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I just had a conversation with my flatmates which turned onto a familiar topic: how awful the sequel to a favourite show* is. On this occasion, one of my mates raised a new(-ish) angle: he believes there are several points where the whole series could have been considerably improved by relatively small changes.
So, what examples have you spotted of works of fiction which could have been _so_ much better, if only a small, easy tweak had been made.
One I have long thought of is Daniel Craig's 'Casino Royale', a good movie which could have been even better but for one thing. The climactic poker scene _should_ (in my opinion) have ended with Bond goading Le Chiffre into gambling his entire fortune... only for Felix (or even another player not developed as a character at all) to turn out to have the winning cards, while Bond has absolutely nothing. After all, the stated aim at the outset was that Le Chiffre be bankrupted, so that the British government could bail him out, for a price. Bond didn't need to win, as long as Le Chiffre lost, and it would have neatly punctured the machismo of the moment in a way the rest of the movie did rather well. Okay, they wouldn't have had a fortune to precipitate the final twist, but surely they could have worked around that...
* 'Gundam SEED: Destiny', if you're interested.
Oh, and a more recent one: 'War Horse' should have been a short TV series. It's so episodic, splitting up neatly into about 6 sections, which is a standard length for American short series. Also, Spielberg now has a track-record of doing great big-budget TV series, including 'Band of Brothers', 'Taken', 'The Pacific' and 'Into the West' to critical acclaim and commercial success, so we know there is both supply and demand.
George Lucas missed an opportunity in that he only made three movies in the Star Wars universe.
Think how brilliant it would have been to have seen the Clone Wars, seen the Jedi at the height of their powers, seen the slow, tortured descent of Anakin Skywalker towards the Dark Side, and the death of his friendship with Obi-wan. How exciting, even thrilling, it would have been... such a shame he NEVER EVER MADE ANY PREQUELS.
And even more of a shame that he DIDN'T MAKE THEM IN 3D. Because that would have been shit.
At least one of the Star Wars movies will be coming out in 3D soon. There have been six Star Wars movies in all.I believe the original plan called for nine. I don'tknow what happened to the last three.
No paulh, you are mistaken. There are only three Star Wars movies. Prequels were planned, but sadly, HE NEVER MADE THEM. HE NEVER MADE THEM. HE NEVER RUINED THE STAR WARS UNIVERSE, BETRAYED A BILLION FANS AND RAPED THE MEMORY OF MY CHILDHOOD. Very specifically, he never created a borderline racist CGI cretin with a speech impediment, never ruined the mystery of the Force by inventing the lamest post-hoc explanation in movie history (midichlorians?? wtf?), never portrayed Darth Vader as a whiny teen, and never, ever replaced the cooly impersonal Imperial Stormtroopers with comedy "RogerRoger" CGI droids as cannon fodder.
And he absolutely is not planning to do it all again in 3D.
And Han shot first.
OK?
Do we all understand each other??? 
Calm down, Hoo.
It's only a film.
FB
What, not just a film... a bloody religon if you tread the UK census result.
Harumpf!
Han shot first!
FB
 I'm perfectly calm. And inevitably, of course, I'm going to line the pockets of that rat-basket Lucas further because of course, I HAVE to go and see the 3D "updates".  I just don't have to like that I have to, that's all! 
*giggles*
Of course you have to go see the 3D versions. How else are you going to complain about the added costs of watching the same films?
Well I don't care. I've never seen it. 
I believe they missed a great opportunity to make a sequel to Highlander, too!
and The Matrix
http://xkcd.com/566/
Ah, Highlander. I heard tell there may have been a sequel, but we never speak its name. We refer to it only as "the Scottish film".
I think we need a prequel to 'Rita, Sue and Bob 2'
I think the missed opportunity with the Matrix sequels is that there was one good sequel amongst the mess. Matrix Revolutions was mostly a decent story with a decent plot.
Cut the fat out of Revolutions and replace them with the good moments from Reloaded (all 3 or 4 of them) and you'd have one very good sequel.
I've become a Godfather obsessive lately. Some say Part 2 was 'the only sequel to have been better than the first; - plus it won the Oscar. It's good - but I still think Pt 1 tops them all. And Part 3 is underrated.
Since George Lucas NEVER MADE ANY SEQUELS to the original Star Wars trilogy, the opportunity is still there. He also still has an untarnished reputation, since he NEVER ruined it by making a terrible fourth Indiana Jones film. The only problem is that the cash may not be there, since they DIDN'T spend the last 25 years milking it for every penny they could get.
You're right - he reputation is entirely unsullied by Caravan of Courage, Howard the Duck, the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, etc., because NONE OF THOSE THINGS EVER HAPPENED.
And there's plenty of money because the cash he pulled in from Star Wars figures alone must be enough to get a major trilogy made...
Out of curiosity, I've just read the wikipedia page for "Caravan of Courage", which contains the following gem of unintentional hilarity:
"With The Ewok Adventure, Lucas assumed full control over the content and production of the film, to ensure a film of good quality"
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