'Friday Night Lights'

First came the critically acclaimed football flick that hung around in theaters much longer than anyone expected. Two years later, we got the critically acclaimed football TV show that has hung on far longer than its ratings would normally allow. Still, NBC maintains confidence in this touching drama about small town Dillon, Texas, and the players, coaches and fans who see the green grass of a football field as more like an outdoors church. Inspired by the "Lights" movie and book, rather than based on them, the television show focuses on under-pressure first-year coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), disabled former quarterback Jason Street (Scott Porter) and talented-but-troubled running back Brian "Smash" Williams (Gaius Charles). Returning for the second-half of its debut season, "Friday Night Lights" throws a Hail Mary pass at potential viewers this month -- the only question is whether anyone will catch it.

'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'

It's not often that Hollywood has enough guts to take a movie
and make it into a TV show; it's even rarer when they bother to
resurrect a flop. In 1997, TV newcomer Joss Whedon stumbled
upon a magical formula when he bypassed the box-office
blockbusters and instead focused on a largely forgotten Kristy
Swanson clunker. Shockingly, the concept of a teenage girl
destined to battle the undead was one that needed more room to
breathe than the big screen could allow -- and the casting of future stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Michelle Trachtenberg, Alyson Hannigan and Seth Green didn't hurt either. "Buffy" picked up more steam with each of its seven seasons, and was even regarded by many critics as the best television show on the air for much of its run. More impressive, however, was the influence it would eventually yield on the worlds of television, pop culture and, yes, movies.

'M*A*S*H'

The granddaddy of all movie-to-TV adaptations, "M*A*S*H" is still the model for which all such shows aim -- even if they do end up being "Uncle Buck" in the end. Two years after Robert Altman's anti-establishment tale of the 4077th received five Oscar nominations, the deeply dedicated but slightly demented characters returned with only the most basic of alterations for the small screen. Rather than trying to rehash the same moments from the film, the "M*A*S*H" TV show was content to let the characters expand and use the familiarity of TV to allow viewers to get to know them intimately. When the TV phenomenon aired its final episode after 11 seasons (the real Korean War only lasted three years), an amazing 77 percent of the nation was in tears -- it still holds the record as the highest-rated TV program of all time.

'Stargate SG-1'/'Stargate Atlantis'

There's no Kurt Russell, no James Spader and very few of those Mastadge elephant-monster thingies, but these two immensely popular syndicated shows have tapped into the themes of a would-be movie franchise and transformed "Stargate" into a TV empire. The sci-fi TV drama took on former "MacGyver" star Richard Dean Anderson and yielded "SG-1," set a year after the Russell-Spader flick. Ten years and some 200 episodes later, Anderson's Colonel Jack O'Neil (and much of his team) has yielded the floor to some newer regulars (including Beau Bridges), and even a Sci-Fi Channel cancellation doesn't seem likely to slow down the juggernaut -- two movies will be filmed this April, completing the circle. "Atlantis," meanwhile, is currently in the midst of its third season and continues to stake a "Stargate" claim as the new "Star Trek."

'The Odd Couple'

Is there room in our collective minds for more than one take on a classic character? Look no further than "The Odd Couple," which undoubtedly has just as many people hearing "Oscar and Felix" and thinking Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau (from the '68 movie) as they do Tony Randall and Jack Klugman (from the '70-'75 TV show). Regardless of your preference, you'll likely agree that Neil Simon's concept of mismatched roommates was so strong that making "Odd" a success was just a matter of filling the roles with the right actors. Remarkably, lightning struck twice.