Travel channel this past Sunday ( June 9) debuted the latest reboot of the iconic series Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, hosted by veteran actor Bruce Campbell. The show, documenting the kinds of oddball stories that Ripley’s (celebrating its 100th anniversary) has been documenting in syndicated newspaper cartoon strips for decades, has been revived several times since debuting in 1949. Campbell’s predecessors as host include Jack Palance, Dean Cain and Marie Osmond. Known for playing demon slayer Ash Williams in the Evil Dead movie franchise and, more recently, in the Ash vs Evil Dead series on Starz — as well as for roles in AMC’s Lodge 49 and FX’s Fargo (as Ronald Reagan) — Campbell also executive produces the new 10-episode Ripley’s. He chatted with Multichannel News about the new show and about the increasing opportunities to create and develop content across multiple platforms.

MCN: Your acting career spans more than 30 years. Do you feel this is the best time to be in the television industry, given the various distribution outlets and platforms?
Bruce Campbell: It is the best time to be in television. Thirty some odd years ago I did Knots Landing — it was my first TV show — and I was horrified as to how bad the writing and production was. Now TV’s the place to be. The best directors and the best writers are in television now. I don’t know how or when it turned. I think networks like AMC were at the forefront of creating original content that looked like movies.

MCN: Having said that, are you looking to develop other content for television?
BC: I’m going to set out to do a lot of scriptwriting. What I’ve learned is, you can’t get anything going unless you have something to get going. I can sit around all day waiting for scripts to come in, or I can be self-generating. I like to write what I’m interested in.

MCN: Having accomplished so much in television, could you have ever seen yourself hosting such an iconic show as Ripley’s?
BC: I’ve hosted game shows like Last Fan Standing, so it’s a [genre] I’m familiar with, but it’s fun to come back to it through such a solid brand as Ripley’s. Everyone knew about Ripley’s — that’s part of the reason I said yes. You mention the show and people remember how they saw other versions of the show, so I thought it was cool they were bringing it back. Ripley’s Believe It or Not! is an institution.

MCN: Travel Channel has branded itself as the network for paranormal and supernatural-themed, unscripted content. What is the audience appeal for the genre?
BC: It removes us from our mundane lives when we can see something that is extraordinary and is not normal. When you see abnormal things it doesn’t mean it’s bad, but with shows like Ripley’s, you’ll never see anything like this in your life.

MCN: The Evil Dead franchise has endeared itself to a generation of fans, both through movies and through Starz’s original series Ash vs Evil Dead. Why is that franchise still so popular today?
BC: It’s impossible to answer the question of why The Evil Dead was so popular. Part of it is that the lead guy doesn’t have any special skills. There’s a lot of relatability — he’s not a hero from another planet, he doesn’t wear a cape; he can be killed instantly and he’s almost killed a lot. He’s one of the few good guys in the horror genre. Some of the [horror characters] that have carried on — Freddy [Krueger] or Jason [Voorhees] — are bad guys, while ours is a good guy in the horror business that you can root for.

Ash vs Evil Dead will not see a fourth season on Starz. Season three of the horror/comedy series started February 25, and the series finale will air April 29.  

Bruce Campbell, who plays Ash, described the series to B&C as “an extremely well regarded, low-rated show.”

Campbell said episodes 9 and 10 are like a movie, and were set up to wrap up the series’ stories in case the show was not renewed.

“You never know if you’re coming back or not,” Campbell said. “We never want to put Evil Dead fans in that situation.”

Campbell is an executive producer, along with Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, Ivan Raimi and Rick Jacobson. Mark Verheiden is executive producer and showrunner.

Raimi created the Evil Dead film franchise from which the series was hatched.

The third season of horror-comedy Ash vs. Evil Dead will start on Starz Sunday, Feb. 25.

The new season has 10 episodes.

