The Spin Off Thread

[Vee]

I can't totally hate According to Jim, though. It gave Melrose's own beloved Courtney Thorne-Smith another umpteen years of solid employment, and Jim Belushi did go on to do great work on Twin Peaks.

I could swear I remember the cast or maybe just the lead of Yes Dear losing their shít and openly sparring with the critics who loathed them in print, lol.

Edited April 20, 2022 by Vee

[Khan]

Hugh Wilson declined to participate in "The New WKRP in Cincinnati."  That right there should have been a warning sign to everyone involved with that misguided project.

No, you're right, the "Yes, Dear" cast did, at one point, spar with their critics - of which, there were many, lol.  The cast was basically defending the indefensible, however.

IMO, Jim Belushi has always been a better dramatic actor than comedic.

Edited April 20, 2022 by Khan

[Vee]

You may be right, though he did both on TP.

[Franko]

I think it was a little of both. I've been reading gossip columns from 1993-94, which she and Burt dominated for a long time. By the spring, they appeared much less often.

This. Very much this.

This *shocked* young Franko. Celebrities vs. critics? What kind of nonsense was that?https://ew.com/article/2001/11/30/yes-dear-riding-hate-wave-success/

[soapfan770]

Very true on both accounts! Although how both shows lasted so long is very mysterious at least to me. I remember Yes Dear reruns endlessly running on TBS for a few years there but I think I’ve read According to Jim flat out failed in syndication and was shelved lol. 
 

The cast of Yes Dear was a strange bunch and I’m not sure any of them even act any more. That hick guy from Boston Common who was on YD sells real estate and Lord knows what Mike O’Malley is up to since Glee ended. 

I mentioned War at Home, I suppose I have to give that show credit for introducing Rami Malek to the world and for the show’s family adopting Malek’s character, a gay teen who had been kicked out by his family later on in the show’s run. It was an unusual storyline for an overall tawdry trashy show.

Playing all new grunge rock music on an AM (yes, AM) radio station in 1992 made zero sense.

Edited April 20, 2022 by soapfan770

[Vee]

God, the hick guy from Boston Common who lost his mind doing Yes Dear. I remember him. I liked Boston Common! But not necessarily him.

I remember Liza Snyder on Yes Dear from the not very good Christina Applegate show Jesse. Christina and Bruno Campos were the only really good things about it. I'm not sure what happened to Campos though he did turn up on nip/tuck as the Carver. Snyder annoyed me back then too.

Edited April 20, 2022 by Vee

[Khan]

And then you had Jean Louisa Kelly, who had the personality of a jar of mayonnaise.

I tell you, those four (Clark, Kelly, O'Malley and Snyder) were LUCKY to be on a show that ran for six episodes, much less six seasons.

I don't remember too many of the details surrounding Burt and Loni's breakup.  I just remember it being very messy and sad; and I worried, too, how their son, Quinton, would be able to handle it all as he grew older and inevitably became more aware as to why his parents were no longer together.

[Wendy]

She was also on the short-lived political comedy, The Powers That Be, with John Forsythe and a pre-Frasier David Hyde Pierce, who played her suicidal hubby. (Yes, it was a comedy.) Mahaffey also recurred on Wings as crazy Sandy Cooper, who would act cuckoo for cocoa puffs whenever she was alone with Joe Hackett, but act normal around everyone else, so no one believed Joe when he would say Sandy was crazy. If I recall, toward the latter half, Helen finally did see Sandy at her nuttiest, too.

And as for Teri Garr, I don't know about the other '90s projects she was in, as I never watched those, but she was inspired as Phoebe and Ursula's biological mother on Friends, also named Phoebe. She and Lisa Kudrow looked and acted so much alike...

Edited April 20, 2022 by Wendy

[DRW50]

The Powers That Be is where I first saw Valerie, David, or John. I still have a vague memory of the theme song. One of the "different" types of sitcoms that NBC was trying at that time that I felt attached to  (Grand was another, with the underrated Pamela Reed).

