6 Movie Franchises That Absolutely Refused To Die

This is what happens when exploitation meets absurdity.
6 Movie Franchises That Absolutely Refused To Die

95 percent of Hollywood movies today are sequels, reboots, or Adam Sandler atrocities. Audiences have become accustomed to studios milking the bejeezus out of a property until there's nothing left but a desiccated husk vaguely shaped like Ben Affleck. But sometimes the exploitation reaches the point of absurdity. And other times it blows right past absurdity, leaving it on the side of the road, coughing up exhaust fumes.

Bill And Ted Wore Out Their Welcome With An Unwatchable Sitcom

If you're aware that Bill and Ted went on an Excellent Adventure in 1989, chances are you also know they undertook a Bogus Journey a few years later. If you didn't pay attention, you probably assumed that was the end of it, notwithstanding a few weird toys and games.

iL F HE DUDE THERE S NO REASON TO GET ALL LIFEPY NO MATT HOL NON- TR TUND HANT r IMES AY SEEM.
Acclaim Entertainment
We assume he also said this to Winter after his gig directing a Red Hot Chili Peppers video.

There have been rumors of another sequel since, uh, the last sequel, but as much fun as a new romp starring a barely aging Keanu Reeves and that other guy might be, Hollywood already went in a different direction. Specifically, a hastily produced children's cartoon. All the major stars from the film reprised their roles for the first season, but when the second season debuted without Carlin, Reeves, or that other guy, the series abruptly folded.

6 Movie Franchises That Absolutely Refused To Die
MGM Entertainment
The male belly shirt industry was dealt a blow which they are struggling to recover from to this day.

This provided an important lesson for the keepers of the franchise: The only reason the concept worked in the first place was that viewers were invested in the original actors (see also: Dumb And Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd). But studios being studios, they decided to throw common sense and decency to the wind and bring forth a live-action TV abomination so heinous that even the girl from Small Wonder shuddered to think of it.

The heretofore-delightful duo were replaced by Evan Richards and Christopher Kennedy, respectively, and let's just say that they're the only main actors on the show's Wikipedia page without hyperlinks. As Variety described the situation in a review, "the problem lies in Richards' and Kennedy's charmless acting. They have none of the wit needed, and their dumbness is not endearing, only grating."

The Mighty Ducks Goes Sci-Fi

The Mighty Ducks was a box office smash in 1992, spawning a trilogy of rapidly diminishing quality, as well as a lot of ill-fated juvenile hockey careers. By the third film, Emilio Estevez could only be bothered to cameo. On the other hand, this was happening for him that same year, so ...

6 Movie Franchises That Absolutely Refused To Die
Paramount Pictures
Strangely, his character did not show up in a Ghost Protocol flashback.

The Mighty Ducks even shared their name with an actual Disney-owned NHL team, and eventually their own cartoon show. It was not, as you might expect, about a ragtag group of kids getting into scrapes and learning life lessons, but anthropomorphic alien duck-people who came to Earth to fight crime, and incidentally also play hockey. It featured the voice talents of Dennis Franz and Tim Curry, the young people's favorites.

Pretty much the only upside of the whole venture is that it gave Jim Belushi a much-needed paycheck -- and no, this is not the last time he'll come up in this article.

DisNEY'S MIIGHY DUCKS THE MOVIE 00 THE FIRST FACE-OFF
Walt Disney Television
Mighty Ducks: The Movie ... But, Like, The Other One

Related: 12 Pop Culture Franchises That Went Insanely Off The Rails

The Blues Brothers Won't Ever, Ever, Ever Stop (Ever)

Long ago, when Saturday Night Live was young and they had only barely begun to run their best sketches into the ground, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi had a great thing going with the Blues Brothers. You of course know the classic comedy and the more questionable sequel that came 20 years later, but did you know that it went even further? Oh gosh, so much further. Even further than can be forgiven when considering Dan Aykroyd's adorable lack of restraint. First came a new album featuring an entirely different Belushi brother:

lie LUES CHICAGO'S BROTHERS HOUSE OF BLUES AND FRIENDS HOB TIY
Dan Akroyd
"They both start with the letter J, what more do you want?"

It was followed by an animated series, which Aykroyd described as "the Blues Brothers living in America and utilising all-new technology to make and promote their own records, seek out and record new artists and avoid law enforcement -- and all while fighting for truth, justice, and a better breakfast sandwich." It would be weird enough if it ended there, but there was also, let's see, a video game ...

11115199 THE BLUES BR THERS
Titus Interactive SA
Judging by the splash screen, we're gonna guess ... '90s Newgrounds flash game?

