A crowdsourced list of bad TV spinoffs
This week @TVKel and his followers came up with a big list of not so successful spinoffs, some you may not have even known existed. Lots of people remember that Joey spin-off after 'Friends' ended, but you remember Matt Leblanc's prior-failed spinoff projects?
- While not technically a spin-off, the final season of Laverne & Shirley (itself a spinoff of Happy Days) might as well have been. Cindy Williams left the show after the season premiere and Penny Marshall continued on without her. The series didn't change its name but Williams was not featured in the opening credits. The final episode was a backdoor pilot for yet another series that would have featured Carmine moving to New York and Marshall was only seen breifly at the beginning and ending of the episode.For a true trivia fans, check out Blansky's Beauties (from Happy Days) and Mr. T and Tina (from Welcome Back, Kotter) for the Pat Morita connection. I might ask questions about those on a future quiz! LOLHappy Days also spun-off Joanie Loves Chachi which was remembered:
- Then, the original Tabitha herself, Erin Murphy, chimed in about Tabitha!
- Three's Company tried a spinoff while it was still going called The Ropers and also tried a post-show spinoff called Three's a Crowd about Jack moving in with his girlfriend Vicky and dealing with Vicky's father as their landlord. The Ropers (Norman Fell and Audra Lindley) were out-of-luck once The Ropers were cancelled as new landlord Mr. Furley (Don Knotts) was popular in his own right. The Ropers made a final appearance on Three's Company but the stars were out of jobs.
Marla Gibbs was luckier when her spin-off of The Jeffersons called Checking In was cancelled after four episodes. Her character Florence was hired back by George Jefferson.- Joey rolls off a lot of people's fingers in Tweets about bad spin-offs, but do you remember Matt LeBlanc's pre-Friends role in a spin-off of Married With Children called Top of the Heap? What didn't come up in my Twitter feed that night was that Heap also had its own spin-off called Vinnie & Bobbie! LeBlanc played Vinnie on Married, Heap, and Vinnie.Meanwhile, while Frasier was a ratings and critical smash, a spin-off during the run of Cheers was not as successful. It was called The Tortellis (not The Torkelsons, a different show I originally tweeted as the name)
- Anybody remember What's Happening Now!! It ran in syndication and ran one episode longer than the original series. I don't remember it, but one of followers thought it was "pretty horrid."
