While there have been quite a number of Classic TV shows based on movies, the opposite is true as well. This summer alone we’re getting new installments of the Tom Cruise Mission Impossible series, as well as a sequel to Denzel Washington’s The Equalizer, movies that are inspired by TV shows that came before them. But those are only the start of the multiple films made from TV shows over the years, like Sex and the City, Charlie’s Angels, and even The Brady Bunch. This is our guide to some of the more interesting ones, some of which you might’ve not even realized got their start as TV shows before they headed to the silver screen.

21 Jump Street

tv - film: 21 jump street 1
20th Television

(Photo Credit: 20th Television)

The show was focused on a squad of young-looking cops who would go undercover where teens hung out, from high school to college and social gatherings. More importantly, it truly introduced Johnny Depp to the world, though he hated being a teen idol and left after the fourth season. In 2012, a big screen version reached theaters starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, that was actually a spoof of the show, playing up the ridiculous nature that these two guys would try to pass as high school students. Two years later, they went to college in 22 Jump Street.

tv-film 21 jump street 2
Columbia Pictures

The Addams Family

tv-film the addams family 1
Getty Images

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Beyond one of TV’s great theme songs, the classic 1960s horror sitcom brought to life Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Lurch, Grandmama, Wednesday, Pugsley, and let us not forget Cousin It or the disembodied hand, Thing. The Addams then made the leap to the big screen in 1991, bringing back the entire family with Raul Julia as Gomez, Angelica Huston as Morticia, Christopher Lloyd, fresh off of the Back to the Future trilogy, as Uncle Fester; and Christina Ricci as Wednesday. Two years later, Addams Family Values was released.

tv-film addams family 2
Paramount Pictures

(Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures)

Batman

tv-film batman 1

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Looking back from today, the 1960s TV series starring Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin is this bizarre, campy, completely over-the-top take on the superhero. Truth is, though, this was an unbelievably popular show that became a sensation, though it burned out pretty quickly as well. As the perfect example of how big the show was, a movie version was filmed as soon as production wrapped on Season 1. The plot had Batman and Robin going against many of their TV villains, who decide to team up, like the Joker (Cesar Romero), Catwoman (Lee Meriwether), Penguin (Burgess Meredith), and Riddler (Frank Gorshin). It’s dopey, but fun.

tv-film batman 2
20th Century Fox

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

The Brady Bunch

tv-film brady bunch 1

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

On the surface, there is no reason that this show should have had the afterlife it did, but it always defied expectations. The premise is that widower Mike Brady falls in love with Carol Ann Tyler Martin (we’re never told what happened to her first husband — divorce? Death? Murder? Careful, Mike!) and they marry, bringing their six kids — his three boys, her three girls — into the mix. Obviously, this group must somehow form a family, and that’s the way they all became the Brady Bunch. And you know that song is going to be stuck in our heads all day now. For sure, this show is pure saccharine in its humor and its “drama,” but it’s the earnestness of it all that’s so endearing. This was all captured in 1995’s The Brady Bunch Movie, the premise of which is that the world is in the 1990s, but the Bradys still think it’s the ’70s. One movie sequel and TV movie followed.

tv-film the brady bunch 2

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Charlie’s Angels

tv-film charlie's angels 1

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

In the mid-1970s, the TV world met Charlie’s Angels, three women carrying out assignments for the mysterious “Charlie”, who was heard over a speakerphone but never seen. The show originally starred Farah Fawcett-Majors, Kate Jackson, and Jaclyn Smith and was an instant sensation, especially Farah. She actually left following the first season though, believing her career held greater promise. (It didn’t.) In 2000, the concept made the leap to the big screen starring Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz, with the sequel, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle being released in 2003. A new movie is said to be in the works too for a 2019 release.

