Some say that the characters and stories are what drive the development of TV series in Hollywood, but the true driving force of the industry is one thing: money. If a show does well and needs to come to an end (or even if it’s not coming to an end), the show’s producers almost always consider the potential for a spinoff.
Shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Friends, and The Brady Bunch were all replaced with spinoffs shortly after the end of their run, whereas other shows like Family Guy, Arrow, and Daredevil received their spinoffs while their series still continued.
Whether the spinoff is meant to replace or to add to an ever-expanding series, the ultimate goal is almost always to make more money. Take, for example, The Cleveland Show, which was a fairly successful spinoff from Family Guy.
While the show had decent viewership for a few years, it didn’t receive nearly as much attention from the head writers as Family Guy did, and thus it eventually crumbled. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, however, as the only goal was to get FOX more viewership, which it did during its first few successful seasons.
Sometimes spinoffs do a fantastic job of spinning their own way, having writers that focus on more than just a paycheck, whereas others shows simply try to make a bit of dough following the fallout of the original.
With that in mind, here are the 8 Great Shows You Didn’t Know Were Spinoffs (And 7 That Never Should Have Been Made).
Great: The Office
Of all of the British-turned-American TV series, The Office is certainly the most notable, and arguably the best. The U.S. version made it to a whopping 9 seasons, compared to the U.K. version’s 2 season run. Additionally, it seriously propelled the careers of actors like Steve Carrell, John Krasinski, and Ed Helms.
The show earned itself a Golden Globe nomination every year for six years straight, with one win. However, the most successful period of time for the show is arguably present day, as it is one of the most binged series on Netflix.
Its recent rise back in popularity has actually encouraged NBC to look into revamping the show.
While the U.S. version of the show was more successful and well known, both series were fantastic, making it hard for fans to decide upon which one was actually superior.
Ricky Gervais’s Office character David Brent even made cameos in the U.S. version, proving that the two shows can coexist in harmony.
Shouldn’t Have Been Made: The Muppets.
The Muppets made their first, groundbreaking comeback in 2011 with their feature-length, nostalgic movie The Muppets, which featured the likes of Jason Segel and Amy Adams in the lead roles.
After its sequel Muppets: Most Wanted didn’t do as great at the box office, the series decided to make its return to TV with The Muppets., which isn’t a confusing new title at all.
This show, set-up as a “mockumentary” like The Office, was the first Muppets TV series since the original Muppet Show spinoff Muppet Babies ended in 1991. Unfortunately, this was the first Muppet TV show to not do well in the slightest, and not make it past its first season.
The issue was that the show didn’t really have a clear target audience.
The show starred children’s characters, but in a series that was meant for adults and bored almost every child that watched.
It didn’t click for most adults either, with the views and ratings going down each week. Hopefully the next Muppet TV series, the rebooted Muppet Babies, turns out a lot better.
Great: Drake & Josh
Nickelodeon’s track record for spinoffs isn’t completely horrid, as they’ve had a few successes in their past. Their most notable hit has to be Drake & Josh, which earned itself 4 seasons and an avid fanbase.
The show starred two new stepbrothers, Drake and Josh, who were forced to move into the same bedroom and deal with the devious antics of Drake’s younger sister Megan.
Drake and Josh were originally regular characters on The Amanda Show for the majority of its run. While they weren’t stepbrothers on the show, and their history in The Amanda Show is not part of Drake & Josh, their characters and names were still identical between the series.
After The Amanda Show was cancelled, showrunner Dan Schneider took their two characters and put them into a fresh scenario in Drake & Josh, which proved itself to be the more successful series.
Shouldn’t Have Been Made: Joey
One of televisions most iconic sitcoms may always be Friends. This show told the stories of a group of young adults in one of the best comedies of television history.
The entire series was groundbreaking, and fans were devastated when it came to its end in 2004. However, in the darkness that was the end of the series, a glimmer of hope came over the horizon. That glimmer of hope was Joey.
Unfortunately for Friends fans, this glimmer was actually a glimmer of false hope, as Joey proved to be a truly disappointing spinoff for the series. While it appeared like NBC was hoping that Joey would pick up like Frasier, it was a critical failure, not to mention its viewership dropping 80% during the series’ total run.
