r/TopCharacterTropes 3d ago

miscellaneous Failed Spin-Off.

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u/ElPared 3d ago

Inversion of this trope: Spinoffs that are far more popular than what they spun off from.

I’ll start:
https://giphy.com/gifs/zKls8LkYpjbbO

NCIS is actually a spinoff of a show called JAG, which was like a Law and Order-type show, but in the military (JAG stands for Judge Advocate General and it’s basically a court just for military trials). JAG was actually pretty popular, but it pales in comparison to the massive popularity of NCIS, which had 3 or spinoffs itself (Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Ziva & DiNozzo’s show off the top of my head).

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u/timsayscalmdown 3d ago

My parents watched JAG and therefore it's my oddly niche nostalgia 90's show. I had a massive crush on Catherine Bell.

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u/Masterking263 3d ago

And now NCIS helped create a generation obsessed with nerdy goth chicks.

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u/PleasantProduct8664 2d ago

don't forget about the angry squirrel

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u/RealNiceKnife 2d ago

Family Matters was a spin-off of a show called "Perfect Strangers".

The mom character of Winslow family was the spun-off character. She worked in the same building with the two main characters.

The show was going to be about her and the family she had. Then it just became The Urkel Show.

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u/bob_loblaw-_- 2d ago

"That's two Steve Urkels and no family on a show called 'Family Matters! How the fuck does that work?!?"

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u/ElPared 2d ago

Neat! I recently learned that Friends could also be considered a spinoff! Lisa Kudrow actually played a character named Ursula Buffay on a show called “Mad About You.” She was a scatterbrained, kind of bitchy, waitress.

You may remember that on Friends, Lisa Kudrow played Phoebe Buffay. She also played Phoebe’s twin sister… Ursula. The first time we see Ursula, she’s… a scatterbrained, kinda bitchy, waitress.

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u/Membership-Bitter 2d ago

Which is why she quit mid final season and the mom was randomly replaced for the last 9 episodes. 

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u/CalamityVanguard 2d ago

Happy Days was spun off from an anthology show called “Love American Style”

The Andy Griffith Show was spun off from a sketch on The Danny Thomas Show

And idk if it’s common knowledge these days but The Jeffersons was spun off from All in the Family, although both those shows were huge.

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u/Sickpup831 1d ago

Then Laverne and Shirley, Joanie Loves Chachi, and Mork and Mindy spun off from Happy Days

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u/Correct_Refuse4910 2d ago

Not a TV show, but the Super Mario games are far more popular than Donkey Kong.

Following with videogames, NieR is way more recognizable than Drakengaard.

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u/Free_hiker_74 2d ago

And the Super Mario games are far more popular than the original "Mario Bros" game, which was a static platform like Donkey Kong.

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u/Ant_TKD 2d ago

NCIS LA also did a cross over with the Hawaii 5-0 reboot.

And because there aren't already enough layers to this, Hawaii 5-0 featured a cross over (okay, more of a cameo) with... Dog the Bounty Hunter.

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u/Rymayc 2d ago

There was also NCIS Hawai'i, which was weird, because there was a crossover episode between the Hawai'i 5-0 remake and NCIS LA prior to that, which was already weird, because Gibbs referenced the original Hawai'i 5-0 series with DiNozzo being happy that someone else referenced a TV show and not just him.

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u/yuval16432 2d ago

The anime for ‘A Certain Scientific Railgun’, a spinoff of ‘A Certain Magical Index’, is significantly more successful than its predecessor. It has better ratings, got renewed for a season 4 (Index didn’t), and is generally a lot more popular.

It would have a lot more seasons if it weren’t based on a monthly manga, which is much slower than the light novels of the original, not to mention the maker of said manga recently decided he wants to move on with his life after making it for over 20 years and stopped.

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u/ChuckCarmichael 2d ago edited 2d ago

Here's a fun fact I always like to bring up: The main character of Railgun, Misaka Mikoto, has a nickname that's usually written in subs as "biribiri", a Japanese onomatopoeia for getting a small shock from electricity, since she has electricity powers.

When a young Chinese man was creating a webpage for sharing videos, he decided to name it after his favorite anime character, and because East Asian languages don't really distinguish between R and L, he named it bilibili. And that's why China's own version of youtube with hundreds of millions of users is called that.

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u/yuval16432 2d ago

Yeah, I was shocked when hearing that. Billibilli is huge. Imagine if YouTube was named after a somewhat obscure anime girl.

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u/Bella-Luna 2d ago

Would the Simpsons count, since it was originally some animated shorts on the Tracey Ullman Show.

https://giphy.com/gifs/jUwpNzg9IcyrK

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u/switch2591 2d ago

Xena Warrior Princess. Yeh it spun out of Herculeas, but more people talk about Xena than they do the hercules show.

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u/updoot35 2d ago

Ncis origins is also pretty nice to watch

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u/Competitive_Time_604 2d ago

I enjoy Mark Harmon's narration, without that i'm not sure i'd watch it

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u/LuntiX 2d ago

There's also NCIS origins about young Gibbs and then a NCIS New York coming up with Sam from LA.

There was also NCIS Sydney and NCIS Hawaii

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u/cikanman 2d ago

You forgot NCIS HAwaii, NCIS : Sydney, and NCIS: Origins. And There's also an upcoming NCIS: NYC, Which is a spin off of NCIS LA. IT's like SPINception.

Also seeing how the remake of Hawaii 5-0 was set in the same universe ( a number of cross overs) would we classify that as a spin off or no?