20 TV series that were surprisingly adapted from books

Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen were made famous by Leighton Meester and Blake Lively, respectively, but the actors didn’t invent the characters. Cecily von Ziegesar is responsible for the two icons, as Gossip Girl was based on her novel series of the same name. 

The Queen’s Gambit was first a novel by Walter Tevis. It was published in the early ‘80s, and while it did garner good reviews, it didn’t take off commercially. Multiple people tried to adapt the story to screen before it was finally realized as a Netflix miniseries. 

MASH is one of the most popular TV series of all time, but the story was first written down on paper. The show is adapted from the book MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. The novel was first adapted to film and then to the legendary series. 

Candace Bushnell actually is Carrie Bradshaw. She wrote the column “Sex and the City” for The New York Observer in the mid-'90s, and her work was published as a book, just like in the series. It hit HBO in the late '90s, and the world hasn’t been the same since. 

A more recent adaptation, the ABC sitcom Not Dead Yet was based on the book Confessions of a Forty-Something F--k Up by Alexandra Potter. The series only lasted two seasons, but the stories in the book will live on forever. 

If you binge modern romance books, then you’re likely familiar with the Virgin River series by Robyn Carr. There are plenty of seasons of the Netflix show of the same name, but if that’s not enough for you, there are 21 novels in the book series. 

Before Dexter was killing serial killers on TV, he was doing so as a character in the book series by Jeff Lindsay that started with Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Lindsay got series writing credits throughout Dexter and the reboot because of his work, and he even appeared in an episode in its original run. 

Killing Eve’s origin is a bit more unique than some. The series is based on Luke Jennings' book Codename Villanelle, which was first published as a series of e-book novellas. 

Would it be better or worse if Mindhunter had just come from someone’s imagination? The Netflix series starring Jonathan Groff is based on the nonfiction book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker. The plotlines depicted in the series are, frighteningly, accurate. 

Call the Midwife is also accurate but in a much more pleasant way. The BBC/PBS period piece is based on the memoir Call the Midwife: A True Story of the East End by Jennifer Worth. Worth went on to write two more books in the series. 

Boardwalk Empire was also based on true events, and it lands somewhere between Mindhunter and Call the Midwife on the acceptance scale concerning that information. The book the series was adapted from is Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times and Corruption of Atlantic City by Nelson Johnson. 

Bones is based both on a book series and the person who wrote the books, Kathy Reichs. Reichs was a forensic anthropologist, and she used her experiences to write a novel series starting with Déjà Dead. She then helped create the series Bones, but there are many differences between the books and the television episodes. 

If being thoroughly creeped out while watching the TV series You isn’t enough, you can go to the source material, the novel of the same name by Caroline Kepnes. But reader beware: sometimes characters are even worse on paper. 

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson was a critically acclaimed piece of literature when it was published in 1959. It was even nominated for the National Book Award. It’s been adapted to screen multiple times, but over time the screen projects have co-opted the story’s legacy. 

The Haunting of Bly Manor was adapted from a book, too. A novella named The Turn of the Screw by Henry James was published in 1898. The novella has been adapted many times, including into a stage production and an opera, but all the adaptations have also overshadowed its origins. 

Given the name of the series, it shouldn’t be a surprise that The Vampire Diaries is based on a book series. The novels, which bear the same name, have had a variety of authors, including the original author, L J. Smith, a ghostwriter, and Aubrey Clark. 

Vampires really were all the rage in the 2000s. Twilight might’ve been the most popular book series, but there were plenty of others to sink your teeth into. One of which was The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, which was adapted to the series True Blood. 

Orange is the New Black is based on a book, too. Piper Kerman wrote Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison based on her real experience serving time. And no, Martha Stewart didn’t actually serve time in the same prison. She was going to but ended up elsewhere instead. 

House of Cards probably seems like it was inspired by actual events, but it was adapted from the Michael Dobbs novel of the same name. The novel was first adapted as a BBC series in the ‘90s. 

The Kristen Wiig comedy-drama series Palm Royale, which aired on Apple TV+, was based on the novel Mr. & Mrs. American Pie by Juliet McDaniel. However, as anyone who has read the book can attest, the series only loosely followed the source material.