I don’t know whether to be heartened or depressed about the news that NBC has officially announced Matt LeBlanc will star in a spin-off of Friends.
Some spin-offs (think AfterMASH) are too sad for words. Some (Mork and Mindy) are so disconnected from the original, you don’t even put them in the category of a spin-off. And of course, a few were actually good.
So what do you think the best spin-off was? My vote goes to Frasier. It’s tired now, but it was very good in its prime.
I’d second Frasier, which I believe surpassed and still surpasses its parent, Cheers. And, did you know that the show Mork and Mindy spun off from, Happy Days, was itself spun off from an episode of Love, American Style?
A runner-up to Frasier might be The Andy Griffith Show, which also far surpassed its parent, Make Room For Daddy (although no one on the later show ever did a better spit-take than Danny Thomas).
Angel: The Series. It eclipsed it’s forebearer last season in quality.
Frasier
Angel was better than Buffy last year, but has not been as good a show overall.
Frasier’s pretty darn good.
Ditto Angel.
But naturally the greatest and best-known spinoff is The Simpsons, which used to be an occasional animated short on The Tracey Ullman Show.
Ullman? Ulmann? Ullmann? Something.
[/]Maude*
Or, even better, Maude
:smack:
“The Jeffersons”
I think “Frasier” almost goes into the category of being disconnected from the original.
Frasier.
Ditto Frasier and The Jeffersons
-I used to like Family Matters and it spun from Perfect Strangers if I recal correctly.
-A Different World spun from The Cosby Show. I loved that show(both actually).
>I think “Frasier” almost goes into the category of being disconnected from the original.
I don’t see how, as they frequently refer to it, and occasionally have the characters drop in.
Saved By The Bell: The College Years 
Petticoat Junction.
Gomer Pyle USMC was a pretty good show in its time.
'From the halls of MontezOO-OOmer…
Angel spun off from Buffy the Vampire Slayer- last year’s season was as good as the best of Buffy.
Star Trek: DS9 was a great partial spin-off (O’brian and Worf) of ST:NG.
What- no Laverne and Shirley fans?
Frasier was a great show for many years, before sinking into suckitutude as of the last 2 years or so.
Don’t forget ** the Simpsons ** was a spin-off techincally from the Tracy Ullman show (did she even try a lawsuit seeking $$$ regarding this).
What? No votes for Joanie Loves Chachi?
The Honeymooners was taken from a skit on the Jackie Gleason Show, correct? And I liked Rhoda.
Daria, though almost completely disconnected from the original - I think they only did one reference to the original show (Beavis and Butthead) ever.
Frasier was a terrific show until recently. As much as I liked Cheers, its spin-off was even better.
AFAIK, The Andy Griffith Show was a spinoff from the Danny Thomas Show. Not that it deserves a best anything award.
family matters