CATCHING MAGIC IN a bottle is difficult to do and must rely on luck far more than any skill or artistic talent. To repeat this process seems to be neigh well impossible; especially when any follow-up or sequel is transported to another medium.
WHAT WORKED ON the big screen of the movie houses oft fizzles when it is adapted to the Televisin, especially if it is placed into the thirty minute constraint of episodic Sitcoms.
AS A PRIME example of what we're driving at, we need not look very far back in time. With the success of MY BIG FAT Greek WEDDING() at the movie houses, CBS welcomed its video off spring, MY BIG FAT Greek LIFE. It featured many of the same cast members as did the theatrical feature film and was supposed to be the story of the newly wed couple's life after their wedding day.
SO, WHAT HAPPENED may have been a big surprise to the "Bottom Lkiners" at the old network, but it lasted only a paltry 7 episodes.
MUCH IN THE same manner, DELTA HOUSE had many of the same players from the feature, ANIMAL HOUSE (or more properly, NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMSAL HOUSE), sans John Belushi as "BlutO". They had the same setting and tried to maintain a sort of continuity with the blockbuster film. They even introduced a younger brother character of the Belushi character as Jim "Blotto" Blutarsky. The fraternity's feud with Dean Wormer continued and everything should have been copasetic, right?
SO, WHAT WE think worked against this DELTA HOUSE spin off was that no matter how they tried, it was not what the public had found to be so attractive to their tastes in the theatrical release. Being on network, broadcast television automatically precluded so many of the "adult" incidents, nudity and language that a movie could get away with.
AND DON'T YOU forget, this was long before all of those daring cable productions that we have grown used to by now.