When Rami hit it big a few years ago I watched one of the supercuts of all his scenes on War at Home. Michael Rapaport has long been offputting to me (even before he compared Kenya Moore to a gorilla), and the kid they played as the straight son Rami was friends with/in love with was a bit miscast, but once you get through all the cliches Rami's story was surprisingly watchable at times, mostly  because of that weird crazy energy he brings and because they phased out some of the sillier earlier choices (like Rami lusting after both his friend and Michael's character). There was one episode later on where he and Michael had to do some kind of father/son performance together that I enjoyed - less frightening than Karen and Diana doing the same on Knots Landing, anyway. 

I watched Yes, Dear for several years at the time, because I did like the cast's chemistry together and I felt that it was an underdog, but the show ran too long and it was obvious the network kept trying to kill it but couldn't find anything better  (the same would happen  to that Oliver Hudson sitcom later in the decade). I remember one bizarre episode where they were living in the Big Brother house, which made you despair slightly at just how prominent reality TV had become at this time.

Mike O'Malley was always my favorite actor on the show. He's done well for himself as a character actor and producer.

https://www.avclub.com/mike-o-malley-on-testing-for-ron-swanson-and-being-the-1847495539

As for John Belushi, I do tend to prefer him as a dramatic actor. I think Twin Peaks and his pre-tapes on SNL are some of his best work. Here's a short film he did in 1980 around the time he was in Second City.

 

[kalbir]

Something has to be said about the longevity and ratings success of NCIS. As we all know, NCIS began as a spinoff of JAG and then became a franchise.

NCIS is in its 19th season and it will be returning in the fall for a 20th season. In it's 18 completed seasons, NCIS has been #1 for three seasons (2012/13, 2013/14, 2015/16), #2 for five seasons (2011/12, 2014/15, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2019/20), Top 5 for five seasons (2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11, 2018/19, 2020/21), Top 10 for one season (2007/08), Top 15 for two seasons (2005/06, 2006/07), and Top 30 for two seasons (2003/04, 2004/05).

I don't think NCIS became a pop culture phenomenon the way that Dallas, ER, CSI were, but it has set ratings records that none of those shows accomplished. Yes, all four had three seasons as the #1 show but NCIS has them all beat in terms of consecutive seasons finishing in the Top 10 (NCIS 14, ER 10, CSI 9, Dallas 7) and consecutive seasons finishing in the Top 5 (NCIS 13, ER 9, Dallas 5, CSI 5).

Edited April 29, 2022 by kalbir

[Khan]

The weirdest part of NCIS's success, I think, is that it has managed to remain a ratings draw despite so many changes to its' cast.  In fact, I think the only current cast members who have been with the show from the beginning are Sean Murray and David McCallum - and even Murray was only recurring in S1.

[victoria foxton]

It's such a bland and generic show. Will never understand it's success. Or the rest of the NCIS spin-offs.

Edited April 29, 2022 by victoria foxton

[I Am A Swede]

I loved The Powers That Be!   

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  Such a contrast seeing John Forsythe in a comedic role when I had up till then only seen him as Blake Carrington.

It had a spectacular cast for such a short-running show: John Forsythe, Holland Taylor, David Hyde Pierce, Valerie Mahaffey, Peter MacNicol, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Robin Bartlett, Eve Gordon and Elizabeth Berridge.

 

[Paul Raven]

For the 79/80 season

A Lorimar spinoff from Eight is Enough, in which the older son played by Grant Goodeve goes traveling around the country with a young woman reporter.

Guess with such a large cast on Eight, they figured they could lose David and have a known character in a new show.

However, ABC did not go ahead.

Was there any plot on Eight that hinted at this spinoff?

[Paul Raven]

In 1975 when Happy Days began to take off ABC announced a proposed 'Fonzie' spin off that would move the character 15 years ahead and have an older Fonzie dealing with a teen son who was similar to his dad as a youngster.

Wiser heads prevailed and they developed Laverne and Shirley instead.