# TV Series That Spun Off The Rails

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 15, 2016, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819 "2016-05-15T04:13:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-series-that-spun-off-the-rails/754819/101 "2016-05-26T23:53:32Z")

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> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#):
>
> Steve Carrell leaving “The Office”, Topher Grace leaving “That 70s Show”, Ron Howard leaving “Happy Days”, and others. Sometimes it doesn’t mean the death of the series, though. David Caruso leaving “NYPD Blue” left open the door for Dennis Franz to stealthily become the lead. But you might note that Caruso left after the first season, not several seasons in.

Ron Howard leaving didn’t even come close to killing Happy Days, either. Erin Moran and Scott Baio leaving for their spinoff hurt the show’s ratings more than that had.

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