The medium of television has a long history of transplanting a profitable film premise to the episodic format. And if a run-of-the-mill sleeper hit like Clueless can live on for several seasons as a sitcom, surely Best Picture nominees would evolve into TV series just as popular and critically acclaimed. Right? Peruse this press release that we at Fametracker have obtained from the 2005-06 season and judge for yourself.

A Beautiful Mind, starring Ron Eldard and Shannyn Sossamon, Tuesdays at 10 on NBC

If you like The Education of Max Bickford, Class of '96, and other classic TV series set in academia, you'll love A Beautiful Mind. John Forbes Nash Jr. (Ron Eldard) is a brilliant mathematician teaching at Princeton University. In the pilot episode, he meets his future wife Alicia (Shannyn Sossamon), and they quickly fall in love. What Alicia doesn't know is that she's in for the ride of her life, since John, while extraordinarily talented and very attractive, is mentally ill. In a clever dramatic device, the audience is privy to scenes in which John is haunted by William Parcher (Anthony Edwards), a shadowy intelligence operative from the U.S. government; what John doesn't know is that Parcher isn't real: he's just a hallucination created by John's fevered brain. The pilot follows John and Alicia's love affair, culminating in their wedding; in the second episode, John addresses what he thinks is a math paper to a scholarly journal, but hijinks ensue when Alicia learns John has actually sent in several old crossword puzzles, stapled together. The next episode finds Alicia bringing John home to meet her parents, only to suffer humiliation when he accuses them of planting recording devices in the lasagna they serve him for dinner. You won't want to miss the November sweeps episode in which Alicia tells John she thinks she's pregnant, and Parcher convinces John that Parcher is the father of Alicia's unborn child. Will Alicia learn to navigate the ups and downs of John's erratic moods? Will John's teaching career evaporate as his illness progresses? Will John and Alicia unravel the mystery of Parcher's true nature? If you have a beautiful heart, you'll tune in and see.

Gosford Park, starring Joely Richardson, Michael Palin, and Brenda Blethyn, Saturdays at 9 on ABC

From the outside, the house at Gosford Park looks like any other stately manor home in the English countryside. What few know until they cross the threshold is that Gosford Park is a veritable magnet for murderers. Each week on the Gosford Park TV series, the McCordle family -- led by venerable Lady Sylvia (Joely Richardson) -- invite a party to stay for the weekend; what the guests don't know is that at least one of them won't make it to Monday morning! In the pilot episode, a hunting party arrives at Gosford, led by Sir Geoffrey Somerset (Anthony Stewart Head); in the middle of the night, a cry rings throughout the house, and soon enough, Jennings (Michael Palin), the Butler, has discovered the corpose of Somerset's footman Bob (Sean Biggerstaff), sporting a neat, civilized little knife wound in his side. The McCordles call in Inspector Thompson (Hugh Bonneville) to solve the murder, but Thompson proves quite useless, so the household staff -- led by Mrs. Wilson (Phyllida Law), Elsie (Serena Scott Thomas), and George (Rufus Sewell) -- mobilize to ferret out the killer. Future murder victims include Lady Bertha Willoughby (Patsy Kensit); Michael, Lord Devonshire (Martin Clunes), and Miss Sarah Kent (Polly Walker). Lady Sylvia herself ends up stabbed and hanging, comatose, between life and death in a very special episode for February sweeps. Will she live? Will Gosford Park ever see a week in which no one is killed on the premises? And, most importantly, will the staff clear away all the corpses in time for tea? It's jolly good!