The gory series stars Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, the chainsaw-wielding anti-hero tasked with saving the world; Lucy Lawless as Ruby, the unpredictable foe and occasional ally with strong ties to the origin of the “Necronomicon”; Ray Santiago as Pablo Simon Bolivar, Ash’s loyal sidekick; and Dana DeLorenzo as Kelly Maxwell, orphaned in season one and ready to kick butt.

The new season finds Ash discovering his long-lost daughter, Brandy Barr, played by Arielle Carver-O’Neill. Ash’s status in Elk Grove, Mich., has changed from murderous urban legend to humanity-saving hometown hero.

Evil Dead filmmakers Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Campbell are executive producers on season three along with Ivan Raimi and Rick Jacobson. Mark Verheiden is showrunner.

Seasons one and two are available on the Starz app.

Why on earth would television audiences be drawn to a 40-year-old sci-fi Western, a 30-year-old buddy-cop movie or an 11-year-old horror flick?

Hollywood movie titles like Westworld, Lethal Weapon and Wolf Creek have found new life on smaller screens — including the TV — as original scripted series, as TV networks seek out original content that pops in a crowded entertainment marketplace.

While the trend isn’t new — networks have tapped the silver screen over the years to produce such hit series as M*A*S*H, The Odd Couple and In the Heat of the Night — film adaptations have taken on more relevance in a crowded television marketplace that features more than 400 current scripted shows offered by cable, broadcast and digital streaming services.

“There’s an audience for it, and the compelling and complicated characters have already been developed for it, which gives you a much better chance to succeed,” said Ben Mankiewicz, on-air host for Turner Classic Movies. ”If the demographic that you’re seeking is already aware and interested in either the particular franchise or characters, obviously you have an even better chance at success.”

New HBO series Westworld is only one of several debuting shows adapted from theatrical films that have made their way to the “small” screen this year. Others include Fox’s redo of the 1980s movie franchise Lethal Weapon — currently one of the highest-rated freshman series among adults 18-49 on broadcast TV this season — and Pop’s reimagining of the 2005 Australian horror film Wolf Creek, which debuted last month.

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW

“Everyone is looking for any angle that makes their property stand out and that has any familiarity with the audience,” said Mina Lefevre, senior vice president of scripted programming at MTV, which has successfully adapted two horror/ thriller movies into series in Teen Wolf and Scream. “It’s another element that really helps the show.”

The key to adapting a movie franchise for television is to maintain the film’s main themes that appeal to hardcore fans, but to reimagine the story in a way that expands the franchise’s appeal to newer, and hopefully younger, viewers, programming executives said.

“I would be wary of adapting something and then banking on the original [film’s] fans making or breaking the show,” HBO president of programming Casey Bloys said. “I don’t think that’s enough in this competitive world.”

During July’s Television Critics Association press tour, Westworld executive producer Jonathan Nolan told reporters that the original 1973 Michael Crichton film explores an issue that has become even more relevant decades later: the complexities of artificial intelligence.

Westworld executive producers Nolan and Lisa Joy retained the original movie’s Wild West-themed adult amusement park backdrop, where humans interact with lifelike, artificially intelligent beings, but twisted the series’ point of view from human to robot. That allows viewers to explore the series’ moral underpinnings from a different perspective.

“That’s an example of [the producers] taking a movie and embracing its themes, but having their own spin on it,” Bloys said. “They were always very clear that they wanted to switch the protagonists from the humans in the movie to the robots in the TV show.”

So far, that twist has worked. Westworld has averaged 12 million viewers across multiple platforms, according to HBO, while generating positive social media chatter and critical acclaim.

HBO isn’t the only network to create a whole new world based on a successful Hollywood movie while sticking to the source material’s basic premise. A&E successfully reimagined the iconic 1960 Alfred Hitchock film Psycho in Bates Motel, a prequel about the teen years of Norman Bates, Psycho’s likeable-but-sadistic adult villain. It even gave life to Norman’s dead mother, Norma Bates, earning actress Vera Farmiga an Emmy nomination in 2014 for her portrayal of the role.