tv-film charlie's angels 2

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Dark Shadows

barnabas-collins

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

The 1960s soap opera about vampire Barnabas Collins and the rest of the Collins family living in fictional Collinsport, Maine, has had an interesting big screen life. In 1970, MGM released House of Dark Shadows, which took the story of Barnabas (Jonathan Frid) from the soap and remade it for the big screen, only instead of being a sympathetic vampire, this Barnabas was a true creature of the night, preying on pretty much everyone. More bloodshed in this 90-minute film than five years of the soap opera combined.

tv-film dark shadows 2
Warner Bros

(Photo Credit: MGM)

As the soap went off the air in 1971, series creator Dan Curtis brought out a second feature, Night of Dark Shadows, establishing what he hoped would be a series of anthology films that used the Collinwood mansion as the only continuing “character”. This film dealt with a couple (played by David Selby and Kate Jackson) moving in, awakening spirits haunting the place.

tv-film dark shadows 3

(Photo Credit: MGM)

The next time Dark Shadows made a big screen appearance was in 2012, with the disastrous Tim Burton movie starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas that took things in a bizarre, campy direction that failed to capture any of the charm of the TV series. That film also starred Eva Green as the witch Angelique.

tv-film dark shadows 4
Warner Bros

(Photo Credit: Warner Bros)

The Dukes of Hazzard

tv-film dukes of hazzard 1
Getty Images

(Photo Credit: Warner Bros)

The light-hearted adventures of the good ol’ Duke cousins, Bo, Luke, and Daisy (respectively John Schneider, Tom Wopat, and Catherine Bach), who are fighting for the residents of Hazzard County, Georgia (don’t look for it on the map) against the corrupt sheriff’s department. They’re aided in no small way by their ’69 Dodge Charger, the General Lee. The show ran for seven seasons from 1979-85. Jump forward to 2005 and we get a movie version with Seann William Scott as Bo, Johnny Knoxville as Luke, and Jessica Simpson slipping into the famous Daisy Dukes jean shorts. Plot doesn’t offer much different from the show, though we do get Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg, the overall baddie.

tv-film dukes of hazzard 2

(Photo Credit: Warner Bros)

The Equalizer

tv-film equalizer 1
NBCUniversal

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

From 1985-89, Edward Woodward was the epitome of older British cool as Robert McCall, a former spy who has decided the time has come to help the little guy, who reach him through ads he places in the newspaper. And he does so quite expertly, often with lethal consequences. When Denzel Washington took on the role in the 2014 film, McCall is someone who has put his violent past behind him and attained something of a peaceful existence. Needless to say, that doesn’t last as he goes after Russian mobsters who have victimized a teenage girl. Look for the sequel film on Aug. 3, 2018.

tv-film equalizer 2

(Photo Credit: Columbia Pictures)

The Fugitive

tv-film the fugitive 1

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

One of the great TV shows from the 1960s, and an influence on more series than you could imagine. David Janssen is Dr. Richard Kimble, who had been found guilty of murdering his wife while knowing that the person responsible is “The One-Armed Man.” On the way to jail, Kimble manages to escape, and from week to week moves on to a different city, getting involved in the lives of the people he encounters while in pursuit of his wife’s murderer. In pursuit of Kimble is Lt. Philip Gerard (Barry Morse), who is determined to bring him to justice. In 1993, one of the finest TV film adaptations took place with Harrison Ford as Richard Kimble and Tommy Lee Jones as Lt. Gerard. Just an incredible encapsulation of four years of the show into a two-hour film, that was so successful Gerard even got his own spin-off movie.

tv-film the fugitive 2

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

The Flintstones

tv-film flintstones 1

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Take The Honeymooners, turn it into a cartoon, set it in prehistoric times, turn the Kramdens into the Flintstones, and the Nortons into the Rubbles, and you’ll understand the approach to this ’60s cartoon that has lived on for close to 60 years. The series ran (originally in prime time!) from 1960-66, and in that final year an animated feature film The Man Called Flintstone was produced. A spoof of the James Bond movies, it was a wonderful farewell to the show.

