So I just looked up TV Spin Off's on Wikipedia and was stunned at some spin-offs I had no idea about or how many spinoffs some shows had. Some I had to read about just to remember the connection.
So I've compiled a few of them, the connections and cast notes.
Dawson's Creek had a spin-off called Young Americans that only lasted 8 episodes in 2000. The main character, Will Krudski, was introduced late in season three of Dawson's Creek as a childhood friend of the group who has kept in contact with Pacey Witter. Will goes to Capeside to visit with old friends while on spring break. After briefly dating Andie McPhee he returns to Rawley.
Some interesting cast notes: Katherine Moenning went on to star in The L Word as Shane McCutcheon. Ian Somerhalder went on to have some success on Lost and The Vampire Diaries. Kate Bosworth has had a somewhat successful career starring in several movies. Guest appearance by Charlie Hunnam as a bad boy went on to one of the best shows on Television Sons of Anarchy. Now movie star Michelle Monaghan also made guest appearances as Will's love interest.
Take a look at the wonderful promo:
Family Ties also had a couple of spin-offs, I had heard something about one of them on Twitter a few weeks ago. First I'll list off Day by Day and it's details first.
Brian Harper (played by Sheehan) was a college roommate of Steven Keaton from Family Ties. The show centers around a married couple with successful careers (he as a stockbroker, she as a lawyer) and a teenage son. After the couple had a second child, they decided to quit their jobs and open a day care center in their home. The episodes mixed stories about the day care center with those about the teenager and his friends. Louis-Dreyfus played a materialistic neighbor, while Thorne-Smith played the baby's nanny. A total of 33 episodes were produced and only 1 season aired. 33 Episodes was one season?? Wow.
Interesting Cast Notes: The show had actresses Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Courtney Thorne-Smith and Thora Birch on it and they all went on to varying successes. Mark Gordon went on from the show to become an award winning producer. He produced hits like Saving Private Ryan, The Day After Tomorrow, Tomb Raider and Speed. He also produces several television programs; Grey's Anatomy, Criminal Minds, their spin-offs and Army Wives.
Take a look at this cast picture!
The second spin-off from Family Ties was The Art of Being Nick. It was a sitcom pilot created by Mark Helford, later of Roseanne, and starring Scott Valentine as artist/environmentalist Nick Moore. Also in the cast were Kristine Sutherland (who would go on the play Joyce Summers on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who would go on to play Elaine Benes on Seinfeld), and John Daman. The show centered Moore's return to his hometown of Dayton, Ohio, to reconnect with his family.
There are two versions of the show's production history. In the first, The Art of Being Nick was a straight spin-off of the Nick character from Family Ties, but it was deemed too bizarre and burned off in the summer of 1986. The other story is that the two shows were not originally connected. NBC wanted a crossover appearance on one of their current hits as a preview of The Art of Being Nick, and chose Family Ties since it was also set in Ohio (Columbus). In fall 1985, following the two-hour Family Ties Vacation movie and a two-part season opener, the third show of the season introduced Nick as Mallory's (Justine Bateman) boyfriend. The appearance was a hit, and NBC, never enamored with the pilot, decided to keep Nick as a recurring character on Family Ties. The pilot aired the following summer in Family Ties' time slot.One of the spin-offs I did know about was Just The Ten of Us that was spun-off from Growing Pains. What I didn't know was who was in the series. Let's put up some series details and then get to the interesting casting notes. Just the Ten of Us was an sitcom starring stand-up comedian Bill Kirchenbauer as Coach Graham Lubbock, a teacher and the head of a large Catholic family with eight children living in Eureka, California. The series was a spin-off of Growing Pains, in which Kirchenbauer portrayed the same character on a recurring basis. As the series progressed, Coach Lubbock's four eldest daughters, the teenagers Marie, Cindy, Wendy and Connie became the primary focus of the show. Just the Ten of Us aired on ABC starting with a trial run on April 22, 1988 and ending on May 13, 1988. After the first four episodes in an abbreviated first season were aired, the show was renewed for two more seasons, eventually ending after 47 episodes on May 4, 1990. The show was most notably a part of what would become that network's TGIF programming block. The only reason it was cancelled was the producers were in a battle with ABC so the network pulled it off the air and it never returned.
