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Spinoff (media)

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Main article: spin-off

Media spin-off is the process of deriving new radio or television programs from existing ones (see list of television spin-offs). Spin-offs work with varying degrees of success. Some become very popular and last for a number of seasons, others exceed the popularity of the forebearing show and others are poorly received and have considerably shorter life spans.

This phenomenon was already established in radio before the advent of commercial broadcast television, for example The Great Gildersleeve was a spin-off from Fibber McGee and Molly. The Great Guildersleeve might even have been the very first spin-off, when the popular character from Fibber McGee and Molly was given his own show.

Jack Benny's popular radio program spawned at least two spin-offs when blustery bandleader Phil Harris and naif Dennis Day launched their own programs after their success on Benny's show.

In genre fiction, the term parallels the usage in television; it is usually meant to indicate a substantial change in narrative viewpoint and activity from that (previous) storyline based around the activities of the series' principal protagonist(s) and so is a shift to that action and overall narrative thread of some other protagonist(s), which now becomes the central or main thread (storyline) of the new sub-series. The new protagonist generally appears first as a minor or supporting character in the main story line within a given milieu, and it is very common for the previous protagonist to have a supporting or cameo role, at the least as a historical mention, in the new sub-series.

Variants of spin-offs

Television spin-offs come in several variations, including:

  • New characters are specially incorporated into an existing series for the sole purpose of being launched into their own show that will feature no regular characters from the original series, except possibly as guest appearances (e.g. Empty Nest from The Golden Girls, Melrose Place from Beverly Hills, 90210, or Boston Legal from The Practice).
  • Regular characters from a series continue in their own series after the original series ends (e.g. George and Mildred and Robin's Nest from Man About the House; Frasier from Cheers; Joey from Friends). This is usually done with the same actors, though not always.
  • A new series is started with the same theme and existing in the same universe as the original series, but may not necessarily have the same characters. Examples of this type are the Star Trek, Stargate, Law & Order, and CSI series. These are sometimes called franchises.
  • A series that begins in one medium is branched out into other media with material that may or may not be canonically related to the primary production. Examples of this include Tokimeki Memorial, which began as a video game and later branched out into anime and CD audio dramas, and Star Wars, which includes the six feature films, numerous novels, and video games set within the same universe.

Examples of notable spin-offs

Name changes/retoolings

  • The main character from All in the Family, Archie Bunker, continued in a retooled version of the series called Archie Bunker's Place.
  • After the seventh year of Da Vinci's Inquest, most of the main characters returned the next season for Da Vinci's City Hall. The new series carries over some of the same plots threads, the difference being a slight shift in themes that began in the last season of the original series. City Hall is sometimes even referred to as the eighth season of Inquest.
  • Before the final season of M*A*S*H the main cast voted as to whether or not to continue the series. The final vote was 4–3 against. William Christopher, Jamie Farr, and Harry Morgan wanted to continue work on M*A*S*H, and, after the eleventh season, they began work on AfterMASH. It lasted just two seasons and 30 episodes, with one unaired (the final one).

Support character getting own show (during run)

  • Trapper John M.D. was another spin-off from the movie M*A*S*H. (When sued by the makers of the series M*A*S*H, the makers of Trapper John, MD proved in court that it was instead a spin-off of the movie.)
  • By 2007, the long-running BBC series Doctor Who with 8 in total, is the British show with the most amount of spin offs. A one episode spin off was made in the 1980's based on the character of Sarah Jane Smith called K-9 and Company. The film Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans features one of the race of Dr Who Villains, but for licensing reasons not Doctor Who Himself. In the 1990s, Reeltime distributed PROBE a series of five made-for-video movies featuring Caroline John as her Pertwee-era character, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw. BBV, on their part, produced and released a series of movies based on one of Dr Who's Villains: Auton, Auton 2: Sentinel and Auton 3. In 2006 the BBC launched another spin-off, Torchwood, aimed at a more adult audience and featuring Captain Jack Harkness from the newer series. The Sarah Jane Adventures is currently airing, however is more children orientated than Dr Who. The K-9 Adventures is currently in production, and there is also an animated serial The Infinite Quest.


Support character getting own show (after original series ended)

  • Frasier is one of the most popular spin-off series of all time, based on the character Dr. Frasier Crane from the American sitcom Cheers. The series ran for eleven seasons.
  • Mary Tyler Moore spin-off Lou Grant. Unusually, Lou Grant is of a different genre (drama) than its parent show, which was a situation comedy.
  • Trapper John M.D., while being a drama and using a character from the TV M*A*S*H, was actually not a spin-off from the TV comedy-drama M*A*S*H, but was spunoff from the more dramatic film (which the TV M*A*S*H was also sourced from).
  • Joey was spun-off from long-running show Friends after the show's final season. Focusing on the character Joey Tribiani, Joey ran for two seasons but was taken off the schedule before airing its final episodes.

Shows from segments/episodes of anthology series

  • The longest running spin-off is The Simpsons, which was created as a series of animated segments for the sketch series The Tracey Ullman Show, and featured the voices of four cast-members. In one episode of "The Simpsons", secondary-characters are given their own segments in a so-called "spin-off showcase", parodying classic TV series.

TV Franchises

In film

In video games

In comics

Some notable examples of comic book characters who at first were supporting characters in one comic but then got their own titles include the Smurfs who originated in Johan and Peewit, Marsupilami who at first was the pet animal of Spirou et Fantasio, and the Legion of Super-Heroes who first appeared in Superboy which in turn was a spin-off from Superman.

For more examples, see the List of comics spin-offs.

Remakes

Main article: Remake

One notable case which is not a spin-off is when the same series is later remade. Examples include Battlestar Galactica (1978, 2003), He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983, 2002), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987, 2003)).

Cross-overs

Main article: Fictional crossovers

Sometimes even where a show is not a spin-off from the other, there will nevertheless be cross-overs, where a character from one show makes an appearance on another. A notable example of this are Ursula and Phoebe Buffay, twin sisters played by Lisa Kudrow who normally are on different shows, Mad About You and Friends respectively, but sometimes meet. This is also done by Ray Romano and Kevin James with Everybody Loves Raymond and King of Queens. Steve Urkel from Family Matters was also shown to be the cousin of one of D.J.'s friends on Full House. The title character from Ally McBeal appeared on episodes of The Practice, both David E. Kelley shows.

Sometimes crossovers are created in an attempt to provide closure to fans of another failed series. For example, Millennium’s characters Frank & Jordan Black (played by Lance Henriksen and Brittany Tiplady) appeared alongside Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in the X-Files 1999 episode "Millennium" (episode #7.05). This allowed the fans to have some closure, as none was given when Millennium was abruptly canceled prior to the 1999 season.

Sometimes show producers will re-introduce a character from an older series into a later one as a way of providing a connectivity of that particular producer's television "universe". TV producer Glen Larson is particularly known for this; for example, the character of Jonathan Chase (played by Simon MacCorkindale) from Glen Larson's failed 80's show Manimal appeared in an episode of Larson's syndicated 90's series Nightman.

See also

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