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Curated playlist

Television shows adapted into films

  • The SimpsonsMatt Groening sketched The Simpsons in a lobby after deciding not to sign away his comic strip rights.
  • Sesame StreetTest children lost interest in Sesame Street's human-only street scenes, so producers re-shot them with Muppets.
  • The MuppetsThe Muppets are an American ensemble of puppets, and Jim Henson told the story of their name two different ways. At first he claimed he coined the word as a blend of marionette and puppet. Later he denied it. The mystery suits a cast built…
  • Star TrekStar Trek's creator privately modeled it on Gulliver's Travels. Publicly he pitched a Wagon Train to the stars.
  • Twin PeaksSheryl Lee was hired to play Twin Peaks' dead girl, Laura Palmer. Lynch saw her in a picnic scene and kept her on.
  • Doctor WhoDoctor Who first aired 80 seconds late because Kennedy news ran long. The BBC show began on November 23, 1963.
  • The SopranosThe Sopranos aired on HBO from the 10th of January 1999 to the 10th of June 2007. It ran for six seasons and 86 episodes. At its center is Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini, a New Jersey Mafia boss who suffers panic attacks.…
  • Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone ComplexGhost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is set in the year 2030, in a Japan where many people have replaced their bodies with prosthetics and become cyborgs. It is an anime television series about an elite law enforcement unit that…
  • Breaking BadBreaking Bad began as a joke about two unemployed writers cooking meth in an RV.
  • Peaky Blinders (TV series)Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight's British crime drama, left a mark that the Office for National Statistics could measure in baby names. In 2018, the name Arthur entered the top 10 boys' names for the first time since the 1920s. Ada jumped…
  • South ParkFox balked at a talking stool, and South Park's creators walked away from the deal.
  • Vicky the VikingRammstein's keyboardist took his nickname, Flake, from a cartoon Viking village. He watched Vicky the Viking as a kid.
  • Power RangersPower Rangers owes its existence to a hotel television in Japan. Haim Saban was on a business trip there in the 1980s. The only thing his hotel set would show was a series about five masked people in spandex suits fighting monsters. He was…

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