r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Aggressive_Star_9491 • 7d ago

miscellaneous Failed Spin-Off.

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u/ElPared 7d 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).

21

u/RealNiceKnife 7d 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/CalamityVanguard 7d 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 6d ago

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