1. AfterMASH 1983-1984
Spin-off from M*A*S*H
The Korean War had ended, but the creators of the hit show M*A*S*H, one of the most successful television shows of all time, just couldn't walk away. Like the Grey's Anatomy spin-off Private Practice — whose second season premieres tonight — AfterMASH took a main character out of a high-pressure medical situation and placed that person into ... a significantly less vital setting. Yanked from the cauldron of war, Colonel Potter, Sergeant Klinger and Father Mulcahy end up at a veterans' hospital. Scintillating. A well-received first season was followed by a disastrous second one when AfterMASH was placed against The A-Team. Then it was canceled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsuNOJ5KqJE
2. The Ropers 1979-1980
Spin-off from Three's Company
The listlessness of the first 40 seconds of The Ropers' credit sequence rarely dissipated over the show's ensuing 29 minutes. Turning the concept of Three's Company (the sitcom iceberg from which The Ropers calved) on its head, the show had Jeffrey Tambor's Jeffrey P. Brookes III serve as the straight-man foil to Norman Fell's Mr. Roper. See how they did that, flipping the script? It lasted little more than a year. Then it was canceled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x6OzgH3v5o
3. A Man Called Hawk 1990
Spin-off from Spenser for Hire
God, you really have to love the '80s (and the early '90s, which was basically still the '80s). An ABC spin-off of Spenser for Hire, the Robert Urich series based on the Robert B. Parker character, A Man Called Hawk, lasted little more than six months. It's hard to imagine why. Look at this show! Hawk (Avery Brooks, later of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame) is a badass. He has one name. He wears nothing but black. He wears sunglasses at night. Also, his name is Hawk. Incredibly, all those things may also explain why the show didn't last. It was grim and violent, though not without an occasional xylophone interlude (watch the opening sequence again). Then it was canceled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zge345LB5ZM
4. JOEY 2004-2006
Spin-off from Friends
This is likely what network executives thought:
A) Matt LeBlanc is on Friends.
B) Friends is funny.
C) A+B means Matt LeBlanc is funny.
D) Let's give Matt LeBlanc his own show, for it will be funny.
The problem with this line of reasoning, however, is that the third proposition is false. Hence, the entire thing instantly breaks down. Taking "Joey" out of New York City and away from his comic foils (especially Chandler), then moving him to Los Angeles and pitting him against his 20-year-old dorky nephew and Adriana from The Sopranos removed all the cute, clueless charm that made his character so lovable in the first place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G2it2zlULw
5. Booker 1989-1990
Spin-off from 21 Jump Street
Remember Johnny Depp? Hard to forget him, especially if you caught him when he first broke out on Fox's 21 Jump Street. Remember Richard Grieco? He was on 21 Jump Street too. And his character was so apparently popular that the network gave him a spin-off, Booker. Hard to believe now, especially since Grieco has essentially disappeared from the public eye. On Booker, his title character was hired away from the police force to work for a Japanese corporation (wha?). But he's still his own man, don't you see, because he shirks corporate attire, rockin' his leather jackets and torn jeans all while working as the in-house detective for a Japanese corporation. To go from scourge of the mean streets to glorified rent-a-cop is a steep fall indeed. After giving Booker a prime 7-8 p.m. spot on Sundays, the show was later moved to the less prominent 10 p.m. slot. Then it was canceled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xhjw3ZiFEs
6. Baywatch Nights 1995-1997
Spin-off from Baywatch
David Hasselhoff simultaneously starred in Baywatch and this two-year-long spin-off in which he moonlighted as a private detective. The most fascinating aspect of the series is the way it turned into a completely different show during Season 2. Nights ditched the whole crime-fighting thing and focused on the supernatural. Vampires, demons and sea creatures suddenly and inexplicably began to appear around the beach in droves, scaring away bathers — and viewers. Then it was canceled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4RNB76aGZI
7. Joanie Loves Chaci 1982-1983
Spin-off from Happy Days
The bad spin-off by which all subsequent bad spin-offs are measured. In this Happy Days stepchild, Chachi (Scott Baio), the Fonz's younger cousin, moves to Chicago with Joanie (Erin Moran), Richie Cunningham's younger sister, to start a band. They sang a lot, Joanie and Chachi. Not always very well, as is clear in this clip. There were stereotypically named characters — Mario, Rico, Bingo — and stereotypically cheesy songs. The main characters soon returned to Happy Days. After the show was canceled, that is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfl_1ndey4c
8. The Law and Harry McGraw 1987-1988
Spin-off from Murder She Wrote
This was sort of a dry run for Jerry Orbach. Years before appearing as Law and Order's Lennie Briscoe, Orbach starred as the titular private detective in this Boston-set Murder She Wrote spin-off. He was gruff and hard-edged (but with a soft center), yet a brilliant private eye. Nothing we hadn't seen before.
