# Sitcom to Drama **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 24, 2000, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-to-drama/47088 "2000-12-24T15:50:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2000, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-to-drama/47088/1 "2000-12-24T15:50:20Z")
Or drama to sitcom. [This](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=997038#post997038) thread mentions the show M_A_S\*H and I got to thinking about spin-offs. The most notable from this show being Trapper John, M.D. (w/ Pernell Roberts in the title role). Then I started to wonder if there were any other televisions shows that made the switch from comedy to drama through a spin off (or vice versa). I couldn’t come up with any, but admittably my brain doesn’t function best when I just wake up. Are there others ? ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2000, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-to-drama/47088/2 "2000-12-24T15:52:24Z")
“Mary Tyler Moore” begat “Lou Grant” I can’t think of any others offhand. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2000, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-to-drama/47088/3 "2000-12-24T18:46:31Z")
“Love American Style” begat “Happy Days,” but the change wasn’t all that much. If you talk about variety shows spawning comedies, there are more choices: “The Jackie Gleason Show” --\> “The Honeymooners” and “Tracy Ullman” --\> “The Simpsons” ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2000, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-to-drama/47088/4 "2000-12-24T19:05:04Z")
Of course, if your definition of “drama” is “something that’s just not funny”, the number of spin-offs from comedies that could be considered dramas goes up dramatically 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2000, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-to-drama/47088/5 "2000-12-24T19:11:16Z")
“The Brady Bunch” eventually spun themselves off as “The Bradys” wherein everyone had a “real” problem. It sucked, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2000, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-to-drama/47088/6 "2000-12-24T21:15:14Z")
This DID in fact happen, at least once, but not really through a spinoff. “Tattinger’s” debuted on NBC in 1988 as an hour-long drama, about a restauranteur in New York City. The show didn’t do very well, but the network obviously had faith in someone. The show was retooled, and became “Nick And Hillary”. Same basic set-up, same characters, same actors, but now it was a half-hour sitcom. [http://home.earthlink.net/~jinxo/nickandtattingers.html](http://home.earthlink.net/~jinxo/nickandtattingers.html) ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2000, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sitcom-to-drama/47088/7 "2000-12-25T01:07:09Z")
Sorry, but Trapper John, M.D. wasn’t a spin-off of M_A_S_H_. It was an original show based of the MOVIE M_A_S_H_. There was a court case – PREMINGER v. 20th Century Fox, which decided legally) that TRAPPER JOHN, MD was a spinoff of the movie M_A_S_H, and a “sister” series to the TV M_A_S_H (as opposed to a spinoff of the TV show)… this allowed for Ingo Preminger,producer of the movie M_A_S_H, to win a share of the profits from TRAPPER JOHN, M.D. Conversely, this would mean that the TV-M_A_S_H’s profit participants did not get any share of the TRAPPER JOHN profits. :rolleyes: Seriously. Get it right. :: poster secretly ashamed he knows this tidbit of information and chooses to act like its common knowledge to compensate::