12 TV Shows You Love More Than the Movies They're Based on

With "A Series of Unfortunate Events" arriving on Netflix, its makers are surely betting that the series will succeed where the 2004 movie failed. And early reviews hint that they have done just that. Here are 12 TV hits that were good enough to make you forget the movies that inspired them.

'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (1992)

After griping about how the movie version of his cheerleader-turned-monster-hunter character turned her into a cartoonish joke, Joss Whedon got another chance via the small screen to spin it as a bleak, satirical, scary, and often poignant tale. The show made both Whedon and star Sarah Michelle Gellar hot properties, generated a fan-fave spinoff ("Angel"), and became one of TV's most beloved cult-favorite series.

'Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore' (1974)

Martin Scorsese's 1974 drama about a single mom working as a diner waitress won an Oscar for Ellen Burstyn. Still, it's the 10-season sitcom "Alice" we remember, featuring Linda Lavin as the hopeful title character, Polly Holliday as Flo (the "Kiss my grits!" waitress who got her own spinoff), and the movie's Vic Tayback as grouchy boss Mel.

'Stargate' (1994)

Roland Emmerich's sci-fi epic, starring Kurt Russell and James Spader, was a modest hit in the fall of 1994, It spawned four series that (mostly) made genre fans happy for a combined 18 seasons.

'Fame' (1980)

Fame" that's gonna live forever.

'Friday Night Lights' (2004)

Given the fierce fondness for the all-American show about a small Texas town that lives for high school football, it's easy to forget that it once was a movie, with Billy Bob Thornton, not Kyle Chandler, as the charismatic coach. Connie Britton did play the coach's wife in the film before amplifying the role as the multifaceted Tami Taylor for five seasons.

'Highlander' (1980)

Yes, there can be only one, but the 1986 cult film about the power struggle among sword-wielding immortals generated three series -- including one cartoon! -- that lasted a combined nine seasons. "Highlander: The Series" made Adrian Paul an immortal, sort of.

'La Femme Nikita' (1990)

Nikita."

'MAS*H' (1970)

The 1970 anti-war satire was an enormous, Oscar-winning hit, and yet, when you think of Korean War medics Hawkeye and Hot Lips, you think Alan Alda and Loretta Swit, not Donald Sutherland and Sally Kellerman. That's because of the classic sitcom, which toned down the movie's outrageousness but still wrung laughs and tears from its war-is-hell premise for 11 seasons. The 1983 finale, watched by 100 million viewers, remains one of the highest-rated broadcasts ever.

'Parenthood' (1989)

Adapting the 1989 Ron Howard hit about four adult siblings coping with child-raising issues, the NBC series tossed most of it out, keeping only the family's name, the number of siblings, the all-star casting, and the laughter-through-tears tone. And then it added a lot more tears.

'The Odd Couple' (1968)

Neil Simon's Broadway comedy of mismatched, middle-aged roommates hit the big screen first before becoming a classic '70s sitcom, featuring the indelible performances by Jack Klugman as sloppy Oscar and Tony Randall as fussy Felix.

'Serenity' (2005)

Joss Whedon's "Firefly" was cancelled by FOX and resurrected by Universal on the big screen with a shiny new title. While Browncoats packed free screenings to spread buzz about the film, mainstream audiences kinda stayed away. Too bad, as this character-driven sci-fi adventure is big, damn fun.

'Teen Wolf' (1985)

Today's MTV viewers were born way too late to have been fans of this silly 1985 Michael J. Fox comedy. But since 2011, the Tyler Posey series has transformed the premise, à la "Buffy," into a dark allegory about the tumultuous transformations of adolescence.