The Tick

It's rare for a successful animated series to be translated into a live-action film or series that's equally as successful.  In the case of the 2001 iteration of The Tick, the four main writers from the 1994 animated series, Ben Edlund, Randolph Heard, Richard Liebmann-Smith, and Chris McCulloch were heavily involved in the production.  Producer Larry Charles noted: "What's great about the comic book and what was great about the cartoon also has to be great about the live-action show, which is the characters and the interaction of the characters, and creating a world that you believe is real. It's a world in which the characters being superheroes is almost a secondary consideration, so that the characters are more important than their costumes."

Unassuming accountant Arthur Everest (David Burke) has a dream about becoming a superhero but is uncertain how to go about it.  Then he meets The Tick (Patrick Warburton).  After having protected the clientele of a small-town bus station and irritating the employees in the process, the bumbling but enthusiastic Tick has recently moved to the City and quickly gets Arthur embroiled in various crime-fighting shenanigans.  When Arthur loses his job, The Tick takes him on as a sidekick.  However Arthur's family is unimpressed, believing The Tick to be a figment of Arthur's imagination.

Unlike its comic-book and animated predecessors, some of the backstories and characters were different due to rights issues.  However the basic tone remained similar to the source material, with over the top characterizations and "genuine human lameness" as described by Ben Edlund.  After over a year and a half in development the show was broadcast on Fox from November 2001 through January 2002.

Sadly the show didn't have much of a chance, for despite fan and critical praise, Fox chose a weak time slot and rarely ran promotions.  High production costs were another factor in the series' cancellation after eight of the nine existing episodes were broadcast.  Star Patrick Warburton heavily criticized the network's blatant mismanagement, saying that they "apparently didn't have a clue."

In 2002 the show was nominated for a Costume Designers Guild Award for Excellence in Costume Design for Television.  All nine episodes were released on DVD in 2003.  As a final note, this live-action series has served in part as a jump-off point for a new web television series currently available on Amazon Video.