NEW, FAMILIAR STORIES

“The beauty with doing a show like Bates Motel is that we have adapted the story and made it our own while not alienating the core fans of Psycho,” A&E executive vice president and head of programming Elaine Frontain Bryant said. “It’s a genius idea, because you know how it ends, yet viewers fell in love with Norman. It’s like watching a slow-moving train and you want to say, ‘No, Norman, don’t,’ even though you inevitably know what’s going to happen.”

Bryant said the show’s fifth and final season, premiering next year, will move even closer to the original Psycho film by introducing Marion Crane, the movie’s tragic lead character originally played by Janet Leigh. Pop star Rihanna will take on the role in the series.

On the flip side, Starz’s Ash vs Evil Dead, based on the 1981 horror film The Evil Dead, picks up the story 30 years later, with Bruce Campbell reprising his role as unlikely demon-killing hero Ash Williams. The network was able to capitalize on Evil Dead’s passionate cult following, creating a series that was renewed for its third season just last month, according to Carmi Zlotnik, managing director of Starz.

“There’s a fan base that’s had this pent-up desire to see the continuation of the story and the character that they love,” he said.

FX took the reimagining of a Hollywood film even further in 2014 by turning the Academy Award-winning crime thriller Fargo into an anthology series, with each season set in a different era with a new storyline and cast. The sophomore series, which won an Outstanding Miniseries Emmy Award in 2014, will return for season three in 2017.

“When we developed Fargo, we wanted to make sure it wasn’t an adaptation of the tone of the movie,” Nick Grad, FX’s original programming president, said. “We can do something really different and original with a really strong point of view that happens to have their origins in a movie franchise, but the most important thing for us is quality and originality. We’re pretty reluctant to do an adaptation of something you’ve seen before.”

BUILDING ON BRANDS

For networks looking to break into the scripted series arena, launching with an already branded franchise — as Pop did last month with horror series Wolf Creek — is invaluable in trying to draw and retain viewers.

The series takes the 2005 Wolf Creek movie plot, which follows demented killer Mick Taylor as he murders three backpackers in the Australian outback, and turns it on its head. The series, which premiered last month on the former TV Guide Channel, chronicles the hunting of Taylor by a young American tourist whose family was recently butchered by the Australian killer.

“The content world is more cluttered than ever, so if you can base something on intellectual property that people already are familiar with puts you one step ahead of the competition, especially for a smaller network,” Pop president Brad Schwartz said. “Having some familiarity for a title gives you a bit of a head start, versus all the work you have to do to explain a show that no one has ever heard of before.”

Despite the built-in advantages, some movie adaptations have tanked. CBS in May cancelled its freshman series Rush Hour, based on the Chris Tucker-Jackie Chan film franchise, due to lackluster ratings. In July, ABC pulled the plug on Mike Epps-starrer Uncle Buck, based on the 1989 John Hughes film starring John Candy, after one season.

A&E cancelled its Omen sequel series Damien this past May, after one season. The series followed Damien Thorn, the movie’s devil child, as a 30-year-old photographer unaware of his satanic past.

Despite the marketing and promotional advantage that shows like Damien may have, there’s no guaranteed ticket to success, Bryant said. “It was a franchise that maybe didn’t have the same type of appeal [as Psycho],” she said.

When transitioning a movie franchise to television, TCM’s Mankiewicz said networks must walk a fine line of providing a different take on the familiar plot or characters of that movie without upsetting its core fans.

“You have to make it compelling, but if you do create a compelling story and alter the universe significantly, you’ll get some very angry fan reaction from Twitter,” he said.

Added Starz’s Zlotnik: “As producers and network executives we have to take our Hippocratic oath: ‘Thou shalt do no harm to the property that you’re working with.’ For the fans, you have to meet or exceed their expectations in order to be successful.”