In the Bedroom, starring Elliott Gould and Christine Lahti, Wednesdays at 10 on CBS

Follow the Fowlers as, each week, they try to outrun their demons and outrun the law, all the while reaching out to neighbours in need who are facing crises of their own. In the first episode, Dr. Matt Fowler (Elliott Gould) and his wife, Ruth Fowler (Christine Lahti), pack up, leave Maine, and look to start again in tiny Randolph, Vermont, with the help of their newly adopted twin sons Tucker and Tyler (Spy Kids's Daryl Sabara and brother Evan Sabara). Ruth befriends a blind florist named Flora (Angela Bassett) who's being menaced by her abusive, NASCAR-racing ex-husband Rick (Blair Underwood). Ruth counsels Flora to seek help and checks her into a womenıs shelter. Later, Ruth faces down a furious Rick at a local NASCAR rally. But when Rick breaks in to the Fowlers' new home and threatens tiny Tyler with a box cutter, Dr. Matt knows it's time to solve this problem once and for all -- as only he can. Dr. Matt enlists the help of a local car mechanic named Bruno (Richard Grieco), who's got a knack for munitions and some secrets of his own. But when Sheriff Petrie (Clancy Brown), a pesky Maine lawman, arrives in town asking troublesome questions, it's time for the Fowlers and Bruno to pick up stakes and head to their next destination -- but not before they tie up a little loose end named Rick.

The Lord of the Rings: The Series, starring Sean Astin, Jaime Pressly, and Donald Sutherland; syndicated: check local listings

Sean Astin's Samwise Gamgee takes centerstage in this new series, inspired by the classic Tolkien trilogy. In the pilot episode, Gamgee returns to the Shire from a berry-picking expedition to find his home ransacked and his good friend Frodo murdered! A grief-stricken Gamgee wonders how to avenge his friend -- and is visited by the spectral spirit of Gandalf (special guest star Donald Sutherland), who reveals the existence of a heretofore unknown Super Ring. The ring imbues its wearer with catlike agility, superior strength, and lightning reflexes -- just the combination for kicking serious Orc butt! Armed with the Super Ring, Gamgee rounds up his old allies -- the elven princess Galadriel (Jaime Pressly), the fierce dwarven warrior Gimli (Warwick Davis), and the lithe marksman Legolas Greenleaf (Brent Spiner) -- to avenge his friend's death, defeat the evil forces of Sauron (Richard Kiel), and claim the lost treasure of the Two Trees, hidden in the Mountains of Murder, across from the River of Righteousness. But when Galadriel is kidnapped by a band of marauding Dark Riders, it's up to Gamgee -- and the Super Ring -- to introduce the forces of darkness to a new form of martial arts: hobbit-style! Galadriel is rescued from her captors, who had held her in a cage and dunked her in the River of Righteousness. She's soaking wet! As she strips down and lays out her elven robes to dry, Gamgee's left to wonder: could the treasure be nearby?

Moulin Rouge!, starring Paget Brewster, Eddie Cahill, and Paul Sorvino, Wednesdays at 9 on FOX

Truth - Beauty - Freedom - Love...FOX! Transporting TV audiences to the middle of the sexy, thrilling world Baz Luhrmann created for his award-winning movie, Moulin Rouge!, the TV series, picks up somewhere in the middle of the story plotted in the movie: Satine (Paget Brewster) is still alive, Christian (Eddie Cahill) is still in love with her, and the Duke (Gregory Harrison) is still deceived by the artful cover stories they tell to cover their burning love affair. Each week, the Duke finances a lavish new musical stage production, written by Christian, the plot of which echoes the events in Christian and Satine's life together. In the pilot, Christian proposes that the Duke back a play about a mystical fairy woman with the power to drain the seas and parch the world; what the Duke doesn't know is that the story has grown out of a tiff Christian and Satine had over her congenital inability to keep adequate stores of absinthe in her flat! In a later episode, Christian drafts a libretto about a man bewitched by a vengeful but beautiful sorceress who robs him of his power of speech -- a premise inspired by Satine's irritation that Christian won't talk dirty to her in bed! Will the Duke get wise to Christian's subterfuge? Will Satine's consumption cause Zidler (Paul Sorvino) to fire her from his company? Will Christian lose his patience with Satine's inability to give herself to him utterly, and damn the Duke? Come and get her, boys...and find out!