As Seen On TV: Book-Inspired Television Shows

Are you experiencing withdrawal symptoms because your favorite television shows are in repeats this Summer?  You can still get original stories about some of your favorite characters- just read the book!

Here is a short list of some of our favorite TV shows, past & present, that were adapted from books and one new series coming in 2012 that you can get a head start reading now.  Who are some of your favorite television characters that were based on a book?

MASH: by Richard Hooker.  This is the novel that gave life to Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John, Hot Lips Houlihan, Frank Burns, Radar O’Reilly, and the rest of the gang that made the 4077th MASH like no other place in Korea or on earth.  For fans of the movie and the series alike, here is the original version of that perfectly corrupt football game, those martini-laced mornings and sexual escapades, and that unforgettable foray into assisted if uncompleted suicide—all as funny and poignant now as they were before they became a part of America’s culture and heart.

Boardwalk Empire: by Nelson Johnson. Providing the inspiration and source material for the HBO series produced by Academy Award–winning director Martin Scorsese and Emmy Award–winning screenwriter Terence Winter, this riveting series explores the sordid past of Atlantic City—forever a freewheeling town long-dedicated to the fast buck—from the city’s heyday as a Prohibition-era mecca of lawlessness to its rebirth as a legitimate casino resort in the modern era.

Flash Forward: by Robert J. Sawyer.  In pursuit of an elusive nuclear particle, an experiment goes incredibly awry, and, for a few moments, the consciousness of the entire human race is thrown ahead by about twenty years. As the implications truly hit home, the pressure to repeat the experiment builds. Everyone wants a glimpse of their future, a chance to flashforward and see their successes … or learn how to avoid their failures.

Spider Bones: by Kathy Reichs. Kathy Reichs–#1 New York Times bestselling author and producer of the FOX television hit Bones–returns with the thirteenth riveting novel featuring forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan. John Lowery was declared dead in 1968–the victim of a Huey crash in Vietnam, his body buried long ago in North Carolina. Four decades later, Temperance Brennan is called to the scene of a drowning in Hemmingford, Quebec. The victim appears to have died while in the midst of a bizarre sexual practice. The corpse is later identified as John Lowery. But how could Lowery have died twice, and how did an American soldier end up in Canada?

Naked Heat: by Richard Castle.  Based on the hit ABC television series Castle, Nikki Heat and Jameson Rook are together again in Richard Castle’s thrilling follow-up to his New York Times bestseller, Heat Wave. When New York’s most vicious gossip columnist, Cassidy Towne, is found dead, Heat uncovers a gallery of high profile suspects, all with compelling motives for killing the most feared muckraker in Manhattan.Heat’s murder investigation is complicated by her surprise reunion with superstar magazine journalist Jameson Rook.

The Knowland Retribution: by Richard Greener.   With tainted meat the weapon and corporate greed the motive, The Knowland Retribution is an extremely topical suspense-revenge thriller. Walter Sherman, a/k/a the Locator, is a tracker who honed his skills in Vietnam.  The action takes the reader from a tiny Caribbean bar on the island of St. John to the editorial boardroom of the New York Times, from the gleaming skyline of Atlanta to the isolation of northern New Mexico, from Adirondack hideouts to Manhattan suites to Mississippi backwoods.  Main character Walter Sherman was introduced in a recent episode of Bones and rumor has it he will appear in a new FOX series next Winter called The Finder.

What are you favorite television shows that were based on a book?  Share with us in the comments!

Happy Reading!

Kimberly