True.
It is cool that they continue to use same the FBI agent in charge on The Rookie despite the Feds show going belly up.
Speaking of spinoffs, there’s Law & Order → Law & Order: SVU (with Donald Cragen from L&O) → Law & Order: Organized Crime (with Elliot Stabler from SVU)
As I understand it:
When Paul Henning (creator of the first two shows, and executive producer of the third) was casting The Beverly Hillbillies, one of the actresses he was considering for the role of Granny was Bea Benaderet, with whom he’d worked on several radio and TV comedies, and who had become his friend. He ultimately decided that Benaderet was too buxom for the role (he had pictured Granny as being skinny and wiry), and after casting Irene Ryan as Granny, he gave Benaderet a recurring role as Jethro’s mother (and Jed’s cousin) Pearl Bodine – Pearl appeared frequently in the show’s first season, and became a breakout character.
Due to the tremendous success of The Beverly Hillbillies, CBS offered Henning another time slot for a new show. He decided to give Benaderet a starring role, and built another rural comedy – Petticoat Junction – around her. Though both shows had a rural focus, there weren’t initially any direct in-universe ties between the two, and Benaderet played a different character (Kate Bradley), with a very different personality from Pearl’s. Petticoat Junction was, at most, an indirect spinoff of The Beverly Hillbillies, as it was a vehicle for an actor from the the initial series (but in a very different role), and also had that rural focus.
When Petticoat Junction was a hit, as well, CBS offered Henning yet another time slot. Feeling already overextended, he offered the slot to writer and producer Jay Sommers, who had been working with Henning on Petticoat Junction. Sommers then adapted a concept he had produced as a “summer replacement” radio comedy in 1950, Granby’s Green Acres…which had, ironically, starred Benaderet as the impractical wife. Sommers (and Henning) took advantage of Petticoat Junction’s popularity, and set Green Acres in the same rural town (Hooterville), with many of the same supporting characters. So, not a direct spin-off, so much as a true “sister show.”
Petticoat Junction and Green Acres had a number of episodes in which the stars of one show (as well as the supporting characters) appeared on the other show.
And, finally, late in the run of all three series (before the 1971 “rural purge”), there were several episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies which were set in Hooterville, featured characters from Petticoat Junction and Green Acres, and finally established that Hillbillies was, indeed, also in the same universe.
Star Trek-Star Trek Discovery-Star Trek Strange New Worlds
Technically Star Trek Prodigy is a spinoff of Star Trek Voyager but calling it this feels kind of forced
And Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a direct spin-off from Discovery, as well as a retcon prequel to the Original Series.
Which characters on Discovery are played by the same actors that played them on TOS?
Once again, the OP’s explicit request for the thread:
Any other TV shows that one of the spinoffs had a spinoff that involved the same characters played by the same actors? The Big Bang Theory had the same characters (Sheldon, Mary, Meemaw) but different actors so George and Mandy doesn’t fit what I am asking.
Also L&O Criminal Intent.
Was there any character from Law & Order who was in the main cast of L&O Criminal Intent (season 1)?
John Munch, perhaps?
IIRC, yes for a few episodes.
Bumping for a completely random bit of trivia I just stumbled across. The Backdoor Pilot, introducing a character on an established show as a way to prepare audiences for a series with this new character, was invented by Sheldon Leonard. Who was Sheldon Leonard? Among his many acting roles (before becoming a director and producer) was Harry the Horse in Guys and Dolls.
He collaborated with Danny Thomas a lot, and created the Andy Griffith show from an episode of the Danny Thomas Show. He’s also where the writers got the names for the leads of The Big Bang Theory.
I think there’s a valid comparison between the two in that MASH and The MTM Show both had poignancy and moments of pathos, that grounded it in reality, and made the transition to a 1-hour drama show more believable.
A show that was raucous, and “shallow” in terms of injecting real, emotional moments probably would have much more difficulty transitioning a character to a drama-- imagine trying to transition a character from Seinfeld (“no hugging; no learning!”) or *Married with Children."
and therefore putting the thread top on my “Unread” page, so I have to comment!
And the reason I kept wondering if either of the leads was supposed to be Jewish.
Those two sentences don’t seem like they belong together.
Not really.
One is about tastes. The other is about fandom / enthusiasm. It’s possible to have unsophisticated tastes without being somebody who gets excited about dumb entertainment. IOW, it’s all meh to me.