# Spin off TV shows. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 16, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339 "2005-08-16T22:30:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/1 "2005-08-16T22:30:19Z")
I recently checked out a book from the public library that has about 500 TV shows in it, starting back in 1946 and going to today’s present date. It lists various things like the cast of characters in each show, who played them, what years they were on, what the show was about, and major changes that took place on the show. Every TV show that I know if is in this book, and, leafing through it, I’m surprised how many shows “begat” other shows. There were a lot of spin offs back in the 70s and 80s it seemed. For example: “Rhoda” and “Phillyis” and “Lou Grant” were all spin offs of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” Both “The Jeffersons” and “Maude” were spun off from “All in the Family”. And “Maude”, already a spin off, had a show that spun off from it…“Good Times”. Even small shows like “Barney Miller” had spin off’s: “Fish”. And big shows, in turn, had small spin off’s: “Three’s Company”: “The Ropers”. I’m only halfway through this book, so I’m sure there are tons more. What other shows do you know are or were spin offs of other shows? Whether they had long or short lives, list them in here. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/2 "2005-08-16T22:37:56Z")
_Mork & Mindy_, _Laverne & Shirley_ and _Joannie Loves Chachi_ were all spinoffs of _Happy Days_. _Mayberry, RFD_ was not so much a spinoff as a continuation of _The Andy Griffith Show_, which was itself a spinoff of _Make Room For Daddy_, the Danny Thomas vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/3 "2005-08-16T22:40:50Z")
_Family Matters_ was a spinoff of _Perfect Strangers_. _The Colbys_ was a spinoff of _Dynasty_. The shortlived _The Tortellis_ was a spinoff of _Cheers_, as was its longevitical converse, _Frasier_. ---
**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:** [August 16, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/4 "2005-08-16T22:41:31Z")
Make Room for Daddy spawned the Andy Griffith Show and it spawned Gomer Pyle & Mayberry RFD. Cheers begat Frasier and The Tortellis (very short lived). The Jeffersons also coughed up Checking In (with Florence taking a job in a hotel run by Larry Linville). ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/5 "2005-08-16T22:43:33Z")
_The Cosby Show_ had one moderately successful spinoff (_A Different World_) and several obvious kick-off episodes that never got developed, apparently (the one at the youth center with Tony Orlando is the one I remember the best). ---
**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:** [August 16, 2005, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/6 "2005-08-16T22:45:41Z")
Star Trek spun off TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/7 "2005-08-16T22:49:08Z")
What was up with “Green Acres” and “Petticoat Junction”, by the way? Did one spin off the other or were they both just two shows that happened to live in the same place (and have the same characters on each other’s shows from time to time)? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/8 "2005-08-16T22:51:03Z")
> [@Idle Thoughts](#): > > What was up with “Green Acres” and “Petticoat Junction”, by the way? Did one spin off the other or were they both just two shows that happened to live in the same place (and have the same characters on each other’s shows from time to time)? They were a weird kind of “shared-world” complex. _The Beverly Hillbillies_ was involved somewhere in there, too. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/9 "2005-08-16T23:29:40Z")
Charles in Charge had several episodes that were obviously meant to be pilots for other shows… I have no clue if any one of them made it to series. The one I remember for sure was about a car wash and one I vaguely remember was about a bakery. ---
**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:** [August 16, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/10 "2005-08-16T23:33:02Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > They were a weird kind of “shared-world” complex. _The Beverly Hillbillies_ was involved somewhere in there, too. Beverly Hillibillies came first (1962). Kate Bradley was Jed’s cousin(?). Green Acres came along later more as a companion series using Hooterville as a common factor. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/11 "2005-08-16T23:33:47Z")
‘MASH’ begat ‘Trapper John MD’ And of course spin-offs haven’t died. We’ve recently had ‘Joey’ spun off from ‘Friends’ and "Angel’ spun off from ‘Buffy’. > [@Idle Thoughts](#): > > And big shows, in turn, had small spin off’s: “Three’s Company”: “The Ropers”. Just to make that more complex, “Three’s Company” was an Americanisation of a British sit-com, “Man About the House”. MATH itself produced a spin-off, “George and Mildred”, and when American TV decided to do the TC verison of MATH they figured they could do G&M as “The Ropers” too. MATH also had the spin-off/sequel"Robin’s Nest", which AFAIK never had a US counterpart. Confused yet? ---
