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Spin off's that were better than the original


dragonflies

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Gomer Pyle USMC >> The Andy Griffith Show

The Facts of Life >> Diff'rent Strokes

Laverne & Shirley >> Happy Days

The Jeffersons >> All in the Family

Melrose Place >> Beverly Hills 90210

Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School >> Flavor of Love

The Real World/Road Rules Challenge >> The Real World and Road Rules

Hawaiian Eye >> 77 Sunset Strip

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I lurve The Jeffersons, those early seasons were the best, but I don't think it remained as consistently high in quality as AITF. Like Good Times, the networks let it lose its soul with a bunch of corny typical sitcom writing towards the end. Lost its bite. Even still, if someone asked me if I wanted to watch AITF or The Jeffersons, I would say the latter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v3J3uvoj4M

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I suppose this might be more appropriate for the The Colbys thread, but The Colbys was touted as being bigger and better than its parent soap Dynasty, and I don't see that at all. Sure, the cast consisted of some Hollywood legends, but story, set, car, wardrobe wise? I would say it was less glitzy than Dynasty.

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Florence on The Jeffersons had a show called Checking in.

AITF and Archie Bunkers Place where the same show. The cast refers to ABP as AITF. ABP was just a retooling because so many of the cast had left of where getting ready to leave.

Anyway, AITF/ABP had a spin-off called Gloria that only ran for one season.

Here is the opening to Gloria:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBvNcSFzda4

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I remember reading Donald Bogle's book on black TV and film and he complained about The Jeffersons no longer seeming black enough after the first few seasons. He also hated Louise and didn't enjoy the show as much without George's mother putting her down.

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I think Maude is equal to AITF to an extent. Good Times was really dark when it came to most of the stories while The Jefferson's was too campy. Don't get me wrong I am a fan of ALL Norman Lear shows. But Maude, being the first AITF spin-off seemed to have the same style of humor. It wasn't as "Ground Breaking" as for topics except the abortion. I also think the Vivian/Maude/Walter/Arthur friendship is the perfect Ricky/Lucy/Fred/Ethel update.

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I think he has a point. But what about this clip? A show could never get away with a character saying that nowadays. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWWBrAIv1J0

But I think eventually it turned into a middle of the road sitcom. It was never as topical or political as All in the Family or even Maude. It was much more of a traditional situation comedy built largely around family dynamics. It also had one of the weirdest casting decisions ever when they had a white actor playing Helen and Tom's only son.

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Another one would be Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine both spun off from Star Trek: Next Generation which it's self is a spin off from the original Star Trek series. I would also say I enjoyed all three "Next Generation" series more than original (but I like the movies with Original series cast better than I do the movies with the TNG crew, LOL)

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