Popularity can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, if a television show doesn’t reach a certain audience then it won’t get to live on in the first place, but it’s when shows become staggeringly popular that they can begin to run past their natural end dates and stoop to other methods to stay alive. Spin-offs are the most popular way to keep a show’s universe around and they continue to be a mixed bag even now. Typically the major ingredient in whether these spin-offs will work or not is whether they’re made out of passion for the source material or if they’re just a way to cash in on the latest hit. A spin-off like Young Sheldon arguably isn’t necessary for any story purposes, but that doesn’t mean that it still can’t be popular. At the same time, there are spin-off series that seem like sure-fire successes that completely fall flat, and misguided ideas that end up more acclaimed than the series that spawned it.
Spin-offs remain a fascinating gambit that have been around since nearly the start of the medium and it’s clear that they’re not going out of fashion any time soon. To perhaps better understand these curious oddities of television, we’ll break down some of the most notorious titles. Here Are The 15 Worst Classic Sitcom Spin-Offs (And The 15 Best)!
30 Worst: Saved By The Bell: The College Years
The original Saved by the Bell found its audience and knew how to tell light high school stories that were just ridiculous enough to establish a personality for itself. The cast may have been filled with many archetypes, but they were iconic for their generation.
It’s a natural temptation for shows that are set in a high school to extend themselves into post-secondary education, which is exactly what happened in Saved by the Bell: The College Years. Much to the disappointment of many fans, the bulk of the show’s female cast left and their new replacements couldn’t hold a candle to the original. The show also became too serious for its own good.
29 Best: Fuller House
In one of the bigger revivals that Netflix has pulled off, the series put together an inspired spin-off that actually plays into the time that’s passed since the conclusion of the initial show. Some spin-offs work by striking when the property is still hot, but the opposite style works here.
Fuller House is basically the same family coming of age style sitcom as Full House, but there are now even more generations in the household and the former children now leading the pack. And it’s not like the original series was Shakespeare.
28 Worst: The Ropers
Three’s Company was a major success for CBS, so when sitcoms became all the rage in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the farcical comedy wasn’t afraid to indulge in the area. However, with Three’s Company, the logical spin-off potential lies in Jack, Janet, or Chrissy, not the curmudgeon-y landlords, Stanley and Helen Roper.
The Ropers removes the titular couple from their landlord roles when they sell their apartment complex from Three’s Company and instead relocate to greener pastures. The premise of the series looks at Helen’s efforts to fit into her new posh community while Stanley’s resistant to change, much to her embarrassment. It’s just a question of whether we really needed this show.
27 Best: Benson
Robert Guillaume gives a truly memorable performance as Benson DuBois, the butler with a mind of his own on the program, Soap. Producers and the network didn’t want to lose Guillaume’s star power so they designed a vehicle that would make Benson the start and add layers to his wisecracking character.
Benson is more of a typical sitcom than Soap, but it still adds depth to Guillaume’s character and he even won an Emmy for his performance in the role. Soap would go on for seven seasons and Benson would slowly become more affluent as the show goes on. He comes a long way from his humble start as a butler.
26 Worst: The Tortellis
Everybody knows the Cheers spin-off, Frasier, but it’s a little known fact that it's actually not the first Cheers spin-off. Before there was Frasier, there was The Tortellis, even if it’s hard to conceive of such a loose spin-off. The series focuses on Carla’s ex-husband and his new trophy wife as they relocate to Las Vegas to build a TV repair business. Dan Hedaya and Jean Kasem played Nick and Loretta Tortelli, but the fact that these characters got their own show is kind of inconceivable.
The Tortellis failed to catch on with audiences, but Carla, Norm, and Cliff all made guest appearances on the show before the Tortellis eventually returned to Boston.
25 Best: Green Acres
The Beverly Hillbillies was such a success for CBS that the network was very generous with giving Paul Henning carte blanche to create new series. The results were Petticoat Junction and its spin-off and companion series, Green Acres. Green Acres practically reverses the formula that’s established in Henning’s other series. This show looks at a privileged couple from New York City that relocates to a rural farm community and deals with the culture shock.