**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:** [August 16, 2005, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/12 "2005-08-16T23:41:14Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > MATH also had the spin-off/sequel"Robin’s Nest", which AFAIK never had a US counterpart. > > Confused yet? Not a sequel, per se, but after Jack got married and moved out, the show became [Three’s a Crowd](http://www.epguides.com/ThreesaCrowd/), which is similar enough to Robin’s Nest to be considered a copy. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2005, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/13 "2005-08-16T23:46:56Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > _Mork & Mindy_, _Laverne & Shirley_ and _Joannie Loves Chachi_ were all spinoffs of _Happy Days_. And _Happy Days_, in turn, was spun off a _Love, American Style_ story tirled “Love and the Happy Days”. Add _Gloria_ to the list of _All in the Family_’s offshoots. _Family Ties_ spawned the short-lived (one episode telecast) _The Art of Being Nick_. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2005, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/14 "2005-08-17T00:01:29Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > And _Happy Days_, in turn, was spun off a _Love, American Style_ story tirled “Love and the Happy Days”. Not really. A pilot for a show similar to Happy Days was produced, and rejected by the network. Rather than waste the footage it was butchered and used as a LAS episiode. Years later the network decided to revisit the idea and modified the original premise by hybridising the concept with “American Graffiti” to produce “Happy Days”. So HD wasn’t a spin-off of a LAS episode, it was an alternative version of the original pilot which was spun into LAS. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2005, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/15 "2005-08-17T00:11:10Z")
I believe the Brady Bunch attempted a spin-off with the Kelly “rainbow” (aka the black kid, the asian kid, and the white kid who got adopted together), but it obviously never took off. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2005, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/16 "2005-08-17T00:28:07Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > Star Trek spun off TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. These aren’t spin-offs. A spin-off takes a character that appeared on one show (even if only in one episode) and places him or her as the central character of a new show. That didn’t happen with any of the Trek shows. > [@jayjay](#): > > Mork & Mindy, Laverne & Shirley and Joannie Loves Chachi were all spinoffs of Happy Days. Another spin-off from Happy Days was “Out of the Blue,” about an angel named Random. > [@Idle Thoughts](#): > > For example: “Rhoda” and “Phillyis” and “Lou Grant” were all spin offs of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” And “Rhoda” had a one-shot animated spin-off featuring Carlton the Doorman. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2005, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/17 "2005-08-17T00:34:58Z")
This [massive site](http://www.poobala.com/crossoverlist.html) probably lists every spinoff and show crossover. I can’t believe no one has mentioned the Law & Order and CSI franchises, which are the big players in spinoffs these days. Was the book you checked out “The Complete Guide to Primetime Network T.V. Shows 1946-Present”? For years I would buy each new edition as it came out. We used to refer to it as the bible (or in less irreverent moments, the T.V. bible). Then came the internet and the IMDB, and I no longer needed a hard copy reference. But I still have the last one I bought (I think it was the 1994 edition) on my shelf. In fact, I used it this weekend, to look up some Night Court information during the marathon. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2005, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/18 "2005-08-17T00:39:57Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > Was the book you checked out “The Complete Guide to Primetime Network T.V. Shows 1946-Present”? YES! That’s it. Unfortunatly, the one I have is copywritten 1984. So yeah, it doesn’t have a lot of the last 20 years or so shows. I’d LOVE to be able to find a more current edition. Even if it’s just like, 1988’s or something. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2005, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/19 "2005-08-17T00:45:40Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > These aren’t spin-offs. A spin-off takes a character that appeared on one show (even if only in one episode) and places him or her as the central character of a new show. That didn’t happen with any of the Trek shows. Not _quite_ true. _Deep Space 9_ had Miles O’Brien as (if not THE central character) a central character. It also featured members of the TNG crew prominently in the pilot episode (Picard especially). Likewise, _Voyager_’s pilot featured DS9 rather prominently in the beginning. I still wouldn’t consider any of them spinoffs, but what you posted isn’t quite accurate. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2005, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339/20 "2005-08-17T00:50:16Z")
> [@Idle Thoughts](#): > > copywritten NOT to be an anal grammar noodge, but it’s “copyrighted”. A copyright gives the copyright holder the RIGHT to COPY the work. There’s no such thing as a “copywrite”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spin-off-tv-shows/317339.md?page=2)