... action figures ...

T BLUES BRTHES TH Rrs RfthS CONNECTION CONMECTION EID JATE 21g JAKE
Hey kids, Elwood comes with real Selling-Out Action Arms!

... and a radio show, in which Aykroyd remains in character as Elwood Blues to talk blues music.

AUCTION SAT.. MAR. 17-1979 with H OUe ElwoOD Blues POLICE CARS OF BLUEIS RADID HoUr IS TAK TNODO The Blues Mobile 4 Message trom Elwood Blues Breaker
House of Blues
It's the only way he can avoid talking about aliens.

Just to be clear, Aykroyd himself is a lifelong blues music fan, and a famous one. There's no reason he couldn't do a show like that as himself to equal if not greater success. He chose instead to play the less cool and charismatic half of a duo that was tragically split up decades ago. Call us, Dan. We're worried about you.

Related: Any Franchise Left To Its Own Device Will Go Off The Rails

Planet Of The Apes Has Theme Park Rides

Planet Of The Apes is the classic story of ape vs. man vs. Charlton Heston. It's beloved by generations, even some of the ones who got the Mark Wahlberg version. The franchise began, as so many science fiction epics do, as a French novel by the WWII spy who wrote Bridge Over The River Kwai, which was turned into the 1968 movie we all know and love, which was followed by an increasingly strange series of sequels.

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20th Century Fox

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20th Century Fox

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20th Century Fox

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20th Century Fox
My Dinner With The Planet Of The Apes

To give you an idea of how strange things got, the entire Earth and all life on it is destroyed in a nuclear cataclysm in the first sequel. Then they made three more. At that point, the copyright holders realized there were other mediums they could infect with their madness, and they expanded into a shitty TV series:

This was followed by an even shittier animated show:

And a number of different comic book series:

MARVEL COMICS GROUP 30c 9 oct a PLANST ADVENTURES ON THE OF APES DEAD, THE NOVAY ENTAE WORLD HOe BTELY DESTRORDI A YAU SALLL THE NANY RAAANE ANdX n
Marvel Comics

There was a terrible PlayStation game ...

ALIe
Ubisoft

... which had an even more terrible Game Boy version:

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Ubisoft
Charlton Heston, possibly.

Even weirder is all the terrible merchandise the franchise spawned, for some reason made for children. Kids love interspecies war, right?

PLANET oF APES THE topps INCLUDES BONUS urelll CARDS! THE ORIGINAL TOPPS TRADING CARD SERIES

PLANET 4R9 oF APES THE Coloring Book BI20
Look at these cheerful apes.

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Mego

That's not the only way they overestimated the juvenile audience for nuclear ape-ocalyptic fiction. There have been not one but two different Planet Of The Apes theme park rides. One's being built in, of course, Dubai:

6 Movie Franchises That Absolutely Refused To Die
20th Century Fox World

The other was in, of course, New Jersey in the 1970s:

Related: 5 Historically Bad Movie Franchises We Keep Forgiving

Highlander Eventually Became A Terrible Post-Apocalyptic Cartoon

Highlander began with a simple question: What if there were ancient Scottish people, like, today? Far out, right? This is the stuff long-running series are made of. There was Highlander: Original Flavor, swiftly followed by a legendarily misguided and terrible sequel that completely rewrote the canon, and then things went really off the rails. A TV show dispensed with the main character in favor of his more budget-friendly cousin, and they started pumping out increasingly shitty movies like they knew the Highlander bubble economy was about to burst.

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20th Century Fox
"There can only be, uh, let's see ... one, two, three, four ..."

Along the way, those cool '80s aesthetics were lost and it turned into a literal cartoon. Twice.

HIGHLANDER THE COMPLETE ANMATED SERIES PART
USA Network

HIGHLAIDER TTHE SEARCH FOR VENGEANCE
Manga Entertainment
Highlander: The (Other) Animated Series!

It also got turned into this abomination of an Atari Jaguar game:

6 Movie Franchises That Absolutely Refused To Die

HIGHANDER THE LAST OF THE MACLEODS SESNEMASGNNEOAOOAMOM JN TAGLAR CT CD ATARI
Atari Games
QUICK, CHOP ITS HEAD OFF!

You play as the last descendant of Christopher Lambert in a post-apocalypse that's also kind of medieval. So, pretty far from the one-on-one sword battles in a parking garage. We haven't even gotten to the book series or the spinoff TV show featuring zero MacLeods.

