remember the backlash to the TV movie remake of Dirty Dancing, you can probably guess how fans felt about the TV series from 1988.

Melora Hardin (Jan from The Office) played Baby, with Patrick Cassidy as Johnny is what was basically an 11-episode remake of the classic movie. The original film's legacy just proves lightning never really strikes twice.

8. Mortal Kombat: Conquest

FeedYeti

Lasted for: one season

Following hot on the heels of Mortal Kombat and its sequel Annihilation, this video game-inspired series was filled with cheesy acting, bargain store costumes and nonsensical magical plots.

These days, even die-hard Mortal Kombat fans only remember the series for the way it misspelled Raiden's name in the credits every. Single. Episode.

9. Uncle Buck

The first 'Uncle Buck' series.RantNow

Lasted for: one season

The classic John Candy comedy was remade as a TV series starring Kevin Meaney as the slovenly babysitter. But to explain why Uncle Buck's stay never ended, the writers changed the story so his brother and sister-in-law died in a car crash.

The second 'Uncle Buck' series.Minhaserie

When a second Uncle Buck series was planned in 2014, the estates of John Hughes and John Candy both protested the idea. Somehow, a new series was still made last year (and was cancelled after just one season, again).

10. Tremors

Lasted for: one season

After three hit movies, adapting Tremors to the small screen was a no-brainer, but the Sci-Fi network still managed to mess things up. The network tried to rearrange the episodes so the series jumped from episode one to episode six, before hop-scotching around the other 11 episodes. As you can guess, viewers were left with no idea what was going on.

11. RoboCop: The Series

Gizmodo

Lasted for: one season

Richard Eden stepped into the suit for this sci-fi series that picked up where RoboCop 3 left off. Like the final entry in the film series, the show was much less violent, with RoboCop using a number of handy tools (besides his gun) to catch Detroit's crooks.

He was also paired up with a spunky nine-year-old girl, Gadget, as his sidekick. Say what you will about the changes, the show was definitely more child-friendly.

12. Highlander

Den of Geek

Lasted for: six seasons

While the movie is a cult classic, the story of a wandering swordsman who has lived for centuries is probably better suited to TV anyways. Viewers followed the immortal Duncan MacLeod on his adventures through America and Europe fighting other warriors for the legendary "Prize."

13. Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles

MoviePilot

Lasted for: two seasons

This short-lived TV show was set after the events of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and followed Sarah and John Connor as they fought the evil Skynet program.

The series is best-remembered for Summer Glau's character Cameron, a Terminator sent from the future to protect John Cameron by his future self, who (of course) the younger John falls in love with.

How many of these shows do you remember?