Valerie takes the cake with this.
Valerie became Valerie’s Family became The Hogan Family became The Hogans. Couldn’t they just agree on one damn title?!
also, don’t forget:
These Friends of Mine became Ellen.
Don’t forget the short-lived Blanskie’s Beauties, another failed concocted spin-off from Happy Days.
Neither Mork & Mindy or Laverne & Shirley were actually concocted spin-offs. (I worked on the A&E Biography of Happy Days.) The Mork episode actually existed before they had found Robin Williams and everyone like dhim so much, that they gave him his own show the next season and he reappeared on Happy Days.
And cartoon spin-offs is opening a whole other can of worms… Alf becomes Alf (the cartoon) and Alf Tales… Gilligan’s Planet, The Brady Kids… oy vey.
Still can’t think of a 4-show chain, but here’s another triple: The Danny Thomas Show gave us The Andy Griffith Show which gave us Gomer Pyle, USMC.
These writers had an urge somewhere along the line to create a shared reality without spinoffs.
There was an episode of Mad About You in which Paul gives up his old batchelor apartment which he sublet after moving in with Jaime, but is still keeping the lease after marrying her. The sublettor (is that a word?) turns out to be Kramer, and they mention the stand-up comedian that lives across the hall.
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*Originally posted by Fiver *
**Tiburon:
Actually, she made the movie ANGEL HEART.
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*Originally posted by watsonwil *
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And 'cause she posed in Playboy against Bill Cosby’s wishes. 
Part of this was because of the legal issues with Valerie Harper. I believe one consequence of her contract dispute was that they had to take her name off the show.
On grandparent series, there aren’t many. But All in the Family begat The Jeffersons which begat Florence (Florence leaves to manage a hotel, gets cancelled and scurries back to the dee-luxe apartment in the sky), and it also begat Maude which begat Good Times. I think AIIF is the only double three-generation grandparent show.
Huh. Must have dreamed it.
–Cliffy
P.S. Re: ALF Tales: Man that show rocked!
Yeah, it’s called sweeps!
It’s when networks asks shows to perform stunts in order to boost ratings!
If you really want to push it you could call all the Star Treks spinoffs, which would give TOS a three series succession if you did it linearly(and if they bring in some assinine time traveling plot again it could be five) but Voyager as a spinoff off DS9 seems like a huuuuggggggee strech.
Didn’t Gloria Stivic have her own TV show called Gloria?
What about Sanford and Son? I remember that being related to All in The Family somehow.
Otto, I didn’t think anyone else heard of Florence’s TV show. I have never seen it, but I have heard of it and the pilot episode was an episode of The Jeffersons.
Didn’t the Golden Girls and Empty Nest both have Sophia?
I get all of this from reruns, I’m too young to be born when all of this happened.
That was a cross-over sweeps gimmick. There was a short-lived show called Nurses that also took place in Miami, and all three would have cross-overs.
Kinsey
[sub]who obviously watches waaaaay too much TV[/sub]
Harry (the Doctor from empty nest) was next door neighbor to the Golden Girls.
According to the IMDb:
[li]Gloria was indeed spun off from All in the Family.[/li][li]The only connection between Sanford and Son and The Jeffersons is their creator, Norman Lear. Castmembers from both Good Times and The Jeffersons did appear in Sanford and Son but as different characters.[/li][li]Golden Girls was spun off from Empty Nest, which itself was spun off from Nurses[/li]
I remember that crossover plot, it was a hurricane.
What about FAILED attempted spinoffs?
I can think of two.
There was a “Force 7” failed pilot which aired on “CHiPS”, and there was an “Assignment Earth” failed pilot which aired on “ST:TOS”