12 Spin-Off TV Shows You've Forgotten About
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Sometimes having a hit TV show isn't enough. Even though some series run for years, with dozens of seasons and hundreds of episodes, TV executives know that for every ratings smash there are' many more shows that disappoint and are quickly cancelled. With a constant demand for new, popular content, the spin-off show is an obvious way to instantly transfer the popularity of a series to another without having to build a new audience from the ground up.
That's the theory anyway. There are obviously some extremely successful examples of TV spin-offs--Frasier, Better Call Saul, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Angel are all great shows in their own right, and every bit as good as the parent shows they were originally derived from. But these are the exceptions.
The majority of TV spin-offs ultimately never achieve the popularity of the original shows, proving just how hard it is to create a hit. One common basis for a spin-off is to take a character who has previously been part of an ensemble cast, and craft a new show around them. While this can work (as Frasier and Better Call Saul proved), there has to be a compelling change of situation or story. Simply doing the same thing again but without the chemistry of that previous ensemble is not enough and audiences rapidly tune out.
Other spin-offs repeat a popular formula or concept, but with a slight variation or new characters. This obviously worked well for crime procedural shows such as CSI and Law & Order, but even those huge TV properties ultimately came to an end, with final spin-offs that audiences had little interest in. So here's a look at some of the TV spin-offs that no one remembers...
12. Young Americans (2000)
Young Americans was the spin-off from the much-loved teen drama Dawson's Creek. However, it was retroactively connected to that show in that lead character Will Krudski was written into it in order for the spin-off to exist. It was also sponsored by Coca-Cola, with the Coke logo showcased prominently in the opening credits and the drink featured in many episodes. But despite some praise for the show's attempts to deal with various moral issues, ratings were low and it was cancelled after just eight episodes.
11. The Lone Gunmen (2001)
This X-Files spin-off is a classic case of producers thinking that a popular supporting character or characters could headline their own show. The young hackers of the title had appeared in several popular episodes of the X-Files, and the show was well recieved by hardcore fans. But without Mulder and Scully, more casual viewers quickly lost interest in them. The Lone Gunmen lasted 13 episodes and today is mostly remembered for the eerily prescient pilot episode which featured a plane hijacking and near miss with the World Trade Center, several months before 9/11.
10. CSI: Cyber (2015-2016)
After three hugely successful series in the police procedural franchise--Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: NY, and CSI: Miami--a fourth spin-off premiered in 2015. Unfortunately, CSI: Cyber proved to be a/the last gasp for the CSI franchise and was cancelled after two poorly received seasons. This show focused on a CSI division that put cyber criminals to use by using their hacking skills to solve crimes. Despite a talented cast (Patricia Arquette, James Van Der Beek, Ted Danson), it quickly became clear that audiences were simply not very interested in watching crimes being solved from behind a keyboard. (Disclosure: CSI: Cyber is produced by GameSpot’s parent company CBS)
9. K-9 (2009-2010)
Doctor Who has spawned several spin-offs, most notably Torchwood, plus the Sarah Jane Chronicles. The least known is this kids show focused on the Doctor's robot dog, which was produced in Australia. As the show wasn't a BBC production, K-9 contained no actual references to Doctor Who, and it took three years for it to even make it to the US, eventually screening on SyFy. Despite some early talk of a second season, it ultimately never happening.
8. The Finder (2012)
The procedural comedy-drama Bones was a massive success for Fox--it finished after 12 years and 246 episodes, making it the longest-running one-hour drama series ever produced by the network. Inevitably there was a spin-off. The Finder originated as what's termed a "backdoor pilot"--essentially a pilot episode for a spin-off that is also a regular episode of its parent show. A Season 6 episode of Bones led to The Finder, in which a traumatised Iraq war veteran uses incredible abilities to see "patterns" in everyday life and solve crimes. As with the X-Files spin-off The Lone Gunmen, what made for a good single episode failed as a full series, and The Finder was axed after 13 episodes.
7. Caprica (2010)
Battlestar Galactica was that TV rarity--a reboot show that vastly improved on the original and it remains one of the best sci-fi series of the past two decades. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the short-lived spin-off prequel, Caprica. The show premiered in 2010, a year after the main show finished, but only managed a single season. Like many prequels, the producers made the mistake of thinking viewers cared deeply about events before the show they loved--in this case, the origin of the Cylons and the younger life of BSG's iconic Commander Adama. But they didn't, and the result was a very average sci-fi drama that no one was particularly sad to see the end of. In 2012 there was an attempt at a second spin-off, titled BSG: Blood and Chrome, but that one never even made it to TV. Instead the pilot episode was divided into 10 short parts and released online.
6. Law & Order: Trial By Jury (2005-2006)
Like CSI: Cyber, this fourth entry in the Law and Order franchise was one too many. The focus this time was purely on the trial, without any of the police work that made the other shows much more interesting. Trial by Jury never even made it to the end of its first season--NBC cancelled it before screening the final episode, which was only seen when Court TV re-ran the season months later.
5. Stargate Universe (2009-2011)
The sci-fi show Stargate SG-1 was itself a spin-off of the 1994 movie Stargate, and it proved to be a hugely popular, long-running hit, clocking in no fewer than 214 episodes over its 10 year run. Stargate Universe wasn't the show's first spin-off--Stargate Atlantis premiered in 2004--but it is the least remembered. This show expanded the Stargate concept to follow a space exploration team trapped billions of light years away from Earth and their attempts to get home. It attempted a darker, grittier take than previous shows, but with many critics complaining that it just made for a boring series, it was cancelled after two seasons.
4. Time Of Your Life (1999)
This spin-off from the acclaimed teen drama Party Of Five was created to give a lead role to Jennifer Love Hewitt. She had become a movie star in the years since Party Of Five premiered in 1994, and Time of Your Life put the focus entirely on her character Sarah, as she moves from San Francisco to New York to start a new life. Unfortunately, the new show had problems from the start--the original pilot was entirely rewritten and reshot before Fox would air it, and after ten poorly received episodes the show was put on hiatus for five months. When it did return, it lasted only two more episodes before being cancelled, and the remaining seven were never seen in the US.
3. The Tortellis (1987)
This terrible spin-off from the comedy classic Cheers lasted only 13 episodes. The show focused on Nick Tortelli, the loutish ex-husband of the main's show Carla, and his new trophy wife Loretta as they set up a new life in Las Vegas. The characters had appeared in Cheers previously and returned to it after this show's welcome cancellation. Luckily, the next Cheers spin-off--Frasier--proved to be considerably more successful.
2. Buddies (1996)
Yet another example of a spin-off based around characters who were briefly popular in the main show. In this case comedians Dave Chappelle and Jim Breuer appeared in the hit '90s sitcom Home Improvement as two guys who appeared on the fictional show Tool Time asking for love advice. Hardly the basis for an entirely new series you might think--and you'd be right. Breuer was replaced by Christopher Gartin during rehearsals, and only five of the 13 produced episodes were ever aired. Even Chappelle had harsh words about it, telling CBS News: "It was a bad show. When we were doing it, I could tell this was not gonna work."
1. Baywatch Nights (1995-1997)
While it isn't a surprise that the huge success of The X-Files led to a variety of imitators, no one expected one of those shows to be a Baywatch spin-off. But that's exactly what happened to Baywatch Nights, which launched off the back of the hugely success lifeguard hit and saw David Hasselhoff's character Mitch set up a detective agency. Initially Mitch was solving "normal" cases but the show took on an increasingly odd paranormal edge before being cancelled after two terrible seasons.