The new musical we're producing, Senior Class, uses George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and its famous musical adaptation, My Fair Lady, as a MacGuffin, an object of tribute (and comedy) in its play-within-a-play, and a narrative roadmap for the eager high school students attempting (as all teenagers do) to invent themselves. The timeless narrative Shaw expressed—the urge a character has to influence another for the good, and the opposing urge the influenced one inevitably has to define themselves—has been repeated countless times, both explicitly and more often subtly, throughout the years. A quick dive into the internet turned up these favorite bits of "Pygmalionia":
- There have been no fewer than three different straight-up film adaptations of Pygmalion in 1935 (German), 1937 (Dutch), and 1938 (British).
- Even the Three Stooges got in on the act with Hoi Polloi (1938) in which a professor tries to make the stooges into proper gentlemen.
- Can't Buy Me Love (1987) starring Patrick Dempsey and Amanda Peterson swaps the genders of the teacher and the student, and was then remade in 2003 as Love Don't Cost a Thing with Nick Cannon. Also see-under: She's All That (1999) and He's All That (2021).
- Educating Rita was both a play (1980) and Academy Award-nominated film (1983) that takes the professor-student dynamic quite literally with its Open University setting.
- Trading Places (1983) often makes this list because it hits a key note of the original: a bet to turn someone of "low-class" into "high-class," and innovates on the concept with a companion bet to turn someone of high-class into low-class. I like to think Shaw would have appreciated the central role Frozen Orange Juice futures played in the plot.
- Pretty Woman (1990) also frequently gets slotted in the "inspired by Pygmalion" listicles. Probably not for the scene on the piano. Naughty Higgins.
- The Simpsons, of course, have not one but two episodes that reference the classic: "Pygmoelian" turns the slovenly bartender Moe into an Eliza Doolittle, and "My Fair Laddy" gives the same treatment to the irascible kilt-wearing Groundskeeper Willy.
- The Millennial-favorite Boy Meets World episode "Turnaround" uses a class discussion of Pygmalion to propel its school dance-date shenanigans.
- The Star Trek: Voyager episode "Someone to Watch Over Me" places the holographic doctor played by Robert Picardo as Higgins to ex-Borg Seven-of-Nine's Eliza, seeking to become more human.
- The ABC series called "Selfie" (2014) featured Karen Gillian and John Cho as Eliza Dooley and Henry Higgs only lasted 7 episodes before getting canceled in favor of Shark Tank reruns. The remaining 7 episodes were eventually streamable on Hulu due to a campaign by fans to have them released. It has since become one of those shows with a small but devoted cult following.
