Line between television, big screen blurring as popular shows try to become blockbusters

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Bryce Bradford

Do you ever watch your favorite tv shows and think you’d like to see it thrown on the big screen? That feeling comes up a lot, even with shows I’m not always sure could work as movies. I just believe it would be nice if the creators or producers would consider bringing a favorite to the theaters.
“Sex and the City” was an extremely popular tv show in the 90s among young women and in 2008 the studios brought it to theaters. Though I’ve never watched the show before or ever have any intent on watching the movie, I thought it was a random decision to bring a show in that genre to theaters. But apparently it worked out. Because of the success of the first film, they are now doing a sequel for 2010. Someone decided that it would be a good idea to bring “Sex and the City” to theaters, whether the decision was made by executives or fans signing petitions. Either way, more tv shows should be considered for theaters.
Back when “South Park” made their theatrical debut, I thought more adult- theme cartoons would make it to the big screen, but the idea was slow to take off. “The Simpsons Movie” didn’t make it to theaters until 2007 and it had been airing since 1989. With “Family Guy” being one of the more popular cartoon shows out right now, it would be interesting to see them put an uncut story together on the big screen and really let the characters cut loose.
Some of my favorite tv shows to watch right now are “The Office” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” I wonder if these good show plots could really work as movies? I’d like to think so. The writers come up with great material for shows every week. For them to expand their efforts to making one big great movie could work out just as well.
At the same time movies that do well have the potential to spawn tv shows. The 2006 Oscar winning film “Crash” has a tv show of the same name on the Starz Network. And ABC Family created a show based on the popular 90s teen movie “10 Things I Hate About You.”
Movies successes such as “Sex and the City” and box-office failures such as “Miami Vice” have shown us that the dynamic between tv and movie can sometimes work well together and sometimes not. But taking the risk on a great show would be the biggest thing they could do.
The popularity of certain shows have the potential to take them to the next level. Yes, not all tv shows could work as movies, but it’s unreasonable to imagine them becoming feature films anyways. While I honestly couldn’t think of a film story for a show like “Friends,” it’s not impossible for anyone to come up with one.  There have been rumors for years about a possible reunion movie. All I know is that I’d definitely go see it.
Bryce Bradford is an agricultural communications senior.