Daria is a spin-off, but I’m pretty sure King of the Hill isn’t. I mean, Hank and Tom Anderson are pretty similar but they are different characters.
Big Bang Theory → Young Sheldon → George and Mandy’s First Marriage
Love, American Style, Happy Days, Joanie Loves Chachi
Yeah; the presence of Munch doesn’t make L&O: SVU a spin-off of Homicide: Life on the Street.
BTW:
While we are talking terminology, would you consider Xena: Warrior Princess a spin-off of Hercules? or is it that the episodes of Hercules featuring the character Xena (IIRC, there are 3, and they are non-consecutive, buy they have just a one-episode break-- they are A, B & D, in a row, in other words, which does not make her a regular character, and do have a story arc) form a 3-part, backdoor pilot?
To me, spin-offs, and backdoor pilots are entirely different, and a series can’t be both, but maybe other people feel differently.
Also, I have heard the term “continuation” for series that pick up where another left off. The Connors is a “continuation,” not a spin-off, of Roseanne. AfterMASH was a continuation, not a spin-off of MASH, and Archie Bunker’s Place was a continuation, not a spinoff of All in the Family,
I’m not really sure what the requirements for “continuation” as opposed to “spinoff” are, other than that the first series has to be finished. I’m also not sure what percentage of the cast has to continue (or “characters,” maybe, not “cast”) to make the distinction. Not sure what to call Lou Grant.
How about “unique”?
Lou was a secondary character in a half-hour sitcom set in Minneapolis. Then, he became the main character in an hour-long drama set in Los Angeles. That doesn’t often happen, that a sitcom character becomes a dramatic character. But it works in Lou Grant’s case.
I suppose that it helped that Lou’s Minneapolis and prior past continued. As far as the LA Tribune was concerned, Lou did indeed have a past in the news, in a Minneapolis TV station. But he got his start in print journalism, as Charlie Hume knew.
It’s complicated, but the writers were able to port the gruff and grumpy Lou from a sitcom about a single girl, into a drama about a gruff and grumpy city editor for a major newspaper. But it worked.
That’s why I’d suggest Lou Grant is unique. I cannot imagine other contemporary sitcom characters getting their own drama shows. Richie Cunningham as an investigative reporter? Venus Flytrap as a music producer? Balki Bartokomous (“Perfect Strangers”) as a UN interpreter?
No character could translate over from comedy to drama as easily as Lou Grant could. The fact that he did, IMHO, makes him unique.
I give you https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapper_John,_M.D.
Happy Days really isn’t a spinoff of Love, American Style. LAS had no recurring characters, it was an anthology show that also served as a vehicle for pilots, like HD.
Trapper John MD had a different actor playing the main character. The conditions in the OP called for the same actor to continue in the same role in the spinoff.
I wasn’t replying to the OP, I was replying to Spoons comment about the Lou Grant character being unique.
As I mentioned in my first post, this doesn’t meet the criteria I am looking for. Same characters, different actors.
The shows I was wondering about are the ones who had a regular character/actor that appeared in multiple shows, maybe even multiple seasons, who got their own show, then a show spun off of that show. With some of the answers mentioned, the 1st spinoff was a one time appearance on a show (pilot show) then spun off, not a regular or semi regular character.
The Brady Brunch → The Brady Brides → The Bradys (This is more continuation rather than spin off)
Dr Who → The Sarah Jane Adventures → Sarah Jane’s Alien Files (this is more of a clip show, not really a new series)
The Kids of Degrassi Street → Degrassi Junior High → Degrassi High → Degrassi: The Next Generation → Degrassi: Next Class (I don’t know enough about these to know if they are really spin offs, continuations, or just a rename)
Do shows like NCIS and Mork and Mindy count as spin-offs?
The characters in the new series appeared in only a single episode of the original series. Those characters were not series regulars (like Frasier was on Cheers) or even recurring guest characters (like Maude was on All of the Family) .
Disney had a series titled Good Morning, Miss Bliss about a class of junior high students. The series only lasted a single thirteen-episode season but three of the student characters were then placed in a new series, Saved by the Bell, as high school students. After four years, the characters graduated to college and the new series was Saved by the Bell: The College Years. Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Dustin Diamond played the same characters in all three series.
There is a concept of a backdoor pilot, where a regular episode of series is used to introduce a character or set of characters for their own spin-off. Mork on Happy Days was version of that, although the spin-off (Mork and Mindy) hadn’t really been fully proposed yet.
The NCIS spin-offs were planned all along. The characters were introduced with the spin-off shows already fully planned.
My favorite failed backdoor pilot was Gary Seven from the Star Trek TOS episode Assignment: Earth.
Whether these are true spin-offs is up to the reader.
Similar to the Star Trek discussion I am unclear how The Muppet Show and the following shows featuring The Muppets would be classified.
The Shari Lewis Show → Lamb Chop’s Play-Along → The Charlie Horse Music Pizza
Amd Mork spun off Out of the Blue, a failed sitcom about a wannabe angel in Chicago.
I remember a backdoor pilot in an episode of The Brady Bunch. The funny thing is that when we saw that episode in the 1970s we recognized it as a backdoor pilot. I don’t know how we even knew that term back then.
Those are just continuations or sequels. I wouldn’t really call them spinoffs, it’s all the same story in order. Characters who were kids in the first series were then parents and teachers in the later ones, played by the same actors.