Interesting casting notes: Heather Langenkamp was mostly famous for her roles in The Nightmare on Elm Street series. What is interesting is that in 1988 she played the Marie character on Growing Pains and then on Just the Ten of Us. But then she was on Growing Pains again as a totally different character, Amy Boutillier. Heather also went on to play Nancy Kerrigan in a 1994 television movie. Jamie Luner went on to be in the original Melrose Place and is now working on All My Children. Matt Shakman who was JR on the series went on to direct such things as; The Good Guys, Ugly Better, House M.D., It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Brothers & Sisters and Six Feet Under to name a few. While that is pretty interesting, the most interesting casting is this; President David Palmer from 24 played Coach Lubbock's assistant coach. I've been surfing the net trying to find a picture of this, but I cannot and that's really too bad.
I used to love Head of the Class back in the day, but I didn't know that there was a spin-off. Billy aired on ABC for half a season from January to May 1992. A spin-off of Head of the Class, the series stars Billy Connolly as Billy MacGregor, a Scottish teacher who moves to America in order to build a new life for himself. Following the end of the Head of the Class series, Billy moves to Berkeley, California where he marries Mary Springer (played by Marie Marshall), a single mom with several children, so he could get his green card. The marriage is arranged in order to prevent Billy from being deported back to the UK. Billy becomes Mary's boarder, living in her basement apartment with the strictest of rules: no drinking, no smoking, no pets, and no sex. The series followed Billy's misadventures as he adjusts to life in California while staying one step ahead of immigration officials seeking to prove his marriage is a sham. Meanwhile, his relationship with Mary's children deepens to a parental level, and Billy and Mary likewise find themselves drawing closer together, although the series was cancelled before this subplot could be carried out.
Interesting cast notes: One of the children was played by current geek Leonard Hofstadter on The Big Bang Theory. Clara Bryant went on to several film and television roles like Molly on Buffy The Vampire Slayer for several episodes.
Another bit of shocking reading was that Inspector Gadget had FOUR spin-offs! Gadget Boy and Heather, Gadget Boy's Adventures in History, Gadget and the Gadgetinis and Inspector Gadget's Field Trip. Wow.
Everyone knows that a few shows spun out of Happy Days, but did you know that Happy Days itself was spun off from an episode of Love, American Style? Neither did I. That went on to further spin-off's including Laverne & Shirley (which had 3 spin-offs itself), Mork & Mindy(Had one spin-off) and Joanie Loves Chachi.
They attempted to do a spin-off of MacGyver but it didn't quite make it. The Coltons were a family of bounty hunters that appeared in MacGyver. They consisted of Frank, Jesse, Billy, Mama and the dog Frog. The first appearance is in the episode "Ma Dalton" where Jesse is actually out to arrest Jack Dalton's mother, but ends up joining forces with MacGyver and Dalton instead. The most prominent feature of the Coltons is in the episode "The Coltons" where MacGyver is merely given a cameo appearance and the Coltons are the focal point. The episode, which aired on ABC on 14 October 1991, was intended as a pilot episode for a spin-off about the Coltons, but failed. Starring as the Coltons were; Cleavon Little, Richard Lawson, Cuba Gooding Jr and Della Reese.
I really don't think I knew that Jake and the Fatman was a spin-off of Matlock. Looking back, it did have the same look and feel as Matlock, but I don't think I got the connection.
This one I seem to recall but I don't think I realized who was in it. Party of Five was a fantastic show back in the late 90's, well, it had a spin-off called Time of Your Life starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. I do seem to remember the show was awful. It featured the character Sarah Reeves Merrin whom Hewitt portrayed on Party of Five. The show centered on Hewitt's character's new life in New York City as she tries to find out more information about her biological mother's life in New York City before she bore Sarah, and search for her biological father. Along the way, Sarah moves into her mother's old apartment and makes a new group of friends. Who might those friends be? Why none other then Jennifer Garner and Pauley Perrette who went on to achieve fame on NCIS. The show was cancelled during it first season.
