The cast of Amazon Prime's Zombieland pilot from 2013 Image via Prime Video By Chris Suffield Published Sep 15, 2026, 11:58 PM EDT Chris is a UK-based film and TV writer, editor and occasional filmmaker. For more than a decade, he has written news, reviews and features covering movies, television and pop culture. He has also made short films and worked in video production, giving him experience on both sides of the screen. Chris runs the We Love Movies More Than You TikTok channel and has a particular interest in overlooked and short-lived TV shows.
on Google Preferred Source Google News Summary Generate a summary of this story Like Like follow Follow followed Followed Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap TV shows based on movies have long been a go-to for networks, and it's easy to see why. The potential audience is already there, the title is familiar, and there are usually beloved characters or worlds worth revisiting. Sometimes that works, as with shows like Stargate , Fargo , and Cobra Kai , which all found new stories to explore and gave audiences a reason to keep coming back.
The same claim can’t be made for every attempt to spin a hit movie into a returning TV show, since the list of those that tried and failed is far, far longer than the successes. From questionable adaptations of cult classics like Darkman to blockbuster comedies starring Eddie Murphy , these failed TV pilots confirm that not every hit movie can support an ongoing series .
Tommy Davidson and Paul Bates star in the unsold Coming to America pilot episode from 1989. Image via CBS In the first of two Eddie Murphy movies on this list, Coming to America had barely landed on video before CBS rushed to make a pilot for a family-friendly sitcom. You can almost see why the network believed this was a viable TV show idea. The movie was a huge box-office hit, and its clear fish-out-of-water setup is very TV-friendly , and Murphy was going to be involved as one of the executive producers. Instead of rebooting the story entirely, the pilot is more of a spin-off that follows Tommy Davidson ( In Living Color ) as the previously unmentioned Prince Tariq, the younger brother of Murphy’s now-King Akeem.
Tariq is exiled to Queens to go to college, with his royal assistant Oha ( Paul Bates from the original movie) by his side. The pilot works a little too hard to force the characters into the same situations from the film, and while Tommy Davidson is a fantastic comedic performer, he’s clearly been told to do his best Eddie Murphy impression. Even by 1980s standards, the jokes feel dated , and the cast has practically no rapport. The pilot aired only once alongside other failed TV shows as part of the short-lived CBS Summer Playhouse . A low-quality version can be found online, but it’s still not the worst comedy project Eddie Murphy has been involved in .
Christopher Bowen as Peyton Westlake in the unsold Darkman pilot episode from 1992. Image via Universal Television Two years after Sam Raimi 's gonzo superhero movie Darkman , Universal Television tried to turn Peyton Westlake into a half-hour TV hero. British actor Christopher Bowen took over from Liam Neeson as the synthetic-skin scientist whose work becomes horribly useful after an explosion leaves him scarred and his wife dead.
Larry Drake returns as crime lord Durant, and that’s not the only thing…