This cult film from the 80s was adapted into a series, but this one did not at all know the same fate as the feature film from which it is inspired!
Ferris Bueller’s Mad Day was one of the surprise hits of the mid-80s! The fourth feature film by its director and screenwriter John Hughes, it allowed Matthew Broderick to be consecrated as a movie star after the already solid success of WarGames. But did you know that Ferris Bueller also existed in series?
The film tells how a patent dunce (Ferris Bueller) convinces his girlfriend and his hypochondriac best friend to skip school and spend the day in Chicago. But in the shadows, the headmaster and Ferris’ sister try, each on their own, to prove to the Bueller parents that their son has skipped school and is just a good-for-nothing. And if you think you remember well, this quiz should give you some trouble!
The idea to adapt the film for the small screen came from John Masius, who made his name for creating the series St. Elsewhere’s Hospital, starring Denzel Washington, David Morse and Ed Begley Jr. among others. In 1990, he tries a new project: that of adapting Ferris Bueller’s Crazy Day!
NBC Charlie Schlatter
Charlie Schlatter is chosen for the title role instead of Matthew Broderick, too busy filming Sidney Lumet’s Family Business, Andrew Bergman’s First Steps in the Mafia and Edward Zwick’s Glory. For the hero’s younger sister, Jeannie Bueller, exit Jennifer Gray and hello Jennifer Aniston, who has just started in the series Molloy, canceled after four episodes. The cast is completed by Richard Riehle, Ami Dolenz, Brandon Douglas and Sam Freed.
NBC
Jennifer Aniston
John Hughes is not involved in the series, whose starting point is a bit “meta”: Ferris Bueller is a young high school student who actually exists, on whom the film with Matthew Broderick is based. He is also disappointed with the way the cinema has represented him. Despite this disappointment, everything is going well for him, as he is one of the favorite students on campus. We will follow him in his daily adventures and here is the first episode:
As soon as it aired on NBC, American critics fell on the show with short arms, obviously comparing it to John Hughes’ feature film, but also to another teenage sitcom launched at the same time on a competing channel and according to them much better done: Parker Lewis never loses (FOX).
NBC
Moreover, the fact that the series denigrates the film on which it is based (rather commonly appreciated) from its first episode possibly contributed to its failure. The chain will go until mid-season, the 13th episode, before throwing in the towel and canceling the project.
Audiences will see Schlatter again in 137 episodes of the series Diagnosis: Murder, which aired from 1993 to 2001 and of course Jennifer Aniston in the series Friends, which she would shoot from 1994 to 2004.
It must be recognized that adapting Ferris Bueller for the small screen was ambitious, because of the fact that this crazy day during which the character gives free rein to all his desires is difficult to adapt in the long term. The choice of the show to simply go to the daily life of a young man and his loved ones was probably too classic to really be able to title “Ferris Bueller”. Risky bet, and failed.
Perhaps this line from the film should have been considered: “What are we going to do? No, the question is what are we not going to do.”