Animal Kingdom

When I was a kid, TV shows based on feature films were the bottom of the barrel. Series like 9 to 5, Stir Crazy, and the truly ill-advised Delta House (a censor-scrubbed adaptation of Animal House that gave John Hughes his first writing credit) were embarrassing cash-grabs that played like very pale imitations of their source material – and, it turned out, didn’t actually grab much cash since they were always canceled within a season or two. Of course, there were exceptions to the rule like the long-running M*A*S*H, which trashed its source material every bit as thoroughly as Delta House but worked well enough on its own terms to become one of the most popular sitcoms in history. More often than not, though, TV shows based on movies were WTF endeavors like the 1983 Casablanca series NBC aired starring David Soul as Rick, Ray Liotta as Sacha and Scatman Crothers as Sam.