Is Bill Hader Dipping His Toe into the Somewhat Poisonous Waters of Films Based on TV Shows with ‘Baywatch’

There was a time back in the 90s when any TV show, whether or not it was any good, was greenlit to get a film adaptation made. Thankfully, that bubble eventually burst when the movies coming out were sometimes even worse than the awful TV shows it was based on (who can forget Rob Schneider's evil turn as the antagonist alongside Lea Thompson in the Beverly Hillbillies movie?). Basically film studios are lazy and that's why everything you see on screen now is based on this comic or that book and that's only because they've already gone through every TV show ever made.

Sometimes you get lucky with a Brady Bunch Movie which hits the right tone, or an X-Files: Fight the Future which enriches the mythology of a show already on the air. But usually you end up with a Tom Arnold/David Allan Grier version of McHale's Navy. But now there's some interesting news with the team behind Reno 911 and The State to put together a faux-serious Baywatch movie with reports both denying and confirming that Bill Hader will be taking on the role made famous by David Hasselhoff famous.

It's a long time coming for Bill Hader to get the lead in a movie as he's been carrying SNL on his skinny shoulders for the last few years, especially now that Kristen Wiig is gone. And a team-up between Reno'sTom Lennon and Ben Garant with Hader can only end with something funny. I hope. For there are many more awful translations of episodic TV to film in our gallery of Films Based on TV Shows than successful ones.