The Spin Off Thread

[Paul Raven]

The Ropers lack of success is interesting in that the equivalent UK spin off 'George and Mildred' was a hit and TR followed that template just as Three's Company did from 'Man About the House'

Just shows how tricky it can be. Any insights Khan(or others)?

An interesting spinoff was Benson from Soap.

Soap was an adult satirical comedy and Benson a fairly standard sitcom. There was no relationship apart from Benson and even that character was softened.

[DRW50]

Three's Company also had the flop post-TC spinoff,  Three's A Crowd, whereas  the UK spinoff, Robin's Nest, ran for several years. 

I'm not sure if the writing was better, or if the  UK took those  characters into their hearts in a way that the US - in spite  of TC having a long run - did not. 

There were even several popular films for Man  About the House and George and Mildred. 

[Soaplovers]

Rhoda was good..when she was married and it was like a Mad about you for the 70s.  When they broke up, ratings did fall and the show became a pale version of Mary Tyler Moore.

Phyllis had a good start..but having a lead actress murdered in real life after a few episodes had filmed was an omen.  Had that not happened..I think it would have lasted beyond 2 seasons.

One the issues with spin offs is that the character is watered down in order to be the lead.  Rhoda, Addison on Private Practice (when she would visit Grey's, she was her old self), the Ropers, etc. 

[Khan]

Actually, "Roxie" did make it to series, but I think it lasted only one or two episodes before CBS quickly yanked it from the schedule.

"Frasier" is maybe the most successful spin-off series of all time.  Tone-wise, it was more sophisticated than "Cheers," but it certainly earned a devoted following of its' own, thanks to the Niles/Daphne saga.

Granted, I've never seen "George and Mildred," nor can I presume to speak for anyone else, but I thought the Ropers, as written on "Three's Company," were a one-joke couple who couldn't support their own show.

"Three's a Crowd" failed, because Alan Campbell's surfer-dude chef character, T.Z., was super annoying; and Mary Cadorette, who played Jack's gf, Vicky, was a straight-up dud.

I'll agree that "Rhoda" was good, but only for the first season or so.  By the second season, it was clear the writers were having trouble writing for her, and for her and Joe.  (They REALLY got the casting for Joe wrong.)  In the end, many episodes wound up being centered around Brenda's neurotic love life.

[DRW50]

Oh that's right - I always forget that Andrea Martin sitcom was the same as her K&A  character...I guess because they changed the name. 

Here's the premiere of George and Mildred. The premise is probably about the same as The Ropers, but I guess some things just don't translate. I also wonder if ABC starting to fall off by the time the show debuted didn't help. 

Many years ago I read a large book, from 1980 or so, about sitcoms, which would list each new sitcom from about 1950 on, and have longer writeups for certain sitcoms. They complained  about Rhoda because they said that Rhoda was just turned into Mary Richards, and Brenda became Rhoda.  And that by the end of the show, Brenda had also  become Mary, so who was Rhoda? 

I actually liked Joe, but marrying them off so  quickly was a mistake, and so was the divorce. I would have killed him.

By the end of the  show you had Rhoda's mother getting divorced and also going through a psychiatric crisis, and so on, and all I could think was, who really wants to see that? It's like an Alan Alda movie. 

[Khan]

Martin and Ida never divorced.  They just separated for awhile.

[Paul Raven]

Certainly the UK sitcoms and their US equivalents were quite different and some translated better than others.

The whole class system that is the basis of George and Mildred doesn't really have an equivalent in the US and Yootha Joyce's Mildred is a world away from Helen Roper.

Rhoda slimming down and finding happiness did change the character and making her the Mary to Brenda's Rhoda did dilute the concept.

Again the constant changing of timeslots can't have helped.

It was launched behind Maude, giving it a protected slot to grow, which it did and ranked 6th

In season 2 it was moved up to 8pm Monday, with Phyllis folllowing, giving CBS a strong start to the evening. Rhoda was 7th and Phyllis 6th.

Season 3 started on Mon then CBS switched to Sunday at 8 and ratings fell.

Season 4 was Sunday at 8 Rhoda was 25th.

Season 5 Rhoda was moved to Sat where it died.

Maybe Mon at 8 was the ideal slot, but CBS was moving its sitcoms all over the place.

[Paul Raven]

Is Lou Grant the only example of a spin off where a drama came out of a sitcom?

Sitcoms seem to be the breeding ground for spin offs, but can we recall any that were in other genres?

Knots Landing and The Colbys cover the soap genre.

The Law and Harry McGraw from Murder She Wrote. Although this is an example of an occasional character getting their own show, not a regular character doing so.

 

[BetterForgotten]

We can go down the procedural route with the Law & Orders and CSIs of the world, too. 

[Bright Eyes]

Has there ever been another case like Pushing Daisies, which was a would have been spin-off of Dead Like Me?

[Khan]

Peter S. Fischer never should have spun off Harry McGraw.  He was fine as a recurring character on MSW, but being the lead on his own, weekly series was just too much.

[kalbir]

JAG spun off NCIS.

NCIS franchise: NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS: Hawai'i

CSI franchise: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, CSI: Cyber, CSI: Vegas

Criminal Minds had two spin offs, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.

Edited March 11, 2022 by kalbir

[Khan]

The CSI and NCIS spin-offs bug the [!@#$%^&*] outta me.  They're all literally the same show.

Edited March 11, 2022 by Khan

[kalbir]

Hahaha, yeah they really are.

NCIS is in its 19th season. JAG was on for 10 seasons (1 on NBC, 9 on CBS). It's crazy that the spin off has been on almost double the number of seasons of the parent show.

Edited March 11, 2022 by kalbir

[Paul Raven]

Joanie Loves Chachi from Happy Days.

4 episodes aired after Happy Days in a short season

The first episode was #2 for the week behind Dallas, even outrating its Happy Days lead-in.

It continued to do well so for Fall 82 ABC moved it to Thurs @8 to take on Magnum PI.

In Wk1 Magnum had a 2 hr premiere 23.1/37 while JLC could only muster a 13.5/23. That set the pattern and JLC was cancelled.

At least they got to return to Happy Days.

From Scott Baio

All the Happy Days people had written the first four episodes, when the show got picked up for series, but then they left to go back to Happy Days, and we were stuck with new writers who didn’t know us. So that was a problem. And then some of the people on the show had chemical issues, and that was a problem. It was just on and on and on, and it just sort of all crumbled and fell apart. In retrospect, if given the choice again, I would not have done that show. That was just the wrong idea. If I had to do it all over again, I would’ve waited ’til Happy Days was over until I did anything else.