Green Acres would progressively grow weirder as it went on and built a very distinct voice for itself that arguably makes it more interesting than Petticoat Junction. It would last for 170 episodes of rural hilarity.
24 Worst: Enos
Sometimes there can just be too much of a good thing, which was exactly the case with the Dukes of Hazzard spin-off, Enos, which centers on Hazzard County deputy, Enos Strate. Enos took the small town deputy to the big city of Los Angeles and paired him with a new partner.
Enos was a popular character on Dukes of Hazzard, but apparently people didn’t need a whole show of his adventures. The spin-off only lasted for eighteen episodes, in spite of a heavy push for the show and gratuitous guest appearances and connections back to Dukes of Hazzard. Each episode was even book-ended by Enos writing a letter to Daisy Duke about his exploits.
23 Best: Good Times
Spin-offs can sometimes get away from themselves and it’s kind of crazy when supporting characters of supporting characters resonate so much. For example, Good Times spins off Florida and James Evans from Maude, which is in itself a spin-off of All in the Family.
Good Times was an influential comedy due to its honesty and it’s the first two-parent African-American family sitcom. The bulk of the show’s storylines see Florida and James try to rise above poverty in Chicago. It offers a completely different perspective than what’s present in Maude or All in the Family.
22 Worst: Joanie Loves Chachi
Happy Days would birth a copious amount of spin-off series, but when it was getting older and approaching the end of its run, it was looking for some young blood that could replace it. Scott Baio and Erin Moran’s Joanie and Chachi proved to be popular with young audiences on Happy Days, so the two were transplanted to Chicago and set against the British Invasion music scene.
Joanie Loves Chachi watches the couple attempt to make it as musicians as the series blends both comedy and music in a creative way, but the show would only last two seasons. They were ultimately better as supporting characters.
21 Best: Daria
It’s actually astonishing that Daria, a show and character that’s become a cult figure for female empowerment and counter culture values owes its life to something as lowbrow and juvenile as Beavis and Butt-Head. It’s even more impressive that MTV’s Beavis and Butt-Head were just interstitials that were largely around music videos, yet Daria became a full-fledged half-hour sitcom that offers deeper stories than its predecessor.
Daria wasn’t a runaway success for MTV, but the network always struggled to figure out what to do with animation. The series has since gone on to gain an incredible following over the years.
20 Worst: Phyllis
Sometimes spin-offs get pushed through purely off of the charisma of a certain actress, which is the case with the Cloris Leachman vehicle, Phyllis, which is a spin-off that focuses on her character from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In Phyllis, Leachman’s Phyllis Lindstrom moves to San Francisco with her daughter to start life over after the passing of her husband.
The most unfortunate thing about Phyllis is that its first season started off strong (Moore even crossed over in two episodes!) and Leachman even won a Golden Globe for her performance. It’s when the show’s ratings and popularity fell in the second season that the plug was pulled.
19 Best: Mork & Mindy
If you’re willing to go so far as to drop an alien into your nostalgia sitcom, then you might as well give that alien their own show. All the rules are out the window at that point. Plus, if you have talent like Robin Williams at your disposal then it’d be a wasted opportunity to not go for broke with a zany alien spin-off.
Mork & Mindy centers on Mork, from Planet Ork, after a memorable one-episode stint on Happy Days. Mork & Mindy is a sitcom in the same vein as its predecessor, but it embraces the weirdness of Mork’s alien status and often feels more akin to Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie.
18 Worst: Tabitha
Tabitha is basically Bewitched’s version of Joey. Bewitched had a highly celebrated run for eight seasons so it’s not surprising that the network would want to prolong that legacy, yet Tabitha would not only last just one season, but it would actively enrage fans of the original series
Tabitha looks at Tabitha Stephens, the witch daughter of Samantha and Darrin, yet this series outright defies Bewitched’s continuity. The biggest example of this is that when Bewitched ends, Tabitha is just a child, yet this series takes place right after and Tabitha’s now in her twenties. It’s a mess of a show that’s just a diluted version of what came before it.