tv-film flintstones 2

(Photo Credit: Warner Bros)

In 1994, Steven Spielberg produced a fairly clever live-action version of The Flintstones, starring Roseanne‘s John Goodman as Fred, Rick Moranis as Barney, Elizabeth Perkins as Fred’s wife, Wilma; and Rosie O’Donnell as Barney’s wife, Betty. A prequel appeared in the form of 2000’s The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, starring Mark Addy as Fred and Stephen Baldwin as Barney.

tv-film flintstones 3

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Get Smart

tv-film get smart 1
Getty Images

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Within the first couple of years of James Bond’s arrival on the movie front in the ’60s, Mel Brooks and Buck Henry came up with the idea of this spoof that cast Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 of CONTROL and starred Barbara Feldon as Agent 99, The show made popular phrases like, “Would you believe?” and “Sorry about that, Chief.” Adams reprised the role in the 1980 feature film The Nude Bomb. That one did not fare well, though a 2008 big screen version with Steve Carell as Max and Anne Hathaway as 99 fared much better. The big surprise is that there wasn’t a sequel, though there has been rumblings of one for years.

tv-film get smart 2

(Photo Credit: Warner Bros)

Lost in Space

tv-film lost in space 1

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Debuting in 1965, this show follows the Robinson family as they set off in a space vessel to investigate a planet near the Alpha Centauri star to see about colonization to help with an overpopulated Earth. Sounds pretty serious and straight-forward, but it isn’t long before things start to go campy and get sillier as the focus shifts to stowaway and saboteur Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), young Will Robinson (Bill Mumy) and The Robot.

The show finished its run in 1968, and 30 years later a feature film version reached theaters, which was a much harder sci-fi tale. The cast includes William Hurt as John Robinson, Mimi Rogers as Maureen Robinson, Heather Graham as Judy Robinson, Lacey Chabert as Penny Robinson, Jack Johnson as Will Robinson, Matt LeBlanc as Don West, Gary Oldman as Dr. Smith, Dick Tufeld reprising the role of The Robot, and Jared Harris as an older Will Robinson.

tv-film lost in space 2

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

tv-film man from uncle 1

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Another spawn of the James Bond craze of the 1960s was this series, which focused on U.N.C.L.E. agents Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and the Russian Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) as they battled the plans of enemy organization THRUSH. The show became a phenomenon in its own right, and McCallum found himself a teen idol. It ran from 1964-68, spawning the Stefanie Powers spin-off The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. in 1966, and a big screen reboot in 2015. Henry Cavill (perhaps you know him as Superman?) plays Napoleon Solo and Armie Hammer is Illy Kuryakin. While an entertaining adventure, the film failed to turn a profit so a sequel isn’t likely.

tv-film man from uncle 2

(Photo Credit: Warner Bros)

Miami Vice

tv-film miami vice 1
NBCUniversal

(Photo Credit: NBCUniversal)

If there was any TV show that was tied to the concept of MTV music videos (remember the time when the network specialized in music videos?), it was Michael Mann’s Miami Vice, which ran from 1984-89. Starring Don Johnson as James “Sonny” Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricard “Rico” Tubbs, the show was set in Miami and combined their undercover police action with high-style visuals, and was intricately tied to the music of the era. In 2006, Mann brought the concept to the big screen with Colin Farrell as Crockett and Jamie Foxx as Tubbs. Expensive to produce, it didn’t earn its money back and failed to generate a sequel.

tv-film miami vice 2

(Photo Credit: Universal Pictures)

Mission Impossible

tv-film mission impossible 1
Getty Images

A team of spies, experts in different areas, come together to carry out missions for the IMF (Impossible Missions Force). The series, which ran from 1966-73, starred, among others, Peter Graves, Martin Landau, Greg Morris, Barbara Bain and Leonard Nimoy (following his time as Mr. Spock on Star Trek). In 1996, the concept transitioned to the big screen with Tom Cruise playing agent Ethan Hunt, and it’s proven itself, next to Star Trek, to be the biggest TV to film franchise to date. The sixth film in the series, Mission Impossible: Fallout will be released on July 27, 2018.