HGHLAADER ZEALOT A NOVTL BY DONNA LBBTOW AN ORIGINAL. ALL-NEW NOVEL WAER BASED ON THE INTERNATIONAL HIT 7U AND MOVIE SERIES
Warner Books

HIGHMANDER THE RAVEN DALY AYECIO NO NN DSe SET
USA Network
Oh sorry, this is from the porn parody ... wait, no, that's right. Hm.

And of course, what every thrilling action fantasy series needs is a Magic: The Gathering-style card game, featuring cool sword warrior cards like these:

FLeshba't L Hester Roce > HIGHLANDER ThGHRNSER TT UTUPETON STTA V OLY aat - u R Sate Have F7 Worm HOGHLRNER HIGHLANOR vT HULT-Lv OHLY n
Thunder Castle Games
That's right, a flashback ability in a card game.

Last but not least, there was a plethora of toys and merchandise that definitely appeared to be marketed toward children, moving somewhat away from the original audience of adults into beheadings and topless scenes.

Fo A ALN THFIA THEE IGHLANDER CANA OY OE T ANIMATO SFC Figur solg eparately HUNTER'S POWERCYCLE P A W/ITH BLOW-UP ACNION 11117

GIG A 22 AATE HIGHLANDER ae PTT 21-5 111117 GAOR I IUESTKILKO 1D QU81N Ant M $14 39 sr 17210 IIOVE AL GALOPPO

What happened to the simple, beautiful dream of a Scottish man beheading someone for personal gain?

Related: 5 Unintentionally Hilarious Franchise 'Hip' Reinventions

Stargate Has Been Spun Off In Almost Every Type Of Media Possible

In 1994, MGM released the science fiction film Stargate, starring James Spader and Kurt Russell's respective hairdos, and the entertainment world was never the same. Sure, you might be familiar with Stargate SG-1, the show that ran for ten seasons. But what about Stargate Atlantis, the SG-1 spinoff that lasted for five years? Or Stargate Universe, which lasted only two? Did you know there was a Stargate children's cartoon called Stargate: Infinity that ran 26 episodes, or a webseries called Stargate Origins, which dropped just this past year?

STARGATE SG1.
Showtime

STARGATE ATLONTIS.
Sci-Fi

STARGATE INFINITY
Fox

STARGTE ORIGINS.
MGM Digital Group
Stargate: Forever, Stargate: Eternal, Stargate: Infinity + 1, the list goes on.

Maybe games are more your style? Stargate has inspired pinball games, third-person shooters, trading card games, role-playing games, and even a Game Boy game that was just a straight Tetris ripoff.

STARGATE SG1. FIRST STEPS THE STARGATE UNEXDLORED WORLOS HOLLOLAYING SOURCEBOOK
Acclaim Entertainment

- MN BAOC 0s 5o3 MOORRRL.
Alderac Entertainment

Samantha Carter 3 Javaluable Asset 1 3 2 1 Character - Team SGC Each time you assign Samantha Carter to a mission that has a glyph matching one of her
Sony Online Entertainment

BOY STARGATE OF11C1AL GAME LINK GAMEDAK KA S07 Defid AKlaim GBL Nintendo Sn 0 oamaline GAME
Acclaim Entertainment
Tetris: Now promoted with licensed material at phenomenal expense!

More of a reader? Stargate has you covered. There have been Stargate books, comics, and magazines.

SPECIAL ISSOE Farewell to Atlantis! T OFTICIAL MAGAZINO 28071 STARGATE S-1 ATLINTIS sdco4me LOTNEISE Inluvews mse 05 Robert Dai an BS60 Mrtin Gero New
Avatar Press

N3A 2 Audio Cassemes The newest exciting adventure in the epic book sequel to the blockbuster movie STARGATE RETALIATION Based the on story and charac
Fandemonium Press

STAVATARL PUGA STARGATE eJa AEIO ROME
Avatar Press
This may or may not be mislabeled fan art from somebody's D&D campaign.

Looking for something more adventurous? You could ride the Stargate SG-3000 ride at Six Flags! Keep in mind, this all started with a movie that Roger Ebert argued was the legacy of Ed Wood. Imagine you fell into a 20-year coma and woke up to find that Chappie spinoffs had taken over the world, which would be a much better parallel universe story than the original Stargate ever was.

OM Y BIFETO OF DISTRICT9 H A P P E I07 A 711 S Y 3 I 2015 s U P CheeolieMovie
Columbia Pictures
There's no joke caption, we just needed to remind 75 percent of you what Chappie was.

Nathan Kamal lives in Oregon and writes. He co-founded Asymmetry Fiction for all your fiction needs.

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