17 Best: Laverne & Shirley
Laverne & Shirley is another offshoot of Happy Days, albeit one with considerably less extraterrestrials in it than Mork & Mindy. Laverne & Shirley ran for eight seasons and nearly 200 episodes, and it’s a testament to how a spin-off doesn’t always need a brilliant premise, but just strong, authentic relationships. Laverne & Shirley is a glowing example of female friendship and the titular characters are just regular friends from the Midwest who do their best at life.
Happy Days may have excelled at its depictions of the time period and a larger community of people, but Laverne & Shirley is all about the power of friendship and it’s full of iconic characters.
16 Worst: Living Dolls
Some spin-offs are complete mysteries and it feels like they’re just there to fill spots in the network’s schedules at times. Living Dolls is a Who’s the Boss? spin-off that centers on Leah Remini’s Charlie Briscoe. Charlie was a minor friend of Samantha on Who’s the Boss?, yet she suddenly becomes the nucleus of a sitcom.
Living Dolls is set in the cutthroat world of modeling, but also showed the sense of family within the industry, too. The series was panned across the board and only lasted twelve episodes. It probably would have lasted even fewer without the tenuous Who’s the Boss? connection.
15 Best: The Facts Of Life
The Facts of Life was a mainstay of the 1980s and ran for an impressive nine seasons and over 200 episodes. It's one of the better examples of how successful a spin-off can be.
The show takes Charlotte Rae's Edna Garrett from Diff’rent Strokes and relocates her to an all-girls boarding school as a housemother. Edna's role continues to change as the show goes on, but she remains in a mentorship position for young girls and the series builds a sweet sense of family throughout its run. It’s definitely a series that represents the wholesome aesthetic of the ‘80s and it offers a more sanitized approach to comedy and obstacles than other shows.
14 Worst:Top Of The Heap
The pre-2000s years of television are so packed with spin-offs that it’s kind of incredible to look at some of the sitcoms that were given companion series. It makes it all the easier to totally miss that something like Married…With Children could get a seven-episode spin-off that stars Matt LeBlanc (and this would still be the most successful of three failed Married…With Children spin-offs).
Top of the Heap chronicles the get rich quick schemes of Charlie Verducci and his son, Vinnie. An episode of Married…With Children acted as a back-poor pilot for the series and various Bundys showed up in the spin-off, but it wasn’t enough.
13 Best: Maude
Norman Lear sitcoms like All in the Family openly embraced hot topics and provoking issues. It was almost expected from his sitcoms at a certain point. That being said, Maude is an especially politically and socially minded series. The series takes Bea Arthur’s Maude, who happens to be Edith Bunker’s cousin and appears in only two episodes of All in the Family, and puts her at the center of the women’s lib movement.
Maude depicts a highly capable, self-sufficient character who’s not afraid to ruffle feathers and fight for what’s right. She was a trailblazer for Norman Lear and the show celebrated nearly 150 episodes.
12 Worst: The Golden Palace
Remember when the Golden Girls all decided to run a hotel together with Don Cheadle and Cheech Marin? No? Well that’s the inconceivable premise of The Golden Girls’ spin-off, The Golden Palace.
Curiously, The Golden Palace picks up right after the events of the conclusion of The Golden Girls where they leave their home and Bea Arthur’s Dorothy gets married. The remaining characters decide to invest in a hotel in Miami, but when it turns out there’s a severe lack of staff there, they take on the bulk of the tasks themselves. What madness! The Golden Girls’ ratings were already in decline towards the end of its run and this “reboot” couldn’t find new viewers.
11 Best: Family Matters
Family Matters certainly didn’t act like it was a spin-off, but the character of Harriette Winslow actually made previous appearances on Perfect Strangers of all things. When it was decided to dig into the depths of Harriette’s family life, I’m sure nobody had plans for a time travelling Urkel on their mind.
Family Matters’ connection to its source material is barely there, but that’s maybe for the best here. The show stands as its own nuanced family sitcom and it shouldn’t feel like it’s the shadow of something else. At over 200 episodes and a change of networks, it’s hard to argue with Family Matters’ success.