When an unexpected success comes along, such as Nia Vardalos found in her sensationally successful "little film gone wild", MY BIG FAT Greek WEDDING (2002), the natural inclination is to seek to repeat and hence extend the euphoria and worldly reward$ that have followed. This may well be a natural and quite human reaction, but seldom is the expectation realized.
As a case in point we are all familiar with the real, original KING KONG (RKO Radio Pictures, 1933). It was and remains to this day a study of what makes for movie action, adventure and excitement. Then the same producers brought us SON OF KONG (1934). As an obvious attempt to extend the adventure and (even more so) a sure fire way of generating Extra Revenue$; we are hence treated to a sequel, which is often a quickie cheapie to fulfill that monetary goal.
In those days and indeed all the movie eras before or since, we've seen similar such sequels. In more recent times we've had multiple films come from HALLOWEEN, PORKY'S, JAWS, ROCKY, SUPERMAN, BATMAN, SPIDER-MAN and STAR WARS. Even in historically based films about our space race, whole series were spawned. And that can cause special problems. For example, we did not go to see APPOLLO 13. As much as we wanted to see it; we hadn't seen APPOLLO 1-12 yet.
But back to today's featured film, MY BIG FAT Greek LIFE.
Having started out unheralded little film, MY BIG FAT Greek WEDDING started out slowly, but amazingly with little advertising, the theatres found its attendance, rather than tailing-off, growing steadily. Unbelievable as it was, the picture was the beneficiary of the old-fashioned word of mouth spreading of information positive feedback being directly marketed by the public to their friends and acquaintances. All tolled, the film remained in release for over ¾ of a year.
So the big idea was that of trying to catch a little more lightning in a bottle once again. But instead of making a theatrical feature motion picture, they decided on going with making a Situation Comedy Television series.
The movie was based on a one woman show done by the Star of the film, Miss Nia Vardalos. Most of the principal actors from the film were retained for the series. Notable among the missing was John Corbett, who portrayed the Groom, Ian Miller. Otherwise Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Gia Carides, Louis Mandylor, Andrea Martin and Victoria Adams, all people from the film's cast, all were regulars (if we can really call it that) on the Sitcom.
In short order, MY BIG FAT Greek LIFE bombed. They must have made about a half dozen episodes and it was dispatched from Network Life to the oblivion of the non being failed series. So, there were certainly a number of the "Suits" at CBS scratching their collective head, trying to figure out what happened. Why didn't even some of the warm, enthusiastic reception and success of the Movie Screen rub off onto the TV Screen? Go figure! Perhaps we can offer our opinion here. Being a Rank Amateur, and not a Show Biz Insider, it's only a commoner's point of view.
It is the opinion of this long time observer (TV Viewer) that the problem stemmed from change of medium. In a Feature, you basically have a beginning, middle and an end to the story. You are more often than not done with the story and characters by the end of the film in roughly two hours. This was done in a very commendable manner in the Film.
But in a Sitcom, you have to revisit the characters week after week and find new and fresh situations for your characters to get in and out of while still making us laugh. The Film pretty much precluded any success in this area; having told the original story so well; while the sitcom format reduces so much of the interaction to a kind of joke telling of one liners.
Secondly, the two types of film are done in two far different formats. Whereas a feature usually has time to develop its characters and the circumstances surrounding them, the ½ hour allotted the Sitcom doesn't.. Time is plentiful and works well for the Feature Film's storyteller. On the other hand, the Sitcom, in having the constraint of the old 30 minutes with commercial breaks, has to run like atop watch. And it is for this treason that a sort of schedule or timetable is always shaping a series, perhaps as much as any other factor.
Because of this, a certain tempo or cadence has developed that tailors the length of the interaction between characters to approximately 2 to 3 minutes vignettes, always punctuated by an interrupting musical queue.
This is the Language of the Sitcom, for better or worse. It is pretty much universally true in Television and almost all of the most successful ones were original concepts, rather than adaptations and they were designed for that screen lingo and format.
Of course they shouldn't totally write off the TV idea. Perhaps they could take a cue from some of those older TV series and bring it to Saturday morning Kiddie Time TV. All they to do is go to some one like Filmation Associates or Hanna-Barbera and we could have a cartoon version like maybe "THE NEW BIG FAT Greek WHATEVER SHOW!"