Once American Idol became such a phenomenal hit for NBC, the station realized they no longer had room for Joey, and gave the one-man Friends spinoff the boot his show long deserved.
Great: Shameless
Shameless has quickly become an extremely popular series today, having just ended its 8th season. As wildly successful as the show is, it is actually a hybrid spinoff / reboot. There is a trend in TV to take popular British series and make American versions of them. Shameless was one of these shows.
The British Shameless earned itself 11 seasons, coming to an end in 2013, two years after the U.S. version of the show began.
While the beginning of each series was similar, the U.S. version started to go its own way after the showrunners realized how successful and popular it had become.
Since then, the U.S. version of Shameless has earned itself two Golden Globes nominations and a number of Primetime Emmy wins, in addition to an ever-expanding fanbase.
Shouldn’t Have Been Made: Life Of Kylie
Keeping Up With The Kardashians is often credited for revolutionizing today’s reality shows, and has earned itself a number of successful spinoffs. However, one particular Kardashian spinoff that didn’t perform well at all was the short-lived Life of Kylie.
This series, with only 8 episodes, followed the life of Kylie Jenner, the youngest member of the family, who has arguably taken the spotlight in recent years.
While Life Of Kylie certainly had the formula to succeed, something just didn’t click for the show.
This is primarily credited with Kylie learning to conceal her inner emotions, having grown up with cameras around her. Fans loved her in Keeping Up With The Kardashians, but when she was thrown into her own show, people realized that she didn’t have as much to say as her sisters, and quickly lost interest.
There’s no word if Life of Kylie will get a second season, but due to the low ratings and viewership of season 1, it doesn’t seem likely.
Great: Family Matters
“Did I do that?” is a quote still mentioned to this day, having become an iconic memory from the cheesy ’90s sitcom Family Matters. What a lot of people forget, however, is that Family Matters was actually a spinoff of the late ’80s sitcom Perfect Strangers.
Family Matters gave focus to the Winslows, the recurring family from Perfect Strangers, and began airing during the height of Perfect Strangers’ run. While Family Matters didn’t earn itself as many Emmy nominations as its predecessors, it has undoubtedly become the more memorable today.
Of course, both shows managed to attract plenty of weekly viewership and both received fantastic ratings, so it may be safe to argue that each show was equally successful as the other in their own right.
Shouldn’t Have Been Made: The Brady Brides
While you probably know about the classic family sitcom The Brady Bunch, there are not many who have heard of its short-lived spinoff, The Brady Brides. In 1981, seven years after the cancellation of The Brady Bunch, The Brady Brides attempted to bring back some of the original’s most familiar faces.
Jan and Marcia, the two daughters of the Brady family, return in this series, now fully grown. They’ve met the guys of their dreams, and are trying to convince them to settle down in their dream house… and that’s it. That’s about as far as the plot thickened before the show reached its sudden end only 7 episodes in.
The reviews of the series were bad, and the weekly viewership was worse. It seems that without the patriarch of the family, the Brady’s aren’t nearly as interesting. At least it gave some sort of closure for fans of The Brady Bunch who wondered what happened to the Brady girls, even if it wasn’t the closure they wanted.
Great: Sabrina The Teenage Witch
Sabrina The Teenage Witch was a witch-themed TV spinoff that earned itself 7 seasons, airing from 1996 through 2003. While many people tried grasping at straws to make it connect to the other popular witch series Bewitched, it was actually a spinoff from The Archie Show.
Sabrina was one of the most popular characters from Archie Comics, and made occasional appearances on the original show during its run in the late ’60s.
After The Archie Show came to an end, Sabrina earned her own animated spinoff show with two seasons in the early ’70s.
Over 20 years later, ABC brought Sabrina back, giving her her own live-action series at last, which surpassed the success of The Archie Show and the original Sabrina The Teenage Witch.
Shouldn’t Have Been Made: Sam & Cat
Nickelodeon is no stranger to horrible spinoffs, but arguably its worst attempt has to be Sam & Cat. While the show in theory could’ve worked, as it attracted audiences from two popular series that were coming to an end, it failed in execution.
The show brought together the comedic relief characters from iCarly and Victorious, having them become roommates that start their own babysitting service.