The title rhymes, though.
So that's cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KID3Kwwcv7M
9. The Lone Gunmen 2001
Spin-off from The X-Files
This X-Files spin-off starred the trio of dweeby conspiracy theorists who helped out Mulder and Scully from time to time. Often serving as comic relief on the original series, Byers, Frohike and Langley (first names were almost never used) similarly took on a hapless, Three Stooges–esque pose on their own show, which did not last very long at all. Creepily, the series premiere, in March 2001, involved a government conspiracy to crash a passenger airliner into the World Trade Center. Four months later, the show was canceled. Adding insult to injury, the Lone Gunmen themselves were killed off almost a year later on an episode of The X-Files.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUKQz-xm0is
10. Saved by the Bell: The College Years 1993-1994
Spin-off from Saved by the Bell
The clear mistake here was the assumption that the young people who appreciated the warm, corny humor of the original Saved by the Bell would continue to appreciate the exact same humor the older the characters got. Instead of tailoring even slightly their comedic approach, the people behind SBTB: TCY stayed creatively inert.
All that philosophizing aside, it was just a dumb show. Former L.A. Raider Bob Golic as a dorm RA? Dumb. Ditching Lisa and Jesse, but keeping Kelly because Kelly was supposedly the most attractive of the three? Dumb. Because guess what? The girl who played Jesse went on to star in Showgirls. Who's hot now?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD8YSpsLtA0
Spin-off from M*A*S*H
The Korean War had ended, but the creators of the hit show M*A*S*H, one of the most successful television shows of all time, just couldn't walk away. Like the Grey's Anatomy spin-off Private Practice — whose second season premieres tonight — AfterMASH took a main character out of a high-pressure medical situation and placed that person into ... a significantly less vital setting. Yanked from the cauldron of war, Colonel Potter, Sergeant Klinger and Father Mulcahy end up at a veterans' hospital. Scintillating. A well-received first season was followed by a disastrous second one when AfterMASH was placed against The A-Team. Then it was canceled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsuNOJ5KqJE
2. The Ropers 1979-1980
Spin-off from Three's Company
The listlessness of the first 40 seconds of The Ropers' credit sequence rarely dissipated over the show's ensuing 29 minutes. Turning the concept of Three's Company (the sitcom iceberg from which The Ropers calved) on its head, the show had Jeffrey Tambor's Jeffrey P. Brookes III serve as the straight-man foil to Norman Fell's Mr. Roper. See how they did that, flipping the script? It lasted little more than a year. Then it was canceled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x6OzgH3v5o
3. A Man Called Hawk 1990
Spin-off from Spenser for Hire
God, you really have to love the '80s (and the early '90s, which was basically still the '80s). An ABC spin-off of Spenser for Hire, the Robert Urich series based on the Robert B. Parker character, A Man Called Hawk, lasted little more than six months. It's hard to imagine why. Look at this show! Hawk (Avery Brooks, later of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame) is a badass. He has one name. He wears nothing but black. He wears sunglasses at night. Also, his name is Hawk. Incredibly, all those things may also explain why the show didn't last. It was grim and violent, though not without an occasional xylophone interlude (watch the opening sequence again). Then it was canceled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zge345LB5ZM
4. JOEY 2004-2006
Spin-off from Friends
This is likely what network executives thought:
A) Matt LeBlanc is on Friends.
B) Friends is funny.
C) A+B means Matt LeBlanc is funny.
D) Let's give Matt LeBlanc his own show, for it will be funny.
