Hollywood dusting off TV nostalgia

By Scott Bowles
USA Today

The TV shows of the 1960s and '70s weren't exactly the stuff of Shakespeare. The airwaves were filled with campy cops and sitcoms about suburb-dwelling witches and genies.

Ben Stiller, left, and Owen Wilson star in "Starsky and Hutch," based on the old TV show. Gannett News Service

Over the next two years, no fewer than nine classic TV shows are headed to the big screen. After two "Charlie's Angels" movies, the nostalgia trip begins anew with "Starsky & Hutch," the comedy starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson that revives the cop show that ran from 1975 to 1979.

And there's more:

• "Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed," with Sarah Michelle Gellar, comes out March 26.
• "Bewitched" returns July 8, 2005, with Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman as Darrin and Samantha.
• "Thunderbirds," an adaptation of the 1960s TV puppet show about 21st-century heroes, hits screens Aug. 6 with Bill Paxton in the live-action lead.
• "Fat Albert" rumbles back to life with Bill Cosby writing and Joel Zwick directing. It's due next year.
• "Mission: Impossible 3" is due in theaters May 6, 2005.
• Also due in 2005 are big-screen treatments of "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "I Dream of Jeannie."

"Audiences feel comfortable paying for something they already know," says Paul Dergarabedian of box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. "That's why they (studios) make so many sequels and adapt so many books."

But the slate of TV-based movies runs a risk with today's most important moviegoers: teenagers. "A lot of these kids weren't even born when these shows were hot," Dergarabedian says.

And although "Mission: Impossible 2" raked in $215.4 million in 2000, making it the highest-grossing TV show adaptation, the average haul is $82.9 million.

"Starsky" director Todd Phillips says he believes the TV shows' reputations outlive their time on the air. "I was only 5 when 'Starsky and Hutch' was on," says Phillips, 34. "But everyone knows who they are. There's a familiarity with the older shows that people like."

And seek out, according to "Albert" director Joel Zwick. He says that since Sept. 11, audiences see the 1960s and '70s "as a simpler, innocent time. I remember those decades, and they were as complicated as any. But we love nostalgia. I hated the clothes back then. But now everyone wants bell bottoms."

Not everyone. Paul Michael Glaser, who played the original Starsky, says he's pleased the show is getting a new life, but he's puzzled by what people found most memorable about it.

Namely, the red and white-striped Gran Torino his character drove. "We had a groundbreaking show with unique characters," he says, laughing. "But all people remember is that car."