MORE COMING

It’s a risk that more network executives are willing to take. Already on the docket for 2017 are scripted series based on Spike Lee’s 1986 independent film She’s Gotta Have It (Netflix) and the dance-based movie franchise Step Up (YouTube).

“There are a lot of these fantastic tit les that have not been explored on television and now they can be,” MTV’s Lefevre said. “We’re really excited to take these properties that have been more specific to the big screen.”

Added TCM’s Mankiewicz: “I’m sure there a lot of writers mining moderately successful movies from the 1970s and 1980s that are right now trying to turn them into TV shows.”

Coming Attractions

A partial list of movies that have been turned into TV series pilots orwill launch as full-fledged series in 2017:

Show                                     Distributor                                           Status

She’s Gotta Have It . . . . . . . . . . . Netflix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series

American Gigolo . . . . . . . . . . . Showtime . . . . . . . . . . . . In Development

First Wives Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . TV Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Pilot

Heathers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TV Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Pilot

War of the Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . .  MTV . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   In Development

Step Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . YouTube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series

The Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Syfy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Pilot

Get Shorty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  EPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Series

SOURCE :Multichannel News research

BBC America’s Doctor Who generated 27,000 Tweets last night to lead all shows for the day, according to Nielsen.

The iconic sci-fi series bested the 21,000 tweets generated by NBC’s Saturday Night Live, although the live late night series reached 740,000 unique Twitter audiences to Doctor Who’s 410,000, according to Nielsen’s daily Twitter Tv Ratings report.

Starz’s horror series Ash vs. Evil Dead, Hallmark Channel’s holiday movie Just In Time For Christmas, and SundanceTV’s The Returned followed closely behind, according to Nielsen.

CBS’ Florida vs. Alabama SEC Championship college football telecast drew 295,000 tweets reaching 5 million unique Twitter audiences to top all live sports telecasts on Saturday, said Nielsen.

Starz’s Oct. 31 premiere of horror-themed series Ash vs. Evil Dead was the most active television show on Twitter during an otherwise quiet Halloween night for TV shows on social media.

Ash vs. Evil Dead drew 9,000 tweets reaching a unique Twitter audience of 471,000 Twitter users to best all TV shows Saturday night, according to Nielsen’s TV Twitter ratings. BBC America’s Doctor Who also drew 9,000 tweets reaching 335,000 Twitter users to finish second.

Travel Channel’s spooky reality series Ghost Adventures finished third, followed by Sundance Channel’s The Returned and BBC America’s The Last Kingdom, said Nielsen.

Starz didn’t wait long to scare up a second season of Ash Vs Evil Dead, renewing the horror-themed series before its Halloween premiere.

The series, based on the 1980s’ Evil Dead movie franchise, debuts on the pay Tv service Oct. 31. The network said that strong fan, affiliate and distributor demand generated the early pickup of the series.

Ash vs The Evil Dead executive producers Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell will return for the second season along with executive producer and showrunner Craig DiGregorio, the network said.

“One season isn’t enough to satisfy the fans’ two decade-long appetite for more Ash,” said Carmi Zlotnik, Managing Director of Starz. “The early fan and press support, along with the international broadcaster demand for more story have made it clear that the adventures of Ash Williams can’t end with season one.”

Starz will sample its upcoming horror-themed series Ash vs. Evil Dead prior to the show’s Halloween night premiere.

The pay TV network will offer an exclusive scene from the 10-episode series – based on the popular movie franchise – this Saturday to select cable, satellite and telco affiliates as well as on the Ash vs. Evil Dead Facebook page and on its TV Everywhere service Starz Play, said network officials.

On Halloween eve the network will air a sneak peek of the first episode as part of an Evil Dead movie marathon featuring the Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 and Army Of Darkness films, said network officials.

On Nov. 2, Starz will air the first Ash vs. Evil Dead episode on the series’ Facebook page, as well as via select linear, on demand and online platforms, said network officials.