If we are including cartoons as spin off series, what didn't Hanna Barbara translate into animation in the 70's?! Gilligan's Island, Lassie's Rescue Rangers, Lost In Space, the list goes on and on.
Well, I really don't believe Mork and Mindy can be called a "spin-off" of Happy Days. The producers used Happy Days, a popular show at the time, as a launchpad to get M&M some exposure since the character was unknown to the public. The same goes for Melrose Place. The producers of BH 90210 inserted a couple of characters from the forthcoming MP series into a few episodes of 90210 just to introduce them and generate interest. The series was ready to go from that point.
I really cannot remember if The Bionic Woman was a true spin-off from The Six Million Dollar Man or if they used TSMDM as a launchpad for TBW as described above. I haven't seen those series since their original broadcasts.
"The Streets Of San Francisco" - "Bert D'Angelo Superstar" "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" - "Rhoda" and "Phyllis" "Gunsmoke" - "Dirty Sally" "Cannon" - "Barnaby Jones"
Well, I really don't believe Mork and Mindy can be called a "spin-off" of Happy Days. The producers used Happy Days, a popular show at the time, as a launchpad to get M&M some exposure since the character was unknown to the public. The same goes for Melrose Place. The producers of BH 90210 inserted a couple of characters from the forthcoming MP series into a few episodes of 90210 just to introduce them and generate interest. The series was ready to go from that point.
I really cannot remember if The Bionic Woman was a true spin-off from The Six Million Dollar Man or if they used TSMDM as a launchpad for TBW as described above. I haven't seen those series since their original broadcasts.
In my view, all these cases still count as spin-offs. You could call The Ropers an organic spin-off, because it took long-established characters from Three's Company, but a Mork-style "guest-shot to own-series" deal is still a spin-off, just more of an artificial one.
SMDM introduced The Bionic Woman character with absolutely no intention of giving her a series. So much so that they even killed her off on SMDM before realizing that she was super-popular, and then they had to bring her back to life somehow.
Except that isn't a spinoff, seeing that unlike the arrangement with Mork from Ork Barnaby Jones never appeared on Cannon until AFTER his own show began (Frank Cannon appeared in BJ's pilot, but that's not the same thing).
The Beverly Hillbillies begat Petticoat Junction which begat Green Acres.
"Petticoat Junction" was NOT a spinoff of "The Beverly Hillbillies", since its pilot was never seen on the series, and only the characters from both series were seen on "The Beverly Hillbillies" after they debuted.
The Brady Kids The Brady Brides The Bradys The Brady Bunch Variety Hour
plus TV and theatrical movies.
Aren't most of those - in fact, ALL of those - continuations of the original series? (That said, the episode "Kelly's Kids" was set up to launch a spinoff.)