tv-film mission impossible 2

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

The Munsters

tv-film munsters 1
Getty Images

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

TV’s other beloved horror sitcom was The Munsters, with its own unique family dynamic: The grandfather is a vampire, as is his daughter, Lily, who is married to a variation of the Frankenstein monster, Herman. Their son, Eddie “Wolfgang” Munster, is a werewolf, and they have a beautiful, perfectly normal niece named Marilyn, who is considered the freak of the family. Sounds insane, doesn’t it? But the concept really connected with people, even if it was only on the air for a short time. When the show was going to be broadcast in Europe, the studio decided to release a theatrical movie to help promote it. That film — in color in contrast to the show’s black and white — was 1966’s Munster Go Home, in which Fred Gwynne’s Herman, Yvonne De Carlo’s Lily and all the rest travel to London following the death of a relative.

tv-film the munsters 2

(Photo Credit: Universal Pictures)

Sex and the City

tv-film sex and the city 1

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

This HBO series was a straight-on look at modern day dating in Manhattan from the points of view of four friends, particularly Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), who writes a sex column and narrates the episodes. The others are PR expert Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrell), art gallery worker Charlotte York (Kristin Davis), and lawyer Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon). Four years after the series ended its run, it spawned a big screen version with the original cast, which shocked a lot of people by pulling in $465 million at the box office. The second film, released in 2010, made $288 million.

tv film sex in the city 2

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Star Trek

tv-film star trek 1
Getty Images

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

This was an amazing comeback story. The original Star Trek ran for three years from 1966-69. After its second year, NBC planned on canceling it, but a massive letter-writing campaign convinced them to renew it for a third season. After it was finally canceled, it went into reruns, where it drew in countless new viewers and triggered a phenomenon. All of that became a big screen rebirth in the form of 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. From there, five more films with the original series cast, more TV spin-offs, as well as seven more feature films, with an eighth now in development from Quentin Tarantino. The phoenix ain’t got nuthin’ on Trek.

tv-film star trek 2

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

The Twilight Zone

tv-film twilight zone 1

(Photo Credit: CBS Television Distribution)

Chafing under network censorship, writer Rod Serling came up with the idea for this 1959-64 anthology series that allowed him and other writers to talk about any issue they desired. Added into the mix were mind-blowing twist endings (“To serve man is a cook book!” — it’s a classic) and the result is a series that is still celebrated today with yearly marathons. In 1983, a film version was produced but tragically, it was marred by the deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese children during its making. Currently, CBS All Access is working on bringing the show back as a new series for streaming.

tv-film twilight zone 2

(Photo Credit: Warner Bros)

Veronica Mars

tv-film veronica mars 1

(Photo Credit: Warner Bros)

Kristen Bell, who has been killing it on NBC’s The Good Place, played the title character, a teen private eye working with her father, in this critically acclaimed 2004-07 series. Series creator Rob Thomas wrote a script for a movie, that the studio, Warner Bros, wasn’t interested in producing butiIn an unprecedented move, he and Kristen decided to try a Kickstarter fundraiser that collected over $5 million. This resulted in WB giving the green light for the film that was released in 2014.

tv-film veronica mars 2

(Photo Credit: Warner Bros)

The Wild Wild West

tv-film wild wild west 1

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Writer/producer Michael Garrison came up with this concept of doing a James Bond Western of sorts. Set during the presidency of Ulysses Grant, the focus is on agents James West (Robert Conrad) and Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin), a master of disguise. The show ran from 1965-69, spawned two reunion TV movies in 1979 and 1980, and a big screen version in 1999 starring Will Smith as James West and Kevin Kline as Artemus Gordon.

tv-film wild wild west 2

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)