As a case in point we are all familiar with the real, original KING KONG (RKO Radio Pictures, 1933). It was and remains to this day a study of what makes for movie action, adventure and excitement. Then the same producers brought us SON OF KONG (1934). As an obvious attempt to extend the adventure and (even more so) a sure fire way of generating Extra Revenue$; we are hence treated to a sequel, which is often a quickie cheapie to fulfill that monetary goal.
In those days and indeed all the movie eras before or since, we've seen similar such sequels. In more recent times we've had multiple films come from HALLOWEEN, PORKY'S, JAWS, ROCKY, SUPERMAN, BATMAN, SPIDER-MAN and STAR WARS. Even in historically based films about our space race, whole series were spawned. And that can cause special problems. For example, we did not go to see APPOLLO 13. As much as we wanted to see it; we hadn't seen APPOLLO 1-12 yet.
But back to today's featured film, MY BIG FAT Greek LIFE.
Having started out unheralded little film, MY BIG FAT Greek WEDDING started out slowly, but amazingly with little advertising, the theatres found its attendance, rather than tailing-off, growing steadily. Unbelievable as it was, the picture was the beneficiary of the old-fashioned word of mouth spreading of information positive feedback being directly marketed by the public to their friends and acquaintances. All tolled, the film remained in release for over ¾ of a year.
So the big idea was that of trying to catch a little more lightning in a bottle once again. But instead of making a theatrical feature motion picture, they decided on going with making a Situation Comedy Television series.
The movie was based on a one woman show done by the Star of the film, Miss Nia Vardalos. Most of the principal actors from the film were retained for the series. Notable among the missing was John Corbett, who portrayed the Groom, Ian Miller. Otherwise Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Gia Carides, Louis Mandylor, Andrea Martin and Victoria Adams, all people from the film's cast, all were regulars (if we can really call it that) on the Sitcom.
In short order, MY BIG FAT Greek LIFE bombed. They must have made about a half dozen episodes and it was dispatched from Network Life to the oblivion of the non being failed series. So, there were certainly a number of the "Suits" at CBS scratching their collective head, trying to figure out what happened. Why didn't even some of the warm, enthusiastic reception and success of the Movie Screen rub off onto the TV Screen? Go figure! Perhaps we can offer our opinion here. Being a Rank Amateur, and not a Show Biz Insider, it's only a commoner's point of view.
It is the opinion of this long time observer (TV Viewer) that the problem stemmed from change of medium. In a Feature, you basically have a beginning, middle and an end to the story. You are more often than not done with the story and characters by the end of the film in roughly two hours. This was done in a very commendable manner in the Film.
But in a Sitcom, you have to revisit the characters week after week and find new and fresh situations for your characters to get in and out of while still making us laugh. The Film pretty much precluded any success in this area; having told the original story so well; while the sitcom format reduces so much of the interaction to a kind of joke telling of one liners.
Secondly, the two types of film are done in two far different formats. Whereas a feature usually has time to develop its characters and the circumstances surrounding them, the ½ hour allotted the Sitcom doesn't.. Time is plentiful and works well for the Feature Film's storyteller. On the other hand, the Sitcom, in having the constraint of the old 30 minutes with commercial breaks, has to run like atop watch. And it is for this treason that a sort of schedule or timetable is always shaping a series, perhaps as much as any other factor.
Because of this, a certain tempo or cadence has developed that tailors the length of the interaction between characters to approximately 2 to 3 minutes vignettes, always punctuated by an interrupting musical queue.
This is the Language of the Sitcom, for better or worse. It is pretty much universally true in Television and almost all of the most successful ones were original concepts, rather than adaptations and they were designed for that screen lingo and format.
Of course they shouldn't totally write off the TV idea. Perhaps they could take a cue from some of those older TV series and bring it to Saturday morning Kiddie Time TV. All they to do is go to some one like Filmation Associates or Hanna-Barbera and we could have a cartoon version like maybe "THE NEW BIG FAT Greek WHATEVER SHOW!"