TV shows that improved on the source

[Ryujin]

Stargate: SG1 - Movie was good, series was better.

In the Heat of the Night - The series expanded so much on the foundations set in the movie.

 

[trappedslider]

MASH is probably the clear and obvious answer for me. Even though the movie was good, the series was outstanding.

Watching the movie (which IMO improved on the book) and then the show,it just feels like the movie is one of those two hour long pilot episodes.

 

[Ovinomancer]

Season 1 of Altered Carbon. Brilliant -- took the best parts of the book and made them better.

Unfortunately reversed in Season 2.

 

[Wishbone]

Surprised it took this long to come up, but Batman: The Animated Series since it was inspired by the Tim Burton Batman movie seems like a clear winning example here.

What We Do in the Shadows is hilarious while expanding on a different set of vampires than the ones the documentary crew followed from New Zealand in the movie. I for one welcome any series that introduces a bit as good as Matt Berry disguising himself as a regular human bartender to escape from vampire Mark Hamill.

 

[Tonguez]

What We Do in the Shadows is hilarious while expanding on a different set of vampires than the ones the documentary crew followed from New Zealand in the movie. I for one welcome any series that introduces a bit as good as Matt Berry disguising himself as a regular human bartender to escape from vampire Mark Hamill.

I agee its good but not sure it meets the threads premise of improving on the source material...

 

[Dioltach]

Battlestar Galactica was much better than Battlestar Galactica.

 

[Zardnaar]

Battlestar Galactica was much better than Battlestar Galactica.

True rewatched that one in lockdown.

Outside the pilot the old ones not very good.

 

[Deset Gled]

Battlestar Galactica was much better than Battlestar Galactica.

These are such different types of shows, though, that I don't know if it's really fair to compare them. It's like trying to compare the two versions of Little Shop of Horrors, or Space Ghost with Coast to Coast.

 

[Tonguez]

Battlestar Galactica was much better than Battlestar Galactica.

I preferred the original, it had cooler cyclons and was fun space opera, rather than sci fi melodrama that the reimagining became. The reimagining was good, but the human-cylons disappointed me

 

[Cadence]

MASH is probably the clear and obvious answer for me. Even though the movie was good, the series was outstanding.

Watching the movie (which IMO improved on the book) and then the show,it just feels like the movie is one of those two hour long pilot episodes.

I've probably seen most of the TV series twice over the decades (one of my all time faves)... but am embarrassed to say I've never seen the movie or read the novel. Both still worth checking out?