Despite the Ted McGuinley curse, a prequel on Jefferson D’'Arcy from Married With Children could run for years.
How about Saul Goodman from Breaking Bad? Oh, wait… 
When Friends ended and they came up with that lousy Joey spinoff, I remember saying that if they were going to do a spinoff of Friends, they should do Chandler and Monica and their kids living in their new house. It wouldn’t have been a groundbreaking sitcom or anything, but they would be strong leads and they could get lots of story out of it. Besides, Everybody Loves Raymond was winding down. The “goofy suburban white couple with annoying neighors” subgenre was wide open.
I say shut up and take my money to whoever makes a Boardwalk Empire spinoff of the adventures of Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky. Vincent Piazza and Anatol Yusef had really good chemistry together in those roles. Include Michael Stuhlbarg as Arnold Rothstein and I’ll let Agent Van Alden baptize me.
The problem with a Young Ducky series is most of Ducky’s charm comes from being played by David McCallum. Could you find a young actor who could pull it off? (And who looks enough like him when he was younger to make the ‘people said I looked like Ilya Kuryakin’ joke work?)
Too bad #2 and onwards were terrible, and really kinda made a mess of poor Norrington.
Nitpicking: That was Gibb’s line. When asked what Ducky looked like when he was younger, Gibbs deadpanned “Ilya Kuryakin.”
If anyone is still watching Modern Family, you’ll notice there’s been a lot of screen time given to Haley and Dylan and their twins. I’m guessing the producers are at least exploring the idea of a spin off.
Axe. Sam Axe. Former FBI man living the playboy lifestyle in Miami and running a detective agency. Willing to take on not-quite legal jobs under the table. I believe Bruce Campbell could pull it off.
Northern Exposure’s Chris “In the Morning” Stevens would be an interesting protagonist.
Thanks for the correction.
Abed and Troy in the Morning.
I didn’t make it past more than a couple of episodes of Major Crimes, but some of my favorite episodes of The Closer were the annual ones focusing on Flynn and Provenza. I’m sad to hear they’ve changed.
As for the thread subject, I don’t write off any possibilities since Frasier. That’s the last character I would have expected to generate a successful Cheers spin-off. If you told me Vernee Watson’s recurring nurse on The Big Bang Theory/Young Sheldon was getting a spin-off, I’d think “Huh, it might have a shot…”
Troy and Abed in the Morning.
If Chuck Lorne doesn’t consider spinning off George Jr from Young Sheldon, starring Montana Jordan, he has no business being in TV. That actor has true star potential and (if he stays in the business and avoids the foibles) is going to the top.
Former Navy SEAL. He wasn’t an FBI agent, just an informant.
And he actually did have his own spin-off/prequel movie.
Didn’t he go on to take over all of the UK’s archaeology?
My mistake. It’s been years since I’ve watched Burn Notice. And yeah, I saw the prequel. That’s why I believe Campbell could have pulled off a Sam Axe series of his own.
That’s only because Troy was insisting on being first. Eventually Troy realizes that Abed is really better being listed first and a Warm Comedy Moment ensues. (Followed by Abed making a weird announcement about faulty condoms.)
Ewan MacGregor, maybe?