In hindsight, the issue was that both characters were originally comedic reliefs, which, as many already know, don’t work out well as protagonists.
This would be like giving Donkey from Shrek and Olaf from Frozen their own movie. Would it be funny? Sure. However, would the story have any emotion or drive to it? Probably not.
Regardless of how and why, Sam & Cat just didn’t click for audiences, earning itself some truly awful ratings and cancellation after only one season.
Great: The Colbert Report
Originally, The Colbert Report was the name of a satirical news show referenced on the series The Daily Show, back when it was hosted by Jon Stewart.
The Colbert Report was shown as an ad-based parody of conservative-based shows like The O’Reilly Factor, and was a welcome addition to the antics of The Daily Show.
However, in 2003, Stephen Colbert’s costar Steve Carrell left to pursue a greater career, including The 40 Year-Old Virgin and The Office, and Stephen Colbert was influenced to do the same.
In order to avoid losing one of their most talented writers and stars, Comedy Central offered Colbert his own show, after being persuaded by Jon Stewart. Thus, The Colbert Report was born.
Since then, The Colbert Report earned itself 7 Primetime Emmy’s and nearly 1,400 episodes until its eventual end in 2014 when Colbert moved to take over The Late Show.
Shouldn’t Have Been Made: AfterMASH
One of the most groundbreaking and beloved TV series of all time was MAS*H, which earned itself 11 seasons with consistently high ratings throughout. It’s ironic, then, that the show also gave birth to one of the most disappointing TV series of all time: AfterMASH.
The show was a spinoff of the original, picking up right where MASH left off. Considering that it followed in the footsteps of the original, with the same showrunner from the second half of MASH, it was really a surprise that AfterMASH didn’t perform well. This can most likely be credited to the departure of the main cast.
AfterMASH followed a few of the original’s supporting characters rather than its leads. While this formula can sometimes work out, in this situation it did not, and AfterMASH came to an end after a mere 2 seasons.
Great: Frasier
As successful as Cheers was, it’s safe to argue that its spinoff Frasier was even more successful. Both shows managed to make it to 11 seasons with a consistently large audience for each episode, but Frasier was the one that came out with the most awards.
This spinoff managed to win itself 37 Emmy’s during its 11 year run, whereas Cheers only managed to earn 28 in the same amount of time.
Both are impressive feats for TV shows, but in terms of spinoffs, Frasier is undoubtedly one of the best.
Not only did it attract fans of Cheers, starting up the same year Cheers ended, and featuring one of the show’s main characters, but it also attracted its own fanbase.
To this day, Frasier and Cheers are often looked upon separately, with many people almost forgetting that they were even connected to begin with.
Shouldn’t Have Been Made: The Lone Gunmen
The Lone Gunmen was a failed spinoff series that aired during the final years of The X-Files in 2001. The show starred a trio of on-and-off characters from the original show, including Richard “Ringo” Langly, Melvin Frohike, and John Fitzgerald Byers, and told the story of their adventures.
These characters, who were known as the Lone Gunmen on the X-Files, would occasionally get some focus on the original show and were certainly interesting during their occasional appearances.
However, The Lone Gunmen proved that there can be too much of a good thing.
While Ringo and company were great side characters, they did not prove to be great stars, and the series didn’t make it past its first 13 episodes. Of course, this could also have been due to the decreased interest in The X-Files, as that series came to its end the very next year.
Great: The Simpsons
Twenty-nine seasons in and The Simpsons is still going strong. This show revolutionized television, paving a path that other series like South Park and Family Guy would eventually follow.
It’s earned itself 32 Emmy’s over the years, which is pretty remarkable for an animated series, and the characters have even been put on U.S. stamps, which is unheard of. There’s no limit to describe how iconic The Simpsons has become since its 1989 debut.
What many people don’t realize, however, is that The Simpsons was actually a spinoff from The Tracy Ulman Show. Homer, Marge and the rest of the family were originally the stars of short animated sketches on Ulman’s comedy series for three years.
Once FOX realized how popular the Simpsons family had become, they gave creators the opportunity to make it into a weekly, half-hour series. It’s unlikely that anyone at the time realized how successful The Simpsons would go on to be.
Can you think of any other great shows that are actually spinoffs? Are there any spinoffs that should’ve never been made? Sound off in the comments!
