Media spin-off is the process of deriving new radio programs, television programs or video games or even novels from already existing ones. Spin-offs work with varying degrees of success. Some become very popular and last for a number of seasons, whereas 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 Gildersleeve 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.
Sometimes, as a springboard for a character spin-off, a special "backdoor pilot" episode within the parent series will be created, to establish the new supporting characters and setting for the child series. Examples of this include an episode of Three's Company to establish The Ropers, and an episode of The Danny Thomas Show to establish The Andy Griffith Show. These special episodes usually stand out as oddities in the parent series' continuity, especially if the spin-off is unsuccessful (and therefore little-known) or even aborted without ever spinning off (e.g. an episode of Welcome Back, Kotter established family characters and a home setting for a proposed spin-off based on Arnold Horshack, but the series – to be titled Horshack – was never produced).
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). There are even some examples of spin-offs generating their own spin-offs, leaving the new show with virtually no connection to the original series. Examples of this type of secondary-spin-off include Good Times and Models Inc".
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, radio dramas, television series, and video games set within the same universe.
In sketch comedy shows, the particular popularity of one character or setting may form the basis of a newly commissioned series, such as the Ali G shows which originated as a part of the The 11 O'Clock Show. This can also occur for humorous skits in regular talk shows, such as The Simpsons.
In soap operas, where the original show is broadcast 'before the watershed', spin off series may be created where the program wishes to air more controversial topics, or adult content, such as the Hollyoaks late night specials. As such, these do not introduce plot details required to understand the original series.
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 plot 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 the final episode unaired.
The popular cartoon Batman: The Animated Series was brought back after cancellation with a new name and a new smoother animation style. The New Batman Adventures only lasted 24 episodes. It was later renamed The Adventures of Batman and Robin.
The original Doug was created anew with Disney's Doug.
Six years after the British sitcom Are You Being Served? ended, a new series started up featuring 5 of the 6 cast members from the final season of the original show. The new show was entitled Grace & Favour (aired in the United States as Are You Being Served? Again!) and featured the characters from the original show transplanted into a new setting.
After 3 series of the prison based sit-com Porridge, the main character of Norman Stanley Fletcher was released from prison and the show was retooled as Going Straight. It sees Fletcher trying to re-emerge as a valued member of society, having vowed to stay away from crime on his release.
Support character getting own show (during run)
Angel was a popular spin-off, based on the character of Angel (the vampire with a soul) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The series ran for five seasons.
Private Practice is a current spin-off of the popular Grey's Anatomy, based around the life of Dr. Addison Montgomery. The spin-off itself, introducing the show's cast, was set up during a season three episode of "Grey's Anatomy."
The Dukes of Hazzard spun off TV series Enos starring DeputyEnos Strate. He was invited to Los Angeles to join a special police team after he had caught two infamous criminals in Hazzard. The series was canceled after one season and the character returned to The Dukes of Hazzard.
The series A Different World, a spin-off from The Cosby Show, was originally created as a vehicle for Lisa Bonet's character, Denise Huxtable. In an unusual turn of events, even though Bonet was written out of A Different World after the first season and returned to The Cosby Show, Different World continued – and thrived – for another five seasons without her.
The only daytime soap opera to spin off a primetime soap is As the World Turns. In 1965, the producers capitalized on the popularity of the character Lisa Miller Hughes and created a limited-run show around her character, called Our Private World. A year after the nighttime show ended, Eileen Fulton, Lisa's portrayer, returned to ATWT, where she remains today.
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 proved in court that it was instead a spin-off of the movie).
By 2007, the long-running BBC series Doctor Who with 9 in total, is the show with the most amount of spun off media. The first was a one-episode spin-off made in the 1980s 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 the Doctor himself. In 1989 the spin-off Wartime was made, about the adventures of some of the UNIT personnel. 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 child-oriented than Dr Who. K-9 is currently in production, and there is also an animated serial The Infinite Quest.
Kinnikuman spun off Tatakae!! Ramenman, which depicts Ramenman in his native country of China. However it's not the same Ramenman as in the series and is instead an ancestor of the main Ramenman.
Frasier is one of the most critically acclaimed and 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 (which is how long Cheers ran). The spin-off was arguably more popular than the original series.
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 spun off 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.
Highlander: The Raven was spun off from Highlander: The Series, featuring the recurring character of Amanda. Highlander: The Series was itself a spin-off from the Highlander film franchise, featuring a relative of the film's protagonist.
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.
NCIS is a spin-off with its characters originating from JAG.
The Practice was a TV series that ran for nine seasons on ABC and then was canceled. New characters who were introduced during the ninth season (including two who won Emmys) appeared in a spin-off, Boston Legal.
The Law & Order series has spawned a total of five spin-offs: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Crime & Punishment (a documentary series as opposed to scripted drama), the short-lived Trial by Jury, and Conviction. Special Victims Unit (aka SVU) is an oddity, in that it is technically a spin-off of two different series: the character of Det. John Munch (played by Richard Belzer) actually originated on Homicide: Life on the Street. Prior to SVUs debut, Munch had already been established as part of the Law & Orderuniverse, having appeared in a pair of cross-over arcs between Homicide and the original L&O. It is noteworthy that the Munch character has appeared (in both guest and recurring roles) in a total of eight different television series, a record for a character played by a single actor (see John Munch).
CSI, the popular series produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, has produced two spin-offs: CSI: Miami and CSI: NY. CSI: Miami is connected to the original series by a cross-over episode, while CSI: NY started in a cross-over episode with CSI: Miami (Miami and NY have had further cross-overs in later seasons).
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 Night Man.
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