The problem with this line of reasoning, however, is that the third proposition is false. Hence, the entire thing instantly breaks down. Taking "Joey" out of New York City and away from his comic foils (especially Chandler), then moving him to Los Angeles and pitting him against his 20-year-old dorky nephew and Adriana from The Sopranos removed all the cute, clueless charm that made his character so lovable in the first place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G2it2zlULw
5. Booker 1989-1990
Spin-off from 21 Jump Street
Remember Johnny Depp? Hard to forget him, especially if you caught him when he first broke out on Fox's 21 Jump Street. Remember Richard Grieco? He was on 21 Jump Street too. And his character was so apparently popular that the network gave him a spin-off, Booker. Hard to believe now, especially since Grieco has essentially disappeared from the public eye. On Booker, his title character was hired away from the police force to work for a Japanese corporation (wha?). But he's still his own man, don't you see, because he shirks corporate attire, rockin' his leather jackets and torn jeans all while working as the in-house detective for a Japanese corporation. To go from scourge of the mean streets to glorified rent-a-cop is a steep fall indeed. After giving Booker a prime 7-8 p.m. spot on Sundays, the show was later moved to the less prominent 10 p.m. slot. Then it was canceled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xhjw3ZiFEs
6. Baywatch Nights 1995-1997
Spin-off from Baywatch
David Hasselhoff simultaneously starred in Baywatch and this two-year-long spin-off in which he moonlighted as a private detective. The most fascinating aspect of the series is the way it turned into a completely different show during Season 2. Nights ditched the whole crime-fighting thing and focused on the supernatural. Vampires, demons and sea creatures suddenly and inexplicably began to appear around the beach in droves, scaring away bathers — and viewers. Then it was canceled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4RNB76aGZI
7. Joanie Loves Chaci 1982-1983
Spin-off from Happy Days
The bad spin-off by which all subsequent bad spin-offs are measured. In this Happy Days stepchild, Chachi (Scott Baio), the Fonz's younger cousin, moves to Chicago with Joanie (Erin Moran), Richie Cunningham's younger sister, to start a band. They sang a lot, Joanie and Chachi. Not always very well, as is clear in this clip. There were stereotypically named characters — Mario, Rico, Bingo — and stereotypically cheesy songs. The main characters soon returned to Happy Days. After the show was canceled, that is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfl_1ndey4c
8. The Law and Harry McGraw 1987-1988
Spin-off from Murder She Wrote
This was sort of a dry run for Jerry Orbach. Years before appearing as Law and Order's Lennie Briscoe, Orbach starred as the titular private detective in this Boston-set Murder She Wrote spin-off. He was gruff and hard-edged (but with a soft center), yet a brilliant private eye. Nothing we hadn't seen before.
The title rhymes, though.
So that's cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KID3Kwwcv7M
9. The Lone Gunmen 2001
Spin-off from The X-Files
This X-Files spin-off starred the trio of dweeby conspiracy theorists who helped out Mulder and Scully from time to time. Often serving as comic relief on the original series, Byers, Frohike and Langley (first names were almost never used) similarly took on a hapless, Three Stooges–esque pose on their own show, which did not last very long at all. Creepily, the series premiere, in March 2001, involved a government conspiracy to crash a passenger airliner into the World Trade Center. Four months later, the show was canceled. Adding insult to injury, the Lone Gunmen themselves were killed off almost a year later on an episode of The X-Files.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUKQz-xm0is
10. Saved by the Bell: The College Years 1993-1994
Spin-off from Saved by the Bell
The clear mistake here was the assumption that the young people who appreciated the warm, corny humor of the original Saved by the Bell would continue to appreciate the exact same humor the older the characters got. Instead of tailoring even slightly their comedic approach, the people behind SBTB: TCY stayed creatively inert.
All that philosophizing aside, it was just a dumb show. Former L.A. Raider Bob Golic as a dorm RA? Dumb. Ditching Lisa and Jesse, but keeping Kelly because Kelly was supposedly the most attractive of the three? Dumb. Because guess what? The girl who played Jesse went on to star in Showgirls. Who's hot now?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD8YSpsLtA0