Another great 80's show that I used to love was Perfect Strangers. Before Family Matters, Harriette Winslow was originally the elevator operator at the Chicago Chronicle newspaper office in the third and fourth seasons of Perfect Strangers. Family Matters was a spin-off series given to this character in 1989. In the second episode of Family Matters, Harriette was fired as elevator operator at the Chronicle, but was soon re-hired as "Chief of Security", which explained her absence from dealings with the Perfect Strangers cast. In a 1991 episode "Stephanie Gets Framed", Steve Urkel helps Stephanie Tanner (Jodie Sweetin) deal with her anxiety after she has to wear eyeglasses. In a Family Matters episode titled "Beauty and the Beast" Urkel sent a chain letter to his friend Cory Matthews, (Ben Savage) who lived in Philadelphia. In an episode of Boy Meets World, Cory says he receives a chain letter from his friend Steve. The two never actually appeared together on either show. In the original ABC broadcast, the ending gag of Family Matters' third season episode "Brains Over Brawn" is crossed over with the opening of the second episode of Step By Step, "The Dance". Urkel's jet-propelled flight pack causes him to fly through the Winslows' roof as one show ends, and crash-land in Port Washington, Wisconsin, where the Lambert-Foster family is enjoying a barbecue as the other show opens. Urkel goes on to help his science-fair pen pal, Mark Foster (Christopher Castile), and lifts Al Lambert's (Christine Lakin) spirits after her potential date dumps her just before a school dance. He reprises his "Do the Urkel" dance in the scene where Al gives the guy who dumped her his comeuppance. Urkel also makes a brief cameo in the 1997 episode "A Star Is Born", snapping a clapperboard on the set of the movie that Al was cast in over her two sisters. Another interesting note on Family Matters, Jaleel White played 7 different characters on Family Matters.
One of my favorite comedies of all time is Soap, I'm not sure if you've ever taken the time to watch Soap. You really should, so many famous people came from that show in it's short run of only 4 years. From Soap came Benson and it's one of the few spin-offs that lasted longer then the original.
Another spin-off I did remember was Living Dolls, if you remember this was a spin-off that came from Who's the Boss. The show featured Charlie Briscoe, a friend of Samantha Micelli. Samantha is dabbling in a modeling career and Charlie, a friend from Samantha's old Brooklyn neighborhood comes to visit. While doing some test shots for a dog food commercial, it is discovered that Charlie is very photogenic. Charlie was then befriended by the owner, Trish Carlin of a modeling agency for teenaged girls. The reason I've included this one in this post is because of who was in the cast.
Leah Remini of course played Charlie Briscoe who went on to star in King of Queens for several years. Turns out that Halle Berry and Vivica Fox played the same character, Fox play Emily Franklin in the pilot episode which had to be re-shot in which the role was then given to Halle Berry.
Turns out Living Dolls wasn't the only spin-off they did from Who's the Boss. They tried to make one around Mona(Katherine Helmond) and the pilot tested so badly that it never even made it to air.
The other was called Charmed Lives and it starred Donna Dixon and Fran Drescher. It's described as two women with nothing in common, that are constantly feuding, becoming friends while competing for the role of Princess Viancelli on a string of pasta commercials run by Angela Bowers' ad agency. They become such close friends that they decide to share an apartment. Stellar stuff right there folks, no wonder it only lasted 4 episodes.
One spin-off that I didn't know about was one from Cheers, relax I know Frasier came from Cheers. I'm speaking of The Tortellis which was based around Carla's ex-husband and slimeball Nick Tortelli and his new wife Loretta Tortelli played by Jean Kasem. Somehow this wonder even with guest appearances by Carla, Norm and Cliff only lasted 13 episodes. I can't imagine why.
Enjoy the first ten minutes of this wonder child.
Wow, I didn't know that Family Feud was actually a spin-off of a game show called Match Game.
One last thing I'd like to pass on for this post, did you remember You Can't Do That on Television? Did you know that it had 3 spin-offs